FIRST FRENCH HORSES IN AMERICA 117 



during the War of the Rebellion that the seal of 

 fame was set upon Valley Bill for all time. His get 

 readily brought from $50 to $125 more than the 

 common stock of the country where he stood, the 

 general belief being that those who had Bill's colts 

 to sell to Uncle Sam received on an average $80 per 

 liead for them more than was paid for other varie- 

 ties." 



His get were wonderfully uniform, none of them 

 very large, and the great number of red-roans which 

 followed his cover has given rise to a belief quite 

 general in some quarters that he was when young 

 of that ruddy hue, shedding out to white at a com- 

 paratively early age. As a matter of fact, however, 

 in his youth he was a silvery gray with dark legs, 

 mane, and tail and later became well-nigh snow 

 white. Nothing need be said here descriptive of his 

 conformation. Our illustration shows more clearly 

 what he was like than could be told in words. He 

 stood about 15.3 hands and weighed between 1,300 

 and 1,400 pounds. 



The Holman Horse. — Not nearly so much is known 

 of the three-year-old gray diligence colt that accom- 

 panied Pleasant Valley Bill on his journey from 

 Havre to New York. Lewis E. Holman, son of 

 Samuel Holman, the importer, Phoenixville, Pa,, 

 takes up the thread of the story from the time the 

 two colts reached New York in 1851 in the following 

 Statement : 



"Gray Billy, as we called our horse, was shipped 

 to the home of my father's brother, Frederic Holman, 

 to await ray father's arrival. From there he was 



