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

by John Hankins Wallace

This short letter was a great surprise, for never before had I heard of Mr. Serls. Through the kindness of Mr. Wiser he had entered the discussion, evidently without knowing anything about what representations had been made by others. His short, crisp sentences seemed to be an epitome of a history of this horse, which he might be able to give. It will be observed that the traveling preacher, Erastus Howard, is still in the foreground, and that Mr. Leavens’ “Escape” and Mr. Serls’ “Scape Goat” are evidently one and the same horse, and thus these two men practically confirm each other, so far as the identity of the horse is concerned. No time was lost in preparing a series of questions to be submitted to Mr. Serls, embracing the sources of his information, for although well advanced in years he certainly could not have had personal knowledge of what he testified. These questions not only covered the minute points in the history of the matter, but they were so framed as to test the accuracy and honesty of his memory. In due time they came back fully and satisfactorily answered, and as these answers embrace many things that my readers care nothing about I will condense them into narrative form.

Mr. Serls derived his information from his uncle, Stephen Niles, the brother of his mother. In 1798 Stephen Niles took a band of horses to Prince Edward County, and stopped with an uncle of his who was then a member of the provincial parliament, living on the Bay of Quinte. His uncle prevailed upon him to settle there. In 1800 he was married, and bought a farm of two hundred acres four miles west of Wellington, where he lived many years, and the place is still known as Niles’ Corners. He was an orthodox Quaker in his religious belief, and for a number of years he was one of the bench of magistrates for Prince Edward County. When the War of 1812 broke out he was employed by the British forces in procuring hay and grain for the mounted troops. In 1858 he died, leaving an honorable name behind him.

At the close of the war the military authorities sold off a large number of horses to the highest bidder, and Mr. Niles was present when the traveling preacher, Erastus Howard, bid off a dark chestnut mare for ninety-three dollars, at Kingston. This mare afterward became the dam of the famous Tippoo, and as a matter of course nothing can ever be known of her breeding. In 1816 a man from Rhode Island, whose name is not definitely remembered, but believed to be Williams, traveled the horse Scape Goat through Prince Edward County, and he stopped one day and night in each week at the house of Stephen Niles, and during that season Mr. Howard bred his chestnut mare to this horse, and, as already said, the produce was Tippoo. This black colt passed into the hands of Mr. Wilcox, who gave him his name, and he afterward passed through several other hands before he reached Mr. Morden about 1826, and he died ten years later from the effects of a kick. As the horse Scape Goat was brought from Narragansett Bay, and as he was a remarkably fast pacer, there can be no mistake in calling him a “Narragansett Pacer.” He was considerably larger than the average of that tribe, but this does not vitiate his title to a place in that family. It seems he was only kept in Prince Edward County the one season, and his owner, not being satisfied with the extent of his earnings, took him back to Rhode Island. Thus, the horse that has been proudly designated as “Canada’s Messenger,” was the son of a Narragansett pacer. In his younger days, Tippoo paced like his sire, but as he grew older the trotting gait was more fully developed.

It is safe to say that the immediate progeny of Tippoo were numerous, and it is safe to say that some of them, either as trotters or pacers, were fast for their day, but it must be confessed that we know very little about the way they were bred. One son was called Sportsman, but nothing is known of his dam and very little of the horse himself beyond the fact that he was the sire of the roan gelding Tacony, that trotted some great races about 1853, and made a record of 2:27. This horse had a son called Young Sportsman, that was more widely known as “the Sager Horse,” and his horse became the sire of the trotting mare Clara, or Crazy Jane, as she was at one time called, that made a record of 2:27 in 1867. Beyond these two representatives of the Sportsman line, I have not been able to go. It has been claimed that another son of Tippoo, called Wild Deer, was the sire of the Sager Horse, but it does not seem to be well sustained. There was a son called Wild Deer, and several others that have been mentioned by turf writers, but no particulars of any value have been given.

Warrior, or Black Warrior, as he is sometimes called, was a brown horse and not a black, as his latter name would imply. He was a son of old Tippoo and his dam was a black mare owned and ridden by an officer in an English regiment, known as the First Royals. She was a black mare and after she was sold out of the service she was called “Black Warrior,” and this name was transmitted to her son. This mare was for a long time represented as the dam of Royal George, but she was the dam of his sire. This horse was bred at Belleville, Ontario, and about 1840 a certain Mr. Johnston was moving from Belleville to Michigan. He had this horse with him, which, becoming lame on the way, he traded to a Mr. Barnes, living about twenty miles south of London, Ontario. He was a valuable horse and left many very useful animals. Many of his get were pacers, and he was kept by Mr. Barnes till he died.

Royal George was a brown-bay horse, foaled about 1842, and was got by Warrior, son of Tippoo. His dam was the off one of a pair of bay mares taken to that vicinity from Middlebury, Vermont, by a Mr. Billington. This mare got her foot in a log bridge and the injury made her a comparative cripple for life. Being thus unfitted for road work, Mr. Billington sold or traded her to Mr. Barnes. She was bred to Warrior and produced Royal George. It is said by those who knew both animals, that this mare was a better trotter than Warrior, and from this springs the argument that Royal George had a trotting inheritance from his dam as well as from his sire. To learn whence this inheritance came, I have labored assiduously for years without being able to technically determine it. The single fact that her sire in Vermont was known as “the Bristol Horse,” is beyond all doubt, but as Mr. Billington was not living when this search was commenced, it has not been possible to determine just what horse is meant by “Bristol Horse.” At one time Harris’ Hambletonian was known very widely as “Bristol Grey” or “Bristol Horse,” and this is the only horse in the records so designated. It may, therefore, be assumed as more than a probability that this was the sire of the dam of Royal George.

When three or four years old he was sold by Mr. Barnes to James Forshee, and he was known as “the Forshee Horse” for several years. He was sixteen hands high, not very handsome, but well formed, with plenty of substance and stamina, good action, and a first class “business” horse for anything that was wanted of him. In the stud, at low prices, he was largely patronized, and during the other months of the year he was employed in all kinds of drudgery. From Forshee he passed to Frank Munger, and from Munger to Mr. Doherty, of St. Catherines, for four hundred dollars, and he gave him the name of Royal George, and kept him many years. In 1858 W. H. Ashford, of Lewiston, New York, bought him and kept him two or three years there and at Buffalo. He seems to have passed into Doherty’s hands again, and died at St. Catherine’s, December, 1862. It is not known that he ever had any training as a trotter except what he got from his owner on the road, and there is no tradition of his ever having been in a race but once, and that was on the ice at Hamilton, about 1852, against the famous State of Maine, for a considerable wager. In this contest he was the winner. His highest rate of speed was about 2:50 under the saddle. He was strongly disposed to pace, but when he got down to his work his gait was a square, mechanical trot. He left a numerous progeny with a heavy sprinkling of pacers among them; they were generally of fine size and very useful animals. Many of his sons were kept entire and that whole region of Ontario was filled up with Royal Georges, to say nothing of the large numbers that were brought across the border. He left one representative in the 2:30 list, and five sons that became sires of performers.

Toronto Chief was the best son of Royal George, according to the records. He was a brown horse, foaled 1850, and was bred by George Larue, of Middlesex County, Ontario. His dam was a small bay mare by a horse called Blackwood, and his grandam was by Prospect. The horse Blackwood “was bought of a Frenchman below Montreal in 1837,” and that is all that can be said of his blood. He was a horse of fine size and went with great courage. Toronto Chief passed through several hands before he reached his owner, A. Bathgate, of New York. He was a horse of great speed for his day, having a record of 2:31 in harness and 2:24¼ under saddle. He left three representatives in the 2:30 list, and among them the famous Thomas Jefferson, 2:23, with thirty-nine heats to his credit. Six of his sons became sires of trotters, and five of his daughters producers. Like all the other minor families, the Royal George family is surely being absorbed or submerged in trotting strains of more positive and uniform prepotency.

It is probably true that Old Columbus and Old St. Lawrence were both descended from the Tippoo family, as they were both bred in Canada and seemed to possess and transmit the same characteristics as the Royal Georges possessed, in conformation and gait. Their descendants were not numerous, but so many of them were able to show such a rate of speed, either at the lateral or diagonal gait, that they left a distinct trace on the trotting stock of the United States. Old Pacing Pilot has always been classed as a Canadian, but no trace of his origin has ever been secured, and it is impossible at this day to give any definite information as to whether he was brought from Canada or not. Some forty or fifty years ago the “Canadian pacers” were so highly esteemed for their speed that very many horses were called “Canadians” that never saw Canada. The original Tom Hal was purchased in Philadelphia as early as 1828, and was always called a Canadian. He was the progenitor of the great pacing family still bearing his name, that is doubtless the most noted pacing family now in existence. Sam Hazzard, it is said, was brought from Canada about 1844, and left some noted descendants. Many others might be named, but as they never gained great celebrity, and as their origin is not fully established, I will leave the Canadians for future investigators.