122 A HISTORY OF THE PEECHERON HORSE 



and there he made the regular season of 1859. His 

 success was not great that spring and on July 4 he 

 was sent to the farm of Eli Hodgson in Grand Eidge 

 township, La Salle county, to stand during the fall. 

 These details are offered to show how lacking the 

 horse was at first in popularity. His colts from the 

 Samson mares had not yet begun to show their worth. 

 Purchase of the odd one-fourth interest in the horse 

 had been precipitated by the declaration by Cushman 

 that he would move him to Kentucky in search of 

 fields more easy of conquest. During the fall season 

 of 1859 Louis Napoleon covered but seven mares, 

 five of them the property of Mr. Hodgson. 



Early in the spring of 1860 the fast-whitening stal- 

 lion was returned to the Dillon headquarters, and 

 as his foals developed his business in the stud in- 

 creased. By mid-summer the demand for his services 

 had become pressing and great secrecy was main- 

 tained regarding the date at which he was to be 

 moved again to the Hodgson farm in La Salle. Young 

 Martin Hodgson — still a prosperous breeder, and for 

 many years a member of the firm of Prichard & 

 Hodgson, now dissolved — rode the white horse home 

 in the dead hour of the night following the celebra- 

 tion of the national holiday. But so keen had been 

 the scouting that when the journey was ended at a 

 little before dawn, it is related that no less than 

 forty-two mares were tied to the fences surrounding 

 the Hodgson homestead awaiting their chance to be 

 bred or booked. He had served but seven the season 

 before. It is at this point, therefore, that we un- 



