PILOT 



251 



told us we would better find out what the man did know, and soon we were 

 satisfied that he knew very well what he was talking about. And so a casual 

 remark to a stranger, itself made by accident, had been overheard in a crowd 

 by another stranger, who was probably the only man in New York city that 

 knew anything about the early history of the horse in question, and led 

 finally to full knowledge of the horse. Truly it was the unexpected that oc- 

 curred. The gentleman was Mr. John Moore of Fleetwood Park. The in- 

 formation he gave us was so pointed and so surprising that we here give our 

 notes of it entire. Mr. Moore said : 



"I was born in 1823, and lived at Norwich, New York. I remember 

 when a boy seeing old pacing Pilot. I do not think he was called Pilot then. 

 He was a black horse ; my recollection is about fifteen and three-fourths hands. 

 A pedlar by the name of Rockwell came into our town and had him. He 

 did not drive him ; he rode him under saddle, using pulleys to hold him. 

 This Rockwell pedled Yankee notions ; used to drive all over the country, 

 often having four horses. Pilot he led back of his cart. He would deal in 

 all kinds of horses ; often bought running horses and raced them. After he 

 brought Pilot in, he left Norwich and was gone a year or more ; then came 

 back and lived there, He married his wife near there : she was a Cushman, 

 Dan Cushman' s sister, of Plymouth. Whilst he was gone he sold Pilot, and 

 I have often heard him tell since about taking him South and selling him, I 

 think at New Orleans. This was after Pilot became noted that he would talk 

 of him. Pilot did not have a long tail ; it hung down pretty well, but I think 

 had been cut off. He did not look like a pacer; not so steep rump. He 

 was strong made, not a ragged-hipped horse, built just for speed. He wasn't 

 like a Narragansett. He was a well-bred horse ; hadn't much crest ; neck went 

 into the shoulders straight-like ; held his head up in going ; good rump ; long 

 from the hocks to the hips ; a strong, blocky horse with a bony head ; not a 

 big head. Rockwell paced him all over the country. My opinion is that he 

 was ugly in stable ; and I think he got him in Montreal, or Canada anyway, 

 and I am very sure he said he got him in Montreal. Mr. Rockwell died 

 about ten years ago. He was a short, thick-set man with black curly hair, 

 quite good looking. I am quite certain he came from Connecticut ; he must 

 have been born about the beginning of the century". 



At a second interview Mr. Moore said : "He got him at Montreal no, 

 at a small town near Montreal ; that is what he said". 



As soon after receiving this information as leisure permitted, we visited 

 Norwich, New York. We found plenty of old people there who remembered 

 Rockwell's visit to that place with the black pacing stallion, and they corrob- 

 orated Mr. Moore at all points, except as to the size of the horse, they think- 

 ing him under rather than over fifteen hands. From Mr. Mason Wescott, 

 who is a son-in-law of Elias Lee Rockwell, we learned that Rockwell was 

 born at Stafford Springs, Connecticut, in 1801 ; moved to Norwich, New 

 York, to live in 1843, though he had been there before ; he was a pedb 

 Yankee notions, and after moving to Norwich was in business there i 

 firm of R. I. Johnson & Co. He died in 1872. Mr. Wescott thought he 



