ETHAN ALLEN 181 



I was born in 1806. Mr. Bates kept him a number of years and used 

 him as a stock horse. I should call him about nine or ten hundred 

 pounds; a very pretty horse, not very thick set, not very slim; just 

 about as good-shaped a horse as you could make him, and a good 

 traveler". 



David Lockwood, Springfield, Vermont, says : " I went to live 

 with Moses Bates when I was eleven years old; I was born March /th, 

 1816. I lived with James A. Grimes, Moses Bates' son-in-law, the 

 fall I was fourteen; Mr. Grimes had Robin in his possession the sum- 

 mer before. That winter after I was fourteen, 183031, Robin went 

 to Shipton, Canada. Robin was about my age. He was a dark red, 

 smooth and handsome as a dollar, about ten hundred pounds. He 

 wasn't a tall horse, a good fair-sized horse, and a good-built horse. 

 I am pretty sure Mr. Bates raised him from a colt and presume he 

 was his when foaled. Have heard him tell of his running at the stack and 

 getting the straw on him when he was a colt. Always called him 

 old Robin. I should think he was of Morgan descent. He w r as a 

 Morgan-shaped horse anyway". 



George W. Morrison of Rockingham, Vermont, writes : " I 

 knew very well the Robin horse, but cannot tell you much about 

 him. Charles Sherwin of Weathersfield had a pair got by Robin 

 that he sold to Parker of Ludlow for about four hundred dollars. 

 Parker sold those horses to go South, for sixteen hundred dollars; a 

 fine pair". 



E. W. Bisbee of Moretown, Vermont, born at Springfield, Ver- 

 mont, a gentleman of high character and intelligence, in a letter 

 written us November 29th, 1891, thus describes Red Robin: "He 

 was a good-looking horse, and a good-feeling one when in con- 

 dition ; a bright bay color, heavy black mane and tail, white hind 

 feet and a star ; long-bodied, and heavy, flat limbs; foaled 1816; 

 weight, about ten hundred pounds, and fourteen and one-half hands 

 high ; a little sway-backed, but not so much as old Sherman. Is not 

 that a good description of an old-time Morgan horse? It is correct. 



"I find by the books that old Justin was owned, about that time, 

 by Joel Goss of Claremont, New Hampshire, only about three or four 

 miles from the Bates place. I give the age of the horse on the state- 

 ment of Mr. Bates that the horse in 1830 was fourteen years old". 



Mr. Bisbee, on another occasion, wrote: "I have investigated 

 the matter, and come to the honest conclusion that he [Red Robin] 

 was a son of old Justin Morgan". 



Mr. Bisbee writes again, November 22d, 1892: "I knew Red 

 Robin well from 1825 to 1830. Saw him often, and have a vivid 



