The Horse of America in His Derivation, History, and Development

by John Hankins Wallace

But, the paternity of Ethan Allen is not left to the uncertainties of recollection nor to be trifled with by practical jokers. The books of Black Hawk’s services show that the dam of Ethan Allen was bred to him on a certain day or days of the season of 1848, and was taken away believed to be in foal. This fact is conceded on all hands as wholly indisputable, but it is claimed that Flying Morgan was kept in Holcomb’s stable one night, after the mare returned from Bridport, and the two were there surreptitiously coupled. I have studied this claim in all its details, I have examined every detail minutely, and I do not hesitate to say there is not a single shadow of evidence to support the claim. In Vermont, as in Kentucky, there are many people who can remember things that never occurred, but in the former State these people are at a great disadvantage, for they are not able to get so many to agree with and support their remarkable memories. The Vermonters are very far from being all honest, but they are very much disposed to make up their own minds, whether right or wrong.

In searching for the breeding of the little flea-bitten grey mare, “called a Messenger,” that produced Ethan Allen, I have not been sparing of either time or labor. I have assiduously followed every clew that presented itself, and waded through “sloppy” correspondence “knee deep,” but I never have been able to reach a single point that was relevant and tangible. From the first that is known of her at Hague, New York, her identity has been maintained by a spavin on one leg and one hip knocked down, and thus she has been traced through the hands of many owners till she reaches Mr. Holcomb, of Ticonderoga, New York. A pretence has been set up that she was by some Morgan horse, but this was only a wish of the originator, and not a fact founded on reasonable evidence. It is said she was quite a fast trotter, in her younger days, and that she could beat all the farmers’ horses against which she was started. That she had a trotting inheritance, and probably from Messenger, there can be no reasonable doubt.

Ethan Allen made his first appearance as a trotter at the Clinton County Fair, as a three-year-old, and made a record, over a very bad track, of 3:20-3:21. In May following, then four years old, at the Union Course, he beat Rose of Washington in 2:36-2:39-2:42. This was then the fastest time ever made by a four-year-old. He then retired to the stud and did not again appear till October, 1855, when, over the Cambridge Park Course, he beat Columbus, Sherman Black Hawk, and Stockbridge Chief for the stallion purse in 2:34½-2:37. Three of the contestants here were sons of Black Hawk. The next season he defeated Hiram Drew twice, to wagon, making a record of 2:32¾. October 15, 1858, at Boston, he beat Columbus Jr., and Hiram Drew, 2:37-2:35-2:33. The same month, on the Union Course, he beat George M. Patchen, to wagons, distancing him the first heat in 2:28. At the Union Course, Long Island, July 12, 1860, he beat Princess, distancing her the second heat in 2:29½-2:25½. This is his fastest record. He was frequently beaten by George M. Patchen, Flora Temple, etc., and it was thought by many that he could not take up the weight and “hold the clip” for the full mile out. His most famous performance was made in 1867, and as I had the pleasure of witnessing it, from a very eligible position, I will here repeat the description as then made:

“On the 21st of June, 1867, on the Fashion Course, it was my good fortune to witness the crowning event of his life. Some three weeks before, with running mate, he had beaten Brown George and running mate, in very fast time, scoring one heat in 2:19. This made horsemen open their eyes, and there at once arose a difference of opinion, about the advantage to the trotter of having a runner hitched with him, to pull the weight. This resulted in a match for two thousand five hundred dollars to trot Ethan Allen and running mate against Dexter, who was then considered invincible. As the day approached the betting was about even; but the evening before the race, word came from the course that Ethan’s running mate had fallen lame and could not go, but they would try to get Brown George’s running mate, then in Connecticut, to take the place of the lame runner. As the horses were strangers to each other, it was justly concluded that the change gave Dexter a great advantage and the betting at once changed from even to two to one on Dexter. Long before noon the crowd began to assemble; the sporting men everywhere were shaking rolls of greenbacks over their heads, shouting “two to one on Dexter.” I met a friend from Chicago, who sometimes speculated a little, and when he told me he was betting two to one on Dexter, I took the liberty of advising him to be cautious, for I thought the team would win the race, and that its backers knew what they were doing. Before the hour arrived I secured a seat on the ladies’ stand, from which every foot of the course, and the countless multitudes of people, could be taken in at a glance. The vehicles in numbers were simply incalculable, and the multitudes were estimated at forty thousand people. Upon the arrival of the hour, the judges ascended the stand and rang up the horses, when the backers of the team came forward, explained the mishap that had befallen the runner, that they had Brown George’s mate on the ground, but, as he and Ethan had never been hitched together, they were unwilling to risk so large a sum, and closed the race by paying one thousand two hundred and fifty forfeit. When this announcement was made there was a general murmur that spread, step by step, through all that vast multitude. The betting fraternity were just where they started and every spectator realized a feeling of disgust at the whole management. As soon as this had time to exert its intended effect upon the crowd, the backers of the team came forward again and expressed their unwillingness to have the people go away dissatisfied, and proposed a little match of two hundred and fifty a side, which was promptly accepted by the Dexter party; and when it was known there would be a race after all the shout of the multitudes was like the voice of many waters.

“This being a new race, the betting men had to commence de novo. The surroundings of the pool stands were packed with an eager and excited crowd, anxious to get on their money at two, and rather than miss, at three to one on Dexter. The work of the auctioneers was short, sharp and decisive, and the tickets were away up in the hundreds and oftentimes thousands. But the pool-stands did not seem to accommodate more than a small fraction of those anxious to invest, and in all directions in the surging crowd, hands were in the air, filled with rolls of greenbacks, and shouting “two to one on Dexter.” I was curious to note what became of these noisy offers, and I soon observed that a quiet-looking man came along, took all the party had to invest and then went quietly to another of the shouters, and then another and so on, till I think that every one who had money to invest, at that rate, was accommodated. The amount of money bet was enormous, no doubt aggregating a quarter of a million, in a few minutes.

“When the horses appeared on the track to warm up for the race, Dexter, driven by the accomplished reinsman Budd Doble, was greeted with a shout of applause. Soon the team appeared, and behind it sat the great master of trotting tactics, Dan Mace. His face, which has so often been a puzzle to thousands, had no mask over it on this occasion. It spoke only that intense earnestness that indicates the near approach of a supreme moment. The team was hitched to a light skeleton wagon; Ethan wore breeching, and beside him was a great strong race horse, fit to run for a man’s life. His traces were long enough to allow him to fully extend himself, but they were so much shorter than Ethan’s that he had to take the weight. Dexter drew the inside, and on the first trial they got the send off without either one having six inches the advantage. When they got the word, the flight of speed was absolutely terrific, so far beyond anything I had ever witnessed in a trotting horse, that I felt the hair rising on my head. The running horse was next to me, and notwithstanding my elevation, Ethan was stretched out so near the ground that I could see nothing of him but his ears. I fully believed that, for several rods at this point, they were going at a two-minute gait.

“It was impossible that this terrible pace could be maintained long, and just before reaching the first turn Dexter’s head began to swim and the team passed him and took the track, reaching the first quarter-pole in thirty-two seconds, with Dexter three or four lengths behind. The same lightning speed was kept up through the second quarter, reaching the half-mile pole in 1:04, with Dexter still farther in the rear. Mace then took a pull on his team, and came home a winner by six or eight lengths, in 2:15. When this time was put on the blackboard, the response of the multitude was like the roar of the ocean. Although some distance away, through the second quarter of this heat I had a fair, unobstructed side view of the stallion and of his action, when going at the lightning rate of 2:08 to the mile. I could not observe that he received the slightest degree of propulsion from the running horse; and my conviction was then, and is now, that any such propulsion would have interfered with his own unapproachable action, and would have retarded rather than helped him. The most noticeable feature in his style of movement was the remarkable lowness to which he dropped his body and the straight, gliding line it maintained at that elevation.

“The team now had the inside, and in the first attempt they were started for the second heat, but they did not appear to me to be going so fast as in the first heat. Before they had gone many rods Ethan lost his stride and Dexter took the track at the very spot where he had lost it in the first heat. The team soon got to work, and near the beginning of the second quarter collared Dexter, but the stallion broke soon after and fell back, not yards, nor lengths, but rods before he caught. Incredible as it may seem, when he again got his feet, he put on such a burst of speed as to overhaul Dexter in the third quarter, when he broke again and Mace had to pull him nearly to a standstill before he recovered. Dexter was now a full distance ahead and the heat appeared to be his beyond all peradventure. I was watching the team in its troubles very closely and my idea of the distance lost was the result of a deliberate and careful estimate at the moment; and the query in my mind then was whether the team could save its distance. At last the old horse struck his gait, and it was like a dart out of a catapult, or a ball from a rifle. The team not only saved its distance, but beat Dexter home five or six lengths in 2:16.

“In the third heat Mace had it all his own way throughout, coming home the winner of the race in 2:19. The backers of Dexter, up to the very last, placed great reliance on his well-known staying qualities; but the last heat showed that the terrible struggle told upon him more distressingly than upon the team. It is said by those who timed Dexter privately that he trotted the three heats in 2:17, 2:18, and 2:21. As an opinion, I will say that if ever there was an honest race trotted this was one, but there was such an exhibition of sharp diplomacy, of the “diamond cut diamond” order, as is seldom witnessed, even among the sharp practices of the turf. It is not probable that Ethan’s running mate fell amiss at all, the evening before, as represented; and if she did, it was not possible to send to Connecticut for another horse and have him there early in the morning as was pretended. This was a mere ruse put out to get the advantage of the long odds. The managers of the team knew just how the horses would work and knew they had speed enough to beat any horse on earth. When the race was called and they came forward and paid forfeit, it was merely to give the ‘two to one on Dexter’ money encouragement to come out. It did come out most vociferously and was all quietly taken. It was said John Morrissey was the manager in chief, and that his share of the winnings amounted to about forty thousand dollars.”

I have here given my personal impressions of this race, not because the performance was of any special value, as a test of speed, but because the time was then phenomenal, even with this kind of hitch, and as an illustration of what certain horses can do when relieved of all weight. This was among the first of the contests of this kind, and although some effort was made to introduce this plan by which a poor horse could beat a good one, it never has received much encouragement. With all his perfection of gait and wide popularity, extending from early life to old age, Ethan Allen was not a success as a progenitor of speed. He placed but six in the 2:30 list, and the best—Billy Barr—with a record of 2:23¾. He left but one son equal to himself as a sire, and several daughters that became the producers of single performers. He was kept several seasons in Kansas and died there September, 1876.