768 THE MORGAN HORSE 



and one of the leading business men on the Pacific coast. His letter and 

 our interviews with him have been published in full in the " Middlebury Regis- 

 ter". Mr. Miller states, in substance, that in 1872 and 1873 he made a most 

 thorough search to trace the pedigree of St. Clair. He found Philip Roberts, 

 then a highly respected and successful merchant of Grass Valley, Cal., and 

 of him learned the facts above given as to the horse's advent to California, 

 Mr. Miller says that Mr. Roberts was a very reliable man, and, at the time of 

 making the statements to him, had a wonderfully clear memory of occur- 

 rences of California's early days. He had been formerly a clerk for 

 A. T. Stewart & Co., New York. Reaching California at a very early date 

 and finding himself out of employment (as he told Mr. Miller), at the sug- 

 gestion of some friend he bought a horse and dray and went to carting. That 

 horse was St. Clair. One day he was stopped on the street by a man who 

 said he brought the horse across the plains ; that he was a very fine horse ; 

 and talked a great deal about him and finally gave his pedigree, which, be- 

 cause the man was so enthusiastic about the horse's breeding, Mr. Phillips 

 wrote out in his memorandum book and copied in his ledger, but the memo- 

 randum was lost and the ledger burned up in a fire. But Mr. Miller took down 

 the statement of Mr. Roberts, and furnished us the following copy : 



"Copy OF STATEMENT OF PHILIP ROBERTS. 



SACRAMENTO, May 2, 1873. 



"Mr. Roberts told me this day that in the spring of 1851 he saw the man 

 who brought old St. Clair across the plains, who told him that old St. Clair 

 was driven by him into Houghtown (now Placerville) in the lead (single) of 

 one yoke of cattle, in the fall of 1849 : that he came from Illinois, near Spring- 

 field, and was sired by a Morgan horse from Vermont, and out of a Canadian 

 mare; that this Morgan horse made the season of 1842 there, and that old 

 St. Clair was foaled in 1843. 



San Francisco, June 3, 1885. 



Copy of statement made to me at date given. 



(Signed) E. H. MILLER, Jr." 



Under date of June 2, 1885, Mr. Miller wrote : "Replying to yours of 

 May 19, I enclose copy of first stud bill of old St. Clair. I suppose the 

 original bill in my possession is the only one in existence. I have also a bill 

 for the year 1857, which is almost an exact duplicate of the one for 1856. 

 You understand that J. E. Miller said the pedigree as given in the bill was 

 made out of whole cloth ; that at the time of making the pedigree he had no 

 facts to base it on. That is, no doubt, the case so far as names of horses, 

 men and places go, but I am of the opinion that Mr. Roberts had informed 

 Mr. Miller that the man who brought the old horse across the plains had said 

 the horse was sired by a Morgan horse, out of a Canadian mare, and that 

 Mr. Miller stated those facts, but he extended the pedigree as it appears in 

 the bill. The reason why Mr. Miller gave Michigan as the place he (the 

 horse) came from I think I have learned since receipt of your last letter. A 

 person here, I knew, had helped Mr. Miller make up the original bill, and a 



