328 A HISTORY OP THE PERCHEEON HORSE 



established Grosse Isle Stock Farm. Their founda- 

 tion stock was obtained from M. W. Dunham and 

 John W. Akin, and they subsequently made some 

 scattering purchases and still later bought a num- 

 ber from Thomas W. Palmer. The Percheron breed- 

 ing operations of this firm began in 1884. By 1890 

 they bred and raised 23 stallions and 19 mares. The 

 most noted stallion they owned at this time was 

 Eomulus 873, imported in 1879 by Mark W. Dunham 

 and sold that year to H. Walker & Son of Detroit. 

 Romulus was a gray, foaled in 1873, and had the 

 distinction of having won first in the aged stallion 

 class at the Universal Exposition at Paris in 1878. 

 He was about 16.1 hands high and weighed about 

 1,700 pounds in breeding condition, but was an extra- 

 ordinary show horse in every way — beautifully bal- 

 anced, with superb style, finish and action. He was 

 an extremely prepotent sire and some of the best 

 horses imported in the early '80 's were by him. He 

 sired but ten purebred colts in America, which were 

 bred by Dunham (1) and Hiram Walker & Son (9). 

 Too much showyard fitting apparently interfered 

 with his usefulness, for he got no purebred colts for 

 Savage & Farnum. 



An item of interest in connection with the opera- 

 tions of Savage & Farnum is the fact that among 

 their importations was the stallion Sebastopol 5272 

 (7043), later famous as the sire of Armour's Big 

 Jim, four times champion gelding over all breeds at 

 the International Live Stock Exposition. J. H. S. 

 Johnstone, whose persistent efforts traced Big Jim 



