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

by John Hankins Wallace

There is another theory, giving the Canadian pacer an Anglo-American origin, that commends itself to the unbiased judgment with even greater force than the one just suggested. Various writers have talked about the “French characteristics” of the Canadian pacer, and all that, when probably not one of them ever saw a horse that he knew to be French. The early pacers—the pacing-bred pacers—all have more or less strongly marked resemblances, especially in conformation, and it makes no difference whether they come from Canada or whether their habitat has been south of Mason and Dixon’s line for two hundred and fifty years. When we look at a pacer, therefore, we may as well be honest and say we don’t know whether he resembles the horses that reached the St. Lawrence in 1665, or those that reached Massachusetts Bay in 1629. The theory that the French Canadians got the foundation of their pacing stock from the New England colonies rests upon two well-known facts. First, the colonies had a great abundance of such horses for sale; and second, they were within reach of and purchasable by the Canadians. To these two facts rendering the theory possible, we have others which render it probable. The jealous restrictions sought to be imposed on both the English and French colonists by the home governments of both people strongly indicate that there was no small amount of illicit trading, and this trading, in the very nature of things, must have been between the English and French. Toward the close of the seventeenth century the English colonies, especially Rhode Island, had far more horses than they needed for home use, and they did a thriving business in exporting them to different parts. These were just the kind of horses the Canadians needed for their wild life in the wilderness; they were cheaper than they could be brought from France; the water way of Lake Champlain was convenient; pelts and furs were a desirable commodity of exchange, and there was no cordon of customs officers to keep the willing traders apart. Of these theories we consider the second the more probable of the two, and if we accept it we reach the conclusion that the so-called “French” Canadian pacer is merely a descendant of the old English pacer brought over by the early New England colonists. Objection has been presented to this theory, on the grounds that the powerful confederation of the Six Nations Indians interposed an insurmountable barrier to all trade, whether legitimate or illicit, between the Canadians and the colonists of New England. This objection is certainly conclusive as applied to the different periods of hostilities, but the hostilities were not continuous. During both the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries there were periods of years at a stretch when there were no hostilities, and when there was nothing to prevent the Canadian and the Yankee from coming together and exchanging what they each had that the other wanted. The border abounds in traditions of the incidents connected with this illicit trading, but we need not go to the border in the wilderness to learn that the desire to “beat the customs” is almost universal. We can see it manifested every day at the docks in New York, when a steamer arrives from abroad. The fine lady, with her gloves and lots of other lingerie that she has been contriving all the way across how best to keep from the sight of the officer, is no better and no worse than the “Canuck,” who in a retired place at midnight trades his peltry to the Yankee for his horse. If the Canadian pacer did not have his origin in New England it was not because he could not be carried across the border.

When we enter upon the consideration of the actual performers descended from the original Canadian stock, we find both pacers and trotters of speed and merit, but in attempting to trace them to their particular ancestors we find ourselves in a labyrinth from which there seems to be no deliverance. In the midst of this darkness I am glad to be able to say there is a ray of light that illumines much that has been obscure. The greatest progenitor of trotters and pacers that Canada has produced, “Old Tippoo,” has been fully identified in his true origin, and he has been well named “The Messenger of Canada.” He seemed to be known all over Canada as the greatest of their trotting and pacing sires, and many attempts were made through several years to give his pedigree, but in all these attempts there were elements of weakness and in many of them very bald absurdities.

When the roan gelding Tacony made his record of 2:27, away back in 1853, the performance was looked upon as something that would not be surpassed in a generation at least. Then when Toronto Chief made his saddle record of 2:24½, ten or twelve years later, and it was found that he and Tacony were both descended from a Canadian horse called Tippoo, the inquiry became quite active as to what Tippoo was, and all kinds of imaginable stories were told about him. In the search for the history and breeding of the horse Tippoo, extending through more than twenty years, many curious and some impossible things were developed, and as these old “fads” may come as new discoveries in future generations, I will mention two or three of them here. The first of these untruthful statements to assume tangible form was to the effect that Tippoo was imported from England, and that he was got there by Nesthall’s Messenger. I never could tell how or where this story originated, but it first appeared in the pedigree given to Toronto Chief when he went into the stud on Long Island. This was settled by the facts, expressed in very few words, that the horse was not imported, but bred in Canada, and that there was no such horse in England as “Nesthall’s Messenger.”

The next representation came from an old horseman, Mr. V. Sheldon, of Canton, New York, a very intelligent and careful correspondent, who had given much labor to the question. He had learned from different sources, that were satisfactory to his mind, that a Mr. Howard, a traveling preacher, had ridden a mare from Lowville, New York, over into Canada; that this mare was in foal “by a very noted horse that stood at Lowville;” that when the mare became too heavy for his use under the saddle he sold her to Isaac Morden, and that the foal she dropped was the famous Tippoo. The name of the “very famous horse that stood at Lowville” was not remembered, but as Ogden’s Messenger was there at that time—1816-17—the conclusion followed that he was the horse. This representation was far from complete, but as there was nothing unreasonable about it, and nothing known to be untrue, I accepted it for a time, awaiting further light.

The third representation came from Mr. Lewis T. Leavens, of Bloomfield, Ontario, who was born 1792, and was, therefore, old enough to have had some personal knowledge of the horse. But whether his knowledge was personal or only traditional cannot now be made to appear. He says that Tippoo was got by a horse called Escape, and I will ask the reader to note this name “Escape” as we progress. He says that “when Escape was on the ocean, the vessel encountered a severe gale, and the horse had to be thrown overboard, and he was picked up the ninth day off the coast of Newfoundland, on a bar, eating rushes.” This silly and ridiculous story had been told and possibly believed by some fools more than a hundred years before the dates here implied by Mr. Leavens. It is probable it was first told as a joke, by some wag in Rhode Island, when asked about the origin of the Narragansett pacers. He replied that the original Narragansett “was caught swimming in mid-ocean, when a ship came along, lassoed him, pulled him on board, and landed him safely in Narragansett Bay.” The vitality of the joke probably had its origin in the experience of Rip Van Dam, when in 1711 he went up to Narragansett for a flying pacer, which is related in another part of this volume. Mr. Leavens speaks of the Rev. Erastus as the owner of the dam, and the breeder of the horse; but he says the horse did not come into possession of Isaac Morden till he was six or eight years old. The date of his death is fixed by Mr. Leavens in 1835, and while he is more definite than our information from other sources, all agree he died from a kick about that year.

The next representation that seems to be worthy of noticing is a communication that appeared in the New York Sportsman, written by somebody who signs himself “Dick.” Whether “Dick” is in earnest and believes what he writes, or whether he is merely trying to “sell” somebody, we will leave for him to decide. He seems to depend upon Mr. Morden, at one time the owner of the horse, as the source of his information. “Dick” says the sire of Tippoo was imported into New York in 1811, and was called Fleetwood. Why did he not tell us by whom the horse Fleetwood was imported? If there was a man in New York in 1811 so big a fool as to import an English stallion at great expense, and then send him up to the wilderness of Canada where there was neither money nor mares, his name should be handed down as a historical curiosity. The whole story is a “fake.”

In January, 1883, I received from the Hon. J. P. Wiser, of Prescott, Ontario, the following letter, which he had just received from the writer:

Wellington, December 27, 1882.

As the origin of the Tippoo horses seems to be a mystery to you I will tell you. Erastus Howard was a traveling preacher in those days, and he traveled on horseback. He bought in Kingston a dark chestnut mare and bred her to a horse called “The Scape Goat,” brought from Narragansett Bay, in Rhode Island. The horse was a large brown horse, and could rack (pace) faster than he could run. The colt was coal black and large, and was sold to Mr. Wilcox, who named him Tippoo Sultan. His gait was like the “Scape” some, but soon squared off to a trot, and the way he could go was dreadful. In June, 1836, he broke his leg and was lost.

Wilson Serls.