258 THE MORGAN HORSE 



" Old Pilot was a jet-black Canadian horse, about fourteen and a half 

 hands high, of great length and fine bone, with action which was unsurpassed 

 in his day. He generally paced, though he trotted finely. Pilot was taken 

 to New Orleans by a Yankee pedlar about the year 1832, then six or seven 

 years of age. He was sold toMaj. O. Dubois for one thousand dollars. This 

 must have been a large price for the little black ram, as he was frequently 

 called. But the major, being one of the best horsemen in the States, knew 

 well what he was about. He told me that the Yankee told him that his horse 

 could go alarming fast, and that his price was one thousand dollars cash. The 

 price, more than anything else, induced the major to look at him. They took 

 him out ; the pedlar rode him with a breeching with pulleys leading to his 

 mouth, and what time do you think he made in the year 1831 or 1832, when, 

 if I am correctly informed, three minutes was about the best on record in a 

 trot, and 2 140 in a pace? Well, sir, he paced a mile in 2 126, with one 

 hundred and sixty-five pounds on his back. Of course the major bought 

 him, and afterwards matched him, but the cat was out of the bag, and find- 

 ing he could do nothing with him in the way of racing, he sold him t^ Mr. 

 D. Heinsohn of Louisville Kentucky, for the same price he gave for him, who 

 kept him until he was twenty-eight years old, when he sold him for three 

 hundred dollars to a gentleman of Louisville, who sent him to his farm for 

 private use where he died a few years since, about thirty years of age. The 

 produce of this horse are remarkable for stoutness and speed". 



Mr. Kennedy usually rode Pilot in his speed exhibitions while Mr. 

 Heinsohn owned him. 



We learned that David W. Whitney of Amesbury, Massachusetts, used to 

 work for Rockwell. We reached him through the postmaster at Amesbury 

 and to our inquiry as to where Rockwell bought his fast black pacing-stallion, 

 received the following reply. 



"AMESBURY, MASSACHUSETTS, June 24th, 1889. 



DEAR SIR : I will answer your letter in few words. I was well acquainted 

 with Elias Lee Rockwell of Stafford, Connecticut, now dead. I remember 

 his having a "black pacing stallion" which was a fast one. He bought him, 

 he said, in Montreal. After several successful races in New England, he 

 took him south and I suppose, sold him, as he did not bring him back. He 

 (the horse) was very vicious until Rockwell and Dean purchased him ; so 

 much so that previous owners could not handle him. 



Truly yours, 



Per F. C. W. DAVID W. WHITNEY. 



Our first trip into Canada for information of its horses was made by 

 team in 1887. Our course was first to Caledonia county, Vermont, from 

 Middlebury, by way of Montpelier, thence through Orleans county almost 

 directly north to Stanstead, Province of Quebec. From Stamstead we drove 

 around Lake Memphremagog to Waterloo. Here we left our team and went 

 by cars to St. Hyacinthe. It was at St. Hyacinthe that we first learned 

 of the famous fast pacers and trotters bred by Messrs. Dansereau and 



