Mr. Allen W. Thomson, of Woodstock, Vermont—a man of great industry and a lover of the truth for the truth’s sake—also made an exhaustive search, and from a recent contribution to the press he evidently thinks he has found it, and possibly he has; but while I generally agree with Mr. Thomson’s conclusions, and prize them as honest and carefully reached, I am forced to dissent in this case. Without going into details, he brings the mare from Williamstown, Vermont, and takes her to Woodstock, Illinois, where she is paired with another black mare, and after passing through two or three hands they at last land in a public livery stable in Chicago, and there the identity of the suppositious Gipsy Queen is lost, and so far as known she never came out of that stable. One or two years afterward a black mare from Chicago, in possession of George Bidwell, appeared in some public races, notably the one given above, and the conclusion is at once reached that this black mare, Gipsy Queen, was the black filly brought from Williamstown, Vermont. To this all the intermediate owners between Williamstown and Behrens’ livery stable were ready to insist that this black mare was the Williamstown filly, but not one of them had ever seen the mare that George Bidwell was handling, and some of them evidently were not worthy of belief if they had seen her. There is the “missing link” between Behrens’ stable and George Bidwell, that has not been supplied and probably never can be supplied. The chances that the Williamstown filly was the real Gipsy Queen, all things considered, seem to stand as about one to a thousand. We must, therefore, conclude that we have no satisfactory information as to how or where this mare was bred.
Belle of Wabash.—My first inquiry about this mare was made more than twenty-five years ago, and I did not then suppose that her pedigree would ever become a question of any general interest. In the first volume of the Register I had entered her as a black mare, foaled 1852, got by Bassinger, son of Lieutenant Bassinger, and dam said to be by imported William IV. She was then owned by George C. Stevens of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After her son—The Moor—proved himself a great sire of trotters in getting Beautiful Bells, Sultan, and other good ones, her pedigree became a question of very great importance. As the search for it would occupy more space, in detail, than I can give to it in these pages, I will here give the references in Wallace’s Monthly, where the principal correspondence may be found: Vol. XIV., p. 510; XV., p. 441; XVI., p. 43; and for a complete understanding of the matter the references here given should be carefully examined.
Mr. S. D. Puett, of Indiana, was the first to give me a starting point in the investigation of the pedigree of this mare. In all that had been said about her I never was able to find a man who really knew anything about her origin, until Mr. Puett gave me the address of Cyrus Romaine, who had owned her when very young and handled her for speed. He says “she was sired by a colt from her own dam, that was got by a Copperbottom stallion from Kentucky.” He was not able to give any information about the sire of the dam, and as to the gait of the dam he says: “Her dam was a natural pacer. I cannot say as to her sire, as he was unbroken at the time.” He bought the mare at three years old, handled her one year and sold her to Mr. J. J. Alexander, of Montezuma, of the same county (Parke), in 1856. Mr. Alexander still owned her in 1860 when she trotted in Louisville, and after his death Williams, his trainer, married his widow and still controlled the mare. Mr. Romaine failed to give the name of the breeder of the mare, which will be explained further on. Soon after he wrote, April 26, 1880, he removed to Nebraska and I have not heard from him since. In 1857 she was trained for Mr. Alexander by John Williams on Stroue’s track at Rockville, Indiana, the county seat of Parke County. In 1860 she was entered by Williams in several races at Indianapolis and at other points, and made a record of 2:40. About 1865, or perhaps a year or two earlier, she became the property of George C. Stevens. In his catalogue for 1868 she is entered merely as “Old Belle,” and he know nothing of her origin or history till I gave it to him, along with the humbug pedigree that I had copied from the entries at the Louisville ten-mile race.
Through the kindness of Mr. Puett I received the following letter from Mr. Henry C. Brown, a very reputable business man and a grain dealer in Rockville, Parke County, Indiana. This letter from Mr. Brown has in it such evidence of candor and intelligence that I will here insert it entire:
“Dear Sir: In reply to your inquiry of the 23d ult., as to what I know of the ‘origin and history of the mare called Belle of Wabash,’ I will give you the following facts:
“In the year 1855, or ’56, I am not positive which, this mare, when a three-year-old, was purchased by Cyrus Romaine, then a resident of this county, of an old farmer in Clay County, this State, paying $85 for her. This farmer lived at that time about a mile and a half north of Brazil, the present county-seat of Clay County.
“As to this farmer’s name, neither myself nor Romaine can tell. He was an old man at that time, and undoubtedly has gone to his reward long ago. Neither do we know anything at all about the pedigree of the mare.
“There is no person living, so far as I or Romaine know, that can tell anything about her ancestors, and in my opinion it would be impossible, at this late day, to find any one in Clay County that could give us any information in regard to her.
“The country around Brazil at that time was almost a wilderness; now the city is spread out, and covers, no doubt, the farm where the mare was foaled. Clay County is now the center of the Indiana coal-fields, and, of course, the entire face of the country about there is changed wonderfully since 1856; consequently it would be almost if not quite impossible to find the exact location.
“After keeping the mare eight or nine months, Romaine sold her to John Alexander, of Montezuma, this county, for $160. Alexander soon after commenced training her, and in about one year I think he, or his trainer, John Williams, took her to Kentucky, and entered her there in some kind of races. Since then you know her history much better than I do.