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

by John Hankins Wallace

CHAPTER XX.
MESSENGER’S DESCENDANTS.

History of Abdallah—Characteristics of his dam, Amazonia—Speculations as to her blood—Description of Abdallah—Almack, progenitor of the Champion line—Mambrino Paymaster, sire of Mambrino Chief—History and pedigree—Mambrino Messenger—Harris’ Hambletonian—Judson’s Hambletonian—Andrus’ Hambletonian, sire of the famous Princess, Happy Medium’s dam.

Abdallah.—This grandson of Messenger has been popularly and justly designated as the “king of trotting sires of his generation.” He was bred by John Tredwell, of Queens County, Long Island, and was foaled 1823. His sire was Mambrino, son of Messenger, and his dam was Amazonia, one of the most distinguished trotters of her day. Concerning the breeding and origin of Amazonia there has been great diversity of opinion among horsemen and a great amount of controversy among writers. It is not my purpose to enter into a discussion of the questions raised on this point, but I would hardly be doing justice to history to pass it over unnoticed. I will, therefore, try to give a brief synopsis of the history and the arguments urged, and refer the reader to the first and second volumes of Wallace’s Monthly for a more extended consideration of the questions raised.

The first representation of her pedigree was that she was a daughter of imported Messenger, and the next was that she was by a son of Messenger. On the first claim, that she was by Messenger, no argument was possible, one way or the other, on account of dates; but against the second claim, that she was by a son of Messenger, the arguments were numerous and vehement. All these arguments were based wholly upon her coarse external conformation and the absence of all resemblance to the Messenger family. Among the supporters of this view were many of the most intelligent and trustworthy horsemen of the whole country. Indeed, the preponderance of intelligence as well as numbers seemed to be on that side. That she had “coarse, ragged hips,” that she had a “rat tail,” that she “had hair enough on her legs to stuff a mattress,” that she was “a muddy sorrel,” etc., were all urged to prove that she was not by a son of Messenger. It is true that many entered into this controversy who never saw the mare and who knew nothing about her appearance, but there were others who knew her perfectly, among them my venerable friend David W. Jones, to whom we are all indebted for so many treasures from his storehouse of very valuable memories.

On the other side there were some little scraps of history, that at the vital point may have been history or may have been fiction. In the certificate of sale of Abdallah, April 27, 1830, to Mr. Isaac Snediker, his breeder, Mr. John Tredwell, says: “And believe him to be the very best bred trotting stallion in this country, and be it enough to know that his sire was Mambrino and his dam Amazonia.” It has been argued that it would be very inconsistent for a man of Mr. Tredwell’s standing to certify that Abdallah “was the very best bred trotting stallion in this country,” if he knew nothing of the blood of his dam, drawing the inference that he must have known and believed the representations of his nephew, B. T. Kissam, from whom he got Amazonia. The story of the original purchase of Amazonia by B. T. Kissam and given to me by his brother, Timothy T. Kissam, in 1870, is as follows: Amazonia was purchased by B. T. Kissam, a dry goods merchant of New York, when on an excursion of pleasure in the vicinity of Philadelphia about 1814. She was brought out of a team and was then four years old past, his attention having been called to her as an animal of much promise. He used her for his own driving a short time and sold her to his uncle, John Tredwell. “Amazonia was represented to my brother to have been a get of imported Messenger.”

Now, in considering whether this scrap of history is probably true, the geographical question has been urged with telling effect. Messenger had been kept a number of years on both sides of the Delaware, right on the way to Philadelphia, his fee had been above that of any other stallion, and a large percentage of his colts had been kept entire. In no part of the country, perhaps, were there so many sons of Messenger seeking public patronage. The geography and the chronology of the question, therefore, both sustain the probability of its truthfulness. Whether Mr. Kissam crossed the river at Trenton, or Burlington, or Camden he was right in the hotbed of the sons of Messenger. “If Amazonia” it has been asked, “was as coarse and forbidding as represented in her appearance, what induced Mr. Kissam to buy her?” He wanted a carriage horse and he wanted one that could not only show good action, but one that had a right of inheritance to good action. He knew the Messengers and knew that beauty and style were not family traits in that tribe. Many of them were coarse, and possibly as coarse as Amazonia. Her very coarseness and lack of style is, under the circumstances, a strong argument that in choosing her Mr. Kissam had regard for her Messenger blood.

Another argument, resting on “the internal evidences,” has been urged with considerable force and it is very hard to answer it. Amazonia was a mare of tested and known speed. She was in a number of races to saddle and had won several of them in less than three minutes along about 1816-18, and when Major William Jones, in 1820, accepted the challenge to produce a horse that could trot a mile in three minutes for one thousand dollars, he knew very well what he was doing, for he had seen Amazonia do it a number of times. Her best time was about 2:54, which in that day was considered phenomenally fast. If we were to meet a running horse out on the plains that could run away from all others, we would naturally and justly conclude that he had some of the blood of the race horse in his veins. If we have a pacer and we learn he came from a section of the country where a certain tribe of pacers abounded, we would naturally conclude that he belonged to that tribe, especially if we knew there were no other pacers in that section. If we have a trotter that can go away from all other trotters, and we know that this trotter came from a section abounding in a family of trotters, and in nothing else that can trot, we naturally and justly conclude that this trotter came from some member of that family of trotters. This argument from the “internal evidences” seems almost axiomatic, and when taken in connection with the historical argument, unsatisfactory though it be, they together lay the foundation for a very strong probability that Amazonia was by a son of Messenger.

Abdallah was in color a beautiful bay, about fifteen and a half hands high, and there was a measure of coarseness about him that he could not well escape, as both his sire and dam were endowed with that undesirable quality. The one exception to this was in the character of his coat, which was very fine and glossy when in healthy condition. His reputation as a great trotting sire was very widely extended during his lifetime, but his lack of symmetry and his “rat tail,” which he inherited from his dam, so impaired his acceptability with the public that he never was very largely patronized. Besides this he had an unconquerable will of his own, which he transmitted to his offspring very generally. This willfulness was not a desirable quality in a horse for drudgery, and hence most of his patrons were such as were seeking for gameness and speed. When he was four years old he was not in the stud, and it is understood that Mr. Tredwell undertook to break him thoroughly and train him that year. It is also understood that when put in harness he kicked everything to pieces within his reach and that all thoughts of training were soon abandoned. He never was in harness again until, in extreme old age, he was sold for five dollars to a fish peddler, and the peddler’s wagon was soon reduced to kindling wood.

He was kept at different points on Long Island, and one season in New Jersey, till the fall of 1839, when he, with Commodore, another son of Mambrino, was sold to Mr. John W. Hunt, of Lexington, Kentucky, where they made the season of 1840. Commodore was much the more attractive horse of the two, and did a large business, while Abdallah was almost wholly neglected, leaving only about half a dozen colts. Meantime his progeny on the island began to show their speed and their racing qualities; a company was formed and he was brought back from Kentucky and made the seasons of 1841 and 1842 at the Union Course, Long Island. He was at Goshen, New York, 1843, at Freehold, New Jersey, 1844 and 1845, at Chester, New York, 1846-47-48, at Bull’s Head, New York, 1849, and did nothing, then at the Union Course and Patchogue, Long Island, and was not off the island again. After the period of his usefulness was past his inhuman owners turned him out on a bleak, sandy beach on the Long Island shore, and there he starved to death in the piercing November winds, without a shelter or a friend.