18/9) that great quartette, consisting of Blind Tom, 

 Mattie Hunter, Rowdy Boy, and Lucy, electrified the 

 race-going public by their brilliant achievements upon 

 the race tracks of the North, the broad minded and 

 generous hearted Colonel Edwards of Cleveland, then 

 the controlling spirit of that celebrated track, pro- 

 claimed that, at least upon that track, the pacer should 

 no longer be considered as an outlaw, and from that 

 period dates the value of the pacing horse in racing 

 contests upon the different American race tracks. 



The first attempt to breed and develop trotting race 

 horses in Tennessee, within my knowledge, was about 

 the year 1868, when Rev. Talbert Fanning of Frank- 

 lin College, Tennessee, brought some Morgans from 

 Vermont. These horses were very beautiful in form, 

 and, like nearly all of that family, were great road 

 horses, possessing great endurance and plenty of speed 

 for that purpose, but not sufficently fast for first-class 

 track horses, and hence their breeding and training did 

 not accomplish much in the upbuilding of the reputa- 

 tion of the State as the home of the trotting race 

 horse. Soon after this. Colonel John Overton of 

 Nashville purchased and brought to the State the 

 trotting-bred stallion Chieftain, who, although a well- 

 bred horse, was not a great success upon the turf, nor 

 as the sire of speed ; but some of his daughters proved 

 to be good brood mares, and the blood of this horse is 

 found in the pedigree of a number of good turf per- 

 formers. Following the advent of Chieftain, Major 

 Campbell Brown of Spring Hill purchased the horse 

 Trouble, by Almont 33, and this horse also proved a 

 disappointment to the breeding interests of the State. 

 Blackwood, Jr., was next brought to the State by Mr. 

 Zell of Nashville, and, while a good race horse for his 



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