ETHAN ALLEN 177 



of 2 130 trotters; and it would appear not unlikely that had he staid 

 upon the stock farm at Shoreham, as his great competitor did at 

 Chester, and, like him, been used solely for stock purposes, he 

 would now have to his credit as full a 2:30 list, and that many 

 other such sires as Daniel Lambert, Holabird's Ethan Allen, 

 DeLong's Ethan Allen, American Ethan, Bacon's Ethan Allen and 

 Honest Allen, would have been left to fill the country with the finest 

 race of roadsters and some of the fastest trotters known to the world. 



All that was known of the origin of the dam of Ethan Allen 

 prior to our investigations was that she was owned by Rufus Rising 

 of Hague, New York, about 1835 ; tnat he said he got her in Vermont, 

 and that she came from over the Green Mountains. After a long and 

 expensive investigation we succeeded in tracing her to her breeder, 

 and learning her entire history, which is this : 



In the year 1834, Frederick A. Leland (until his death, in 1891, 

 a substantial and reliable citizen of Middlebury, Vermont) was work- 

 ing for John Field, a farmer of Springfield, Windsor county, Vermont, 

 and was present when Mr. Field bred his dark brown or black mare, 

 known as the Burns mare, to the Moses G. Bates horse, Robin or 

 Red Robin. This was frequently stated by Mr. Leland while living. 



The produce, foaled in April, 1830, was a mouse-colored filly 

 that became gray ; Mr. Leland was the first to see the filly after she 

 was foaled. Leland's time was out, and he went away the same April, 

 and engaged in peddling, and returned to Mr. Field's when the filly 

 was four years old, traded with Field for her and took her to a place 

 he had in Sherburne, Vermont, where she was wintered the winter of 

 18345. In the spring following Mr. Leland took her over the 

 mountain to Middlebury, put her in a new pedlar's wagon that he 

 had made there, and drove her to Albany, New York, where he got 

 a load of goods ; drove from there to Fair Haven, Vermont, and there 

 met I. C. Shaw, who was engaged with him in the business. Shaw 

 took the gray mare and drove his route with her, which was along 

 the lake, including, on the New York side, the towns of Hague, Schroon, 

 etc. Leland, with another team, peddled on the Vermont side, and they 

 came back and met at Whitehall, New York. Here the gray mare, 

 a nervous animal, got frightened and ran away, doing no damage, 

 but convincing Leland that she was not steady enough for that busi- 

 ness. She was afraid of the bearskin that was used over the withers, 

 so that it could not be used with her, and she was frightened when- 

 ever goods were taken from the cart. Thereupon Leland directed 

 Shaw to sell or trade the mare ; soon afterward he heard from Shaw 

 that he had a customer for the mare, and a meeting was arranged at 



