The third foal, Young One Eye, was by Edmund Seely’s horse Orphan Boy, whose pedigree is not now known. One of her eyes was knocked out by Peter Seely, accidentally, when breaking her, just as her dam had lost an eye. She passed out of the hands of the Seely family and her subsequent history is unknown. If this mare ever produced anything, her history and that of her descendants would be of great interest and value.

The question at once suggests itself, Where did Crabstick get his pacing action? It could not have been from his sire, as he was a son of Duroc, so said, but it may have come from Seagull’s dam, as we know nothing of her breeding; or it may have come from old Black Jin, the dam of Silvertail. If from neither of these we must then conclude it came from Messenger himself, or rather, through him from some of his pacing ancestors. It is altogether probable that the strong infusion of pacing blood in Messenger’s veins was the real element that made him a trotting progenitor when every other imported English horse failed in that respect.

Silvertail, the great-grandam of Hambletonian, was a dark brown mare with white hind feet and a white face. She had a great many white hairs in her tail and hence she was called Silvertail. She was foaled in 1802 and was bred by Mr. Jonas Seely, Sr., of Sugar Loaf, Orange County, New York. She was got by imported Messenger in 1801, the year he stood at Goshen, New York. Her dam was a great, slashing black mare called “Jin” that Mr. Seely had used in his business many years, but her origin and breeding cannot now be found. She must have been a real good one or Mr. Seely would not have taken her to Messenger. In the summer of 1806, as was his custom, he was down at New York with a drove of cattle, and his son Jonas, then a lad of eight or ten years old, went along to help drive the cattle and to see the city. He was detained two or three days longer than he expected and it was very important that he should reach home at a certain time. On the morning of that day he found himself in Hoboken, with his son, and no means of getting home except on Silvertail. So he took the boy up behind him and went home that day, seventy-five miles, by sundown. She was fully sixteen hands high and of very fine style. Her head, neck and ear were bloodlike, and her resolution and will were remarkable even in old age. Her step, at the trot, is not known to have been much developed, but she could gallop all day long. On several occasions she carried her master to Albany in a day. Besides the famous One Eye she produced several superior foals that brought high prices, in those days, but we have only the one line tracing to her as a producer. She died the property of Ebenezer Seely.

In searching for the particulars of this pedigree of Hambletonian and in tracing it back to old “Black Jin,” I was necessarily brought into contact with a great many people, some of whom were helpful and some were not. As a matter of course I met with the usual number who professed to “know it all,” but really knew nothing that was reliable. As the whole tracing was in the Seely family, the public may wish to know what kind of people they were. Jonas Seely, first, of Oxford in Orange County, was a large farmer in the last century and an extensive cattle feeder and drover. As there were no railroads or steam boats in those days, much of his time was given to driving cattle, either in collecting them from the interior or in taking them to market in New York. He had use for good horses and he had a fancy for the best. His business brought him into contact with the butchers of New York, and we find he sold many of his horses as well as his cattle to them. These same business relations were continued under his successor. He left a large family of sons who seemed to take to the horse as a duck takes to water. Jonas, second, was one of his younger sons and succeeded to his father’s business as well as to the homestead. He was born 1797 at Oxford, and his father removed to the farm at Sugar Loaf when he was a child. He was a thrifty and successful farmer. For a number of years he was engaged with his partner and lifelong friend, Ebenezer Pray, in buying and driving cattle from the West to the New York market. In June, 1882, he passed away and there ended an acquaintance and a friendship of nearly thirty years. He was a strictly conscientious and truthful man, and died in the glorious hope of a devoted Christian. His first visit to New York, in 1806, the wonders he saw there, and especially the total eclipse that occurred while he was there, and how he watched it from the Bull’s Head tavern, through a piece of smoked glass, and the ride home the next day behind his father on Silvertail, and how he ran down many a hill to rest himself, and how tired he was when they reached home, are incidents that were all detailed to me with the interest and vigor of yesterday.

When One Eye was about fifteen years old the elder Jonas gave her or sold her to his son-in-law, Josiah Jackson, and in due time he bred her to imported Bellfounder and she produced the Charles Kent mare. Mr. Rysdyk thought the elder Jonas gave this mare to his son Charles and that Charles sold her to Mr. Jackson, which is not material. After the Kent mare had been battered about in New York for some years and finally crippled, Charles Kent, a butcher, bought her and bred her to Webber’s Tom Thumb, a Canadian horse that was quite a trotter. On one occasion when Jonas II. and Mr. Pray were down in the city, Kent wanted to sell the mare, and Mr. Pray urged Jonas very strongly to buy her and take her home for a brood mare. He concluded to do so if she were not too badly crippled, and they together went over on to the island to see her, when she came again into the Seely family. In 1848 he bred her to Abdallah, in 1849 she produced a bay colt, and in the autumn of that year he sold her with her colt to William M. Rysdyk, who had been employed on his farm for the year, for one hundred and twenty-five dollars, and this colt proved to be the great Hambletonian.

As it is now conceded, not only in this country, but throughout the world, that Hambletonian, as a trotting progenitor, is far and away the greatest horse that has ever been produced, a careful and true analysis of the blood elements entering into his inheritance is a most interesting and instructive lesson for all breeders. First we have the direct cross from Messenger himself in Silvertail; second, we have the cross from a son of Messenger on a daughter of Messenger in One Eye, making her equal to a daughter of Messenger in blood; third, we have the out-cross from Bellfounder, that was a total failure as a trotting progenitor, on this double granddaughter of Messenger, and the result is a trotter in the Kent mare and practically the only trotter that Bellfounder ever got; fourth, we have the cross of a grandson and probably a double grandson of Messenger on this trotter, and the produce is Hambletonian himself. These crosses show a stronger concentration of Messenger blood than can be found in any horse of his generation.

Bashaw (Green’s).—This was a black horse, fifteen and a half hands high, bred by Jonas Seely, the breeder of Hambletonian; foaled 1855, and given when following his dam to his son-in-law, Colonel F. M. Cummins, of Muscatine, Iowa. He was got by Vernol’s Black Hawk, then known as the Drake colt, son of Long Island Black Hawk, and his dam was Belle, the first foal of the Charles Kent mare, that was out of One Eye. In the spring of 1857 he was sold to Joseph A. Green, of Muscatine, and he remained his till 1864. He had one white hind foot and a large, full star in his forehead. He was a smooth, handsome horse in every respect. His head, neck, ear and eye were all good, and free from coarseness. His back and loin had very few equals even among those that are called most perfect at these points. His hip was of great length, and in his buttock there was quite a resemblance on a reduced scale to his kinsman, Hambletonian. His limbs and feet both in shape and quality were admirable, and his disposition docile and kindly. In walking his gait was slinging, but loose jointed and slovenly, and he was therefore not a pleasant driving horse. But at the trot, whether going slow or fast, his style was very taking and his action remarkably perfect. While owned by Mr. Green he was handled by good, careful men, but they had no experience in developing and driving a trotter, and knew nothing about that kind of horsemanship. Under these circumstances many a horse would have been spoiled, but his gait was always perfect and his popularity as a trotter never waned. He never was started in what might be called regular races, but at State fairs and the principal county fairs he was always in demand and always won. He was, perhaps, the best natural trotter that I have ever seen. He was able to show about 2:28, but I think he never won a heat on a half-mile track in better than 2:31, and when sixteen years old he was able to win in 2:35. In 1864 Mr. Green sold him to some parties in St. Louis, Missouri, and they to Mr. Beckwith of Hartford, Connecticut, and while in his hands he was matched against Young Morrill, but went amiss and paid forfeit. He made the season of 1865 at Hartford. The following winter Mr. Green repurchased him and he was returned to Muscatine, where he remained till January, 1877, when he was sold to George A. Young, of Leland, Illinois, and died January, 1880.

He left seventeen trotters in the 2:30 list; twenty-four sons that were the sires of fifty-nine standard performers, and thirty-four daughters that produced forty-four standard performers. As his sire never amounted to anything either as a trotter or a getter of trotters, it is fair to conclude that whatever merit he possessed was inherited from the same source that made Hambletonian greater than all others.

Belle, the dam of Bashaw, 50, was a brown mare about fifteen and three-quarter hands high, with tan muzzle and flanks and some white feet. She was rather short in the body and neck, but she was very stoutly built and had been a fine road mare. She was bred by Charles Kent, the butcher, and I think was following her dam when Mr. Jonas Seely bought her. She was foaled 1843 and was got by Tom Thumb, a Canadian horse, and a trotter that was brought into Orange County by William Webber and left excellent stock. Her dam was the Charles Kent mare, the dam of Hambletonian. She produced as follows: