SONS OF JUSTIN MORGAN 143 



father bought his farm that he bought the colt. [Bethel records 

 show that he bought the farm June 2, 1818.] My parents were 

 married March 19, 1822. I heard my mother say that not long 

 after their marriage father took her to see a sick brother and 

 drove Woodbury Morgan. Father broke him and sold him to Uncle 

 John Woodbury. He was bred by Lyman Wight and I am sure was 

 not foaled as early as 1812, and I think not before 1816. I never 

 heard of any of Woodbury Morgan's colts pacing, though some by 

 his son, the Babbitt Horse, did". 



Mr. Linsley continues: "The autumn after the colt was 

 foaled, about the usual time of weaning, Mr. Wight sold him to 

 David Woodbury of Bethel, Vermont, for fifty dollars. Mr. Wood- 

 bury kept him until grown, and sold him to his brother John. John 

 had a taste for good horses, and in his hands the horse began to be 

 a little known. He kept him at Bethel and neighboring towns a few 

 years, and sold him to Ebenezer Parkhurst, who kept him in the 

 same neighborhood until March, 1826, when he sold him to Simon 

 Smith and William Walker of Hartland, Vermont, for five hundred 

 dollars. 



" Soon after this Messrs. Smith and Walker dissolved partner- 

 ship, Mr. Walker keeping Woodbury. Mr. Walker had a passion 

 for horses ; he saw and appreciated the remarkable features of the 

 Justin Morgan and his stock, and took much pains to bring them 

 into notice ; but, like many a pioneer in a new business, he could not 

 make it pay, and being a man of small means, he was compelled 

 to 'sacrifice his horse', as he terms it, 'for the insignificant sum of 

 four hundred dollars', and sold him to Peter Burbank, Esq., of New- 

 bury, Vermont. Mr. Burbank was a lawyer, and not a farmer or 

 breeder, but he was fond of horses and had a discriminating eye for 

 their good points, and having seen the Woodbury at Keene, New 

 Hampshire, he (in his own words) 'fell in love with him at first 

 sight' . Fearing to trust to his own judgment alone, he consulted 

 Jesse Johnson of Bradford, Vermont, a gentleman who not only 

 possesses excellent taste as to the proper style and general figure of 

 a fine horse, but has also that close, critical eye, that seems almost 

 at a glance to take in all the minute defects of form that a more care- 

 less observer might fail to discover. Mr. Johnson did not fail to 

 perceive the extraordinary merits of the horse, and advised Mr. 

 Burbank to purchase him, which he did the 2Oth of May, 1830. 

 From this time until 1836, he was taken charge of by Jesse Johnson 

 & Brothers, and kept at their place in Bradford, Vermont, during 



