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

by John Hankins Wallace

Abdallah was the sire of Hambletonian, 10, the greatest of all trotting progenitors and greater than all others combined. This fact alone has made his name imperishable in the annals of the trotting horse. A number of his other sons were kept for stallions and some of them lived to old age, but they were all failures in the stud. His daughters, generally, proved to be most valuable brood mares, producing speed to almost any and every cross. A pedigree tracing to an “Abdallah mare” has always enhanced the value of a family.

Almack.—Mr. John Tredwell bred his famous team of driving mares, Amazonia and Sophonisba, to Mambrino in the spring of 1822, and the next year they each produced a bay horse colt that he named Abdallah and Almack. Sophonisba, the dam of Almack, was a superior mare, but she was not fast enough for her mate. Almack, however, was a good horse and left some trotters. I have no particular description of him at hand and nothing can now be given of his history further than that some of his daughters produced well and that he seems to have been kept all his life on Long Island. His dam Sophonisba was got by a grandson of imported Baronet, as represented, but this is so indefinite as to be unsatisfactory and suspicious. As none of the Baronets could ever trot, even “a little bit,” it is evident that whatever trotting inheritance Almack possessed came to him from his sire. Aside from a number of his descendants that were recognized trotters of merit there was one in particular that established Almack as a progenitor of a great family of trotters. A son of his bred by George Raynor, of Huntington, Long Island, in 1842, and known as the “Raynor Colt,” out of Spirit by Engineer II., sire of Lady Suffolk, was led behind a sulky at a fair at Huntington, when he was eighteen months old, and he went so fast and showed such a magnificent way of doing it, that he was named “Champion” by William T. Porter, editor of the Spirit of the Times. At three years old he was driven a full mile in 3:05 and this was a “world’s record” for colts of that age at that time. In 1846 he was purchased by William R. Grinnell for two thousand six hundred dollars and taken to Cayuga County, where he founded a great tribe of trotters that is now known everywhere as the “Champion Family.” A fuller account of this horse will be found at another place in this volume.

Mambrino Paymaster (widely known in later years as Blind Paymaster).—This was a large, strong-boned, dark-bay horse, sixteen hands and an inch high. When young he was somewhat light and leggy, but with age he spread out and became a horse of substance. He was bred by Azariah Arnold, of the town of Washington, in Dutchess County, New York. There is some uncertainty about the year this horse was foaled, but it was somewhere between 1822 and 1826. He was got by Mambrino, son of Messenger, and his dam was represented to be by imported Paymaster. The late Mr. Edwin Thorne made a statement a few years ago that in an interview with Azariah Arnold he said that he did not know or remember the horse that was the sire of the dam. At that time Mr. Arnold was very old, and doubtless his mental faculties very much impaired, so it would not be remarkable that he should have forgotten all about it. On the other hand, Nelson Haight, Daniel B. Haight, Seth P. Hopson, and others of like high character, maintain that Mr. Arnold, in his younger days, always represented the mare to be by Paymaster, and the name of the horse itself is very strong evidence that he did so represent it, and is a standing proclamation to that effect. There can be no possible doubt that in earlier life Mr. Arnold constantly represented this mare to be by Paymaster; neither can there be any reasonable doubt that when his faculties were impaired with age he told Mr. Thorne that he did not remember her pedigree. Mr. Arnold’s neighbors all agree that he was a man of unblemished character and incapable of a willful misrepresentation, when in possession of his faculties. Again, that this Paymaster cross was not only possible, but probable, is shown by the fact that imported Paymaster was kept by Ebenezer Haight, in the year 1807, in the same township with Azariah Arnold, and the years 1808 and 1809 in the same part of the county. Therefore, Mr. Thorne to the contrary notwithstanding, I have but little doubt that the Paymaster cross is correct.

He had a small star in his forehead and a little white on one hind foot. His back, loin and hips were altogether superior, and those who knew him best say they never saw his equal at these points. His head was large and bony, with an ear after the Mambrino model. His neck was of medium length and his shoulder good. His hind legs were quite crooked and too much cut in below the hock in front, giving the legs at that point a narrow and weak appearance; his hocks were large and at the curb place showed a fullness. His cannon bones, all round, were short for a horse of his size, and his feet were excellent. He was slow in maturing, but when he filled out he lost all that narrow, weedy appearance which characterized his colthood. He was not beautiful, but powerful.

About 1828 he was sold and taken to Binghamton, New York. Meantime his colts came forward and proved to be so valuable that Nelson and Daniel B. Haight and Gilbert Jones purchased and brought him back to Dutchess County about the year 1840. He was not a sure foal-getter, but his stock proved to be of great value. When brought back from Broome County he was blind. He made one season on Long Island in charge of George Tappan; the other seasons till 1847 he was kept in Dutchess County in the neighborhood of his owners. In 1847 he was sold to Mr. Gilbert Holmes and taken to Vermont, where he died after getting one colt. Many of his sons were kept as stallions, but the most famous of his get were the mares Iola and Lady Moore, and last but not least, his famous son Mambrino Chief, the founder of a great family of trotters in Kentucky. His stock were probably more noted and more highly prized than that of any of the sons of Mambrino that stood in Dutchess County. As Abdallah was the link by which the greatest of all trotting families are connected with Messenger, so Mambrino Paymaster is the link through which the family easily entitled to second place reaches the same illustrious original.

Mambrino Jr. (Bone Swinger) was a beautiful bay horse, foaled 182-, got by Mambrino, son of Messenger; dam not traced. He was bred on Long Island and was owned by George Tappan, near Jericho, Long Island. About 1833-4 he made some seasons at Washington Hollow, Dutchess County. He was about fifteen hands three inches high and was considered more blood-like and handsome than most of his family. He was a strong breeder, giving most of his colts his own elegant color.

Mambrino Messenger (commonly known as the Burton Horse) was foaled about 1821. He was got by Mambrino, son of Messenger; dam by Coffin’s Messenger, son of Messenger; grandam by Black and All Black; great-grandam by Feather. He was bred by Abram Burton, of Washington Hollow, New York. He was a beautiful bay, about fifteen hands three inches high, and was the same age as Mambrino Paymaster, and they were rivals for a number of years, each having his friends and adherents. He was finer in the bone, having more finish and beauty than his rival, and what was still more effective with the public, he could out-trot him. Many of his offspring proved to be most excellent roadsters and some of them were fast. He was probably taken to Western New York, but I have not found any trace of his location or history. This name, Mambrino Messenger, was borne by several other horses of different degrees of affinity to the originals.

Hambletonian (Harris’) (also known as Bristol Grey and Remington Horse).—This was a grey horse, about sixteen hands high, and possessed great strength and substance. When young he was an iron grey and probably pretty dark, but as he advanced in age he became lighter in color. His head was large and bony, with great width between the eyes. He was short in the back, with long hips, and the rise of the withers commenced far back, showing a fine, oblique shoulder. He was a horse of unusually large bone formation; his limbs were large, but flat and clean, with a heavy growth of hair at the fetlocks. He was of docile and kindly disposition and worked well either alone or with another. His gait was open and decided and at a walk his long slinging steps carried him over the ground unusually fast. His speed as a trotter was never developed, but his action at that gait was so free, open and square that those who knew him well have insisted that his manner of going indicated the possibility of great improvement, if he had been handled with that view. His offspring were slow in maturing, and for many years, indeed till toward the end of his life, he was not appreciated as a stallion. He was in constant competition with the little, plump, trim and trappy Morgans, and at three and four years old his long, lathy, plain colts cut but a sorry figure against the well formed and fully developed Morgans of their own age. With such a rivalry, sustained by the question of profit to the breeder by early sales, it is not remarkable that he should have been neglected, till it was clearly demonstrated that he transmitted the true Messenger trotting instinct in greater strength than any of his competitors.

He was bred by Isaac Munson, of Wallingford, Vermont; foaled 1823, got by Bishop’s Hambletonian, son of Messenger; dam the Munson mare that was brought from Boston, 1813. There never has been any question about the sire of this horse, but up to 1869 the representation made by Mr. Harris that his dam was an imported English mare was generally accepted as the truth. I was led to doubt this, and in December of that year I made a thorough search of the records of the custom-house in Boston, and found the claim was without any foundation whatever. Through the kindness of Mr. Henry D. Noble I was enabled to get beyond Mr. Harris, who really knew nothing about the mare, back to the Munson family, and to Mr. Joseph Tucker, the earliest and best authority living in 1870. In order that this evidence may be preserved I will here insert Mr. Tucker’s letter entire.