PILOT 261 



a half hands. Xavier was a brother to Louis and lived at Vercheres. I do 

 not know the dam of Commis. Xavier moved to St. Jean Baptiste. My 

 father sold an ugly chestnut stallion to Charlebois at Montreal, about forty 

 years ago, got by the Beaudry Horse of St. Marc. Grandfather Dansereau 

 sold a fast chestnut pacing stallion, roach-back, that was vicious, a little 

 larger than the others of the same race. The pulling black stallion men- 

 tioned above was the first horse I knew to be sold from here. I think I was 

 about twenty when it was sold. I was a farmer and lived in Vercheres about 

 a mile from Joseph Dansereau". David La Rose, born i8io,abrother of Jean 

 Baptiste La Rose, remembered this pulling horse and described it as his 

 brother did. 



Julien Chagnon, Vercheres, born 1807, said: " Louis Dansereau had a 

 very fast black pacing stallion, sold to the States ; think no white ; good neck 

 and crest, nice head ; one of the first race horses in the country ; always 

 won his races. He was sold to an American, I think in the beginning 

 of winter. He was not a very big horse, about fifteen hands high, hind 

 parts square, hind legs straight. He was not cross. He was a good driver, 

 very ambitious in a race, but a man could drive him very easily. I think 

 this sale was about 1830. I think this was the first horse of the kind that 

 Dansereau had, but am not certain. Yes, he was the father of all the Dan- 

 sereaus. I think Dansereau raised him and had him until some eight years 

 old". This was the Vassar Horse. 



Jerome Dansereau, Montreal, born about 1817, son of Joseph, in an 

 interview taken for us in 1890 by John I. Campbell of Montreal, said: 

 "When I was a boy my uncle, Louis Dansereau, owned a fast black 

 pacing stallion, no white, about fifteen hands high, which he sold when 

 about eight years old to parties that took him to the States. My father, 

 Joseph Dansereau, who was a brother of Louis, also had a black pacing stal- 

 lion, bred by Louis and a get of the first one mentioned, and that was 

 almost exactly like the first one in color and size, and equally as speedy if 

 not faster. My father's was also sold to a stranger and I suppose went to 

 the States. A man who had heard of the first stallion came purposely to buy 

 him, and an agent or private party, supposed to be an American, bought 

 the second. Three or four young stallions followed him from this strain 

 that were also great pacers and some of the breed afterwards became great 

 trotters. All of these horses were known about Vercheres and vicinity as 

 the Danssreau breed and were the first horses owned in Vercheres of any 



note. 



" Louis Dansereau trained several of these stallions to pace, and they 

 were all very much alike, black, about fifteen hands high. We always re- 

 marked how much they resembled each other. Louis Dansereau trained the 

 second one, that he kept three or four years after disposing of the first. He 

 bred his mares to his first stallion while he owned him and the second stal- 

 lion was a get of the first and the third of the second, and soon ; he never 

 owned any but what he raised from his first stallion and his descendants, 

 have no recollection of any thoroughbred stallion being owned at Vercheres 



