“Milford, N. H., May 4th, 1870.
“Mr. J. H. Wallace, Muscatine, Iowa.
“Dear Sir: Yours of 22d of April is duly received and contents noted. I was 24 years old when first acquainted with the dam of the ‘Harris Horse,’ so called, in the fall of 1813. Was then carrying on a farm, now owned by Wm. Randall, Esq., in this town, for Mr. Israel Munson, a commission merchant then doing business on India Street, and afterward on Central Wharf, Boston. I was in Boston in the fall of 1813, as above, and found the dam (of Hambletonian) and mate in Mr. Munson’s possession. He said they had been ‘leaders’ in a stage team, and they acted as if green about holding back, etc. He never said she was imported from England, neither did I hear such a story till two or three years ago. The dam was called ‘a Messenger.’ All the description I can give of her is that she was a strong, well-built, light dapple grey, and would weigh ten hundred, certain. The span was well matched. The nigh one (the dam) was more serviceable than the other. Led them all the way from Boston behind an ox team; kept them till the middle of April and then returned the pair to Boston. Mr. Munson drove them up, only stopping to dinner, when on his way to Vermont in August, 1814, and I didn’t see them again until December. I then drove them from Boston to Vermont, and used them a year on the Munson farm, on Otter Creek, in Wallingford. In June, 1815, I took them to Phœnix Horse (bay, black mane and tail, good looking and smart) in Clarendon Flats. Both stood and had foals the spring after I left Mr. Munson’s employ. The off mare was occasionally a little lame, I think in the off fore foot, when hard drove, but the nigh one was perfectly free from lameness or limping. I left Mr. Munson in the spring of 1816, and know nothing of mares afterward.
“Yours truly,
Joseph Tucker,
“(By Geo. W. Fox).”
I have given this letter entire, with the exception of a few closing sentences, that the public may be able to judge of its authenticity. That these mares were leaders in a stage team when Mr. Munson bought them is confirmed by members of the Munson family, and that the nigh mare was represented to be a Messenger at the time of the purchase I have not the least doubt. But whether she was really a Messenger is quite another question. All I can say is, it was possible in the nature of things; and the employment and qualities of the mare, together with the representations of Mr. Munson, appear to make it probable. During the mare’s lifetime I find she was spoken of in the Munson family and about Wallingford as “the imported Messenger mare” and in this phrase, no doubt, was the origin of the story that she was herself imported. When this phrase, through her son, reached the next outer circle, “imported Messenger mare” no longer meant a mare by imported Messenger, but an imported mare by Messenger.
At the point where Mr. Tucker’s knowledge of this mare ceases, fortunately Mr. Isaac B. Munson, of Wallingford, takes up the history and carries it forward, with great particularity, to the time of her death about 1826. She produced several foals by different horses, and while they were all valuable animals, the only one that is known to history is the subject of this sketch. When Hambletonian of Vermont was two years old Mr. Munson sold him to Samuel Edgerton and others, of Wallingford, and they kept him in the stud till about 1828, when they sold him to Mr. Eddy, of Bristol, Vermont, and in the hands of the Eddy family he was kept at Bristol, New Haven, and other points in and about Addison County till about 1835, when he was kept one or two years again in Wallingford and adjacent towns. About 1837 he was sold to Joshua Remington, of Huntington, Vermont, and was taken there. He stood in various parts of Chittenden County, and became well known as the “Remington Horse.” Unfortunately there is no guide to dates in these transfers and it is not known just how long Mr. Remington owned him. He next passed into the hands of Mr. Russell Harris, New Haven, Connecticut, and remained his till he died late in the year 1847.
The location of this horse was unfavorable either to a large or to a numerous progeny of trotters. He was surrounded with Morgan blood, trappy and stylish and fast growing in popularity on the supposition that they were trotters—a most valuable tribe as family horses, but none of them were able to trot fast without the introduction of trotting blood from the outside. He lived in a period antedating the real development of the trotter and the keeping of records of performances, and hence we must not judge of his merits as a trotting sire by comparing the list of his performers with lists of later generations. Green Mountain Maid was one of the best of her day and made a record of 2:28½ in 1853, and the same year the famous pacing gelding Hero made a record of 2:20½. Probably the best trotter from his loins was Sontag, with a wagon record in 1855 of 2:31. This mare was originally a pacer, and whether his dam was by imported Messenger or not we must conclude that the tendency to the lateral action was strong in his progeny. Lady Shannon, Trouble, Vermont, Modesty, and True John were all famous performers in their day. The last named was kept in the stud a few years and was known as the Hanchett Horse. He fell into the hands of Sim D. Hoagland, of this vicinity, became ugly and was made a gelding. As a weight puller he had no equal in his day. His daughters became the dams of many noted producers and performers, and through the doubling of his blood and its predominating influence we have the famous General Knox and his tribe. But few of his sons were kept as stallions; among them the best known is Hambletonian, 814, known as the Parris Horse and the sire of the stout campaigner, Joker, 2:22½. Vermont Hambletonian (known as the Noble or Harrington Horse) was one of his best and best-bred sons. He died in 1865, leaving a valuable progeny.