George M. Patchen Jr. (California Patchen) was a bay horse by the foregoing; dam Belle by Top Bellfounder, a grandson of imported Bellfounder, of which little is known. He was bred by Joseph Regan, Mount Holly, New Jersey, and taken to California 1862 by William Hendrickson; returned to New York 1866, sold to Messrs. Halstead, Poughkeepsie, 1867, and by them to W. A. Matthews in 1869, and taken to San Jose, California; then sold to P. A. Finnegan, of San Francisco, and died the property of J. B. Haggin, Sacramento, 1887. He was campaigned quite extensively during the years 1866 and 1867 in the East, and carried away a good share of the winnings from the best. His best record was 2:27. In the stud he was more successful than his sire, which may be accounted for by his more numerous progeny and his longer life. From his own loins he put ten trotters into the 2:30 list, and, although there was no Lucy among them, Wells Fargo made a record of 2:18¾; Sam Purdy, 2:20½; Vanderlyn, 2:21, etc., showing a better average than the get of his sire. Ten of his sons got twenty-three trotters and two pacers, and eleven of his daughters produced twenty-five trotters and three pacers.
Several of the other sons of George M. Patchen left valuable and fast trotting progeny, and among them I will name Godfrey Patchen, with nine trotters to his credit and his descendants breeding on; Henry B. Patchen, with seven to his credit; Seneca Patchen, with sixteen trotters and one pacer to his credit, perhaps more than he is honestly entitled to; Wild Wagoner, with four to his credit; and Tom Patchen with three and his family transmitting speed.
In considering the founders of the Clay family, there are two or three important facts that should be kept in view, bearing upon the growth, or the decadence of the family. In a breeding sense this appears to be the longest line of developed speed that we have in any of our trotting families. While we know that there were developed trotters and pacers many years before Abdallah and Andrew Jackson were foaled, we are not able to connect them in lines of descent, generation after generation. As Andrew Jackson with his developed speed stands at the head of this line, the question naturally arises, Where did he get his ability to trot? The only answer we can give is, from the daughter of Messenger that was the grandam of his sire, and from the fast pacer, Charcoal Sal, that produced him. Even if we accept the pedigree of Young Bashaw, with his Messenger grandam, when we get to Andrew Jackson we are a long way from the Messenger source of trotting speed; hence, we must look to the pacing speed of his dam—Charcoal Sal from Ohio—as the more probable source.
Andrew Jackson was bred upon the converted pacer Surrey, and produced Henry Clay, then Henry Clay was bred upon Jersey Kate, of unknown blood, but a producer of trotting speed, and produced Cassius M. Clay. Then Cassius M. Clay was bred upon a mare “full of Messenger blood” and produced Strader’s Cassius M. Clay—the best of the Clay name by the record. Cassius M. Clay (the original) was also bred on “Dick Carman’s mare” and produced the famous George M. Patchen. This Carman mare was by a running-bred son of Trustee. She was both a pacer and a trotter and her dam was a natural pacer. George M. Patchen was bred on the Regan mare and produced California Patchen. This mare was, practically, of unknown breeding. California Patchen was bred on Whiskey Jane and the produce was his best son, Sam Purdy. This mare Whiskey Jane was quite a trotter and she was undoubtedly pacing bred, but I will not here enter into the details of her origin.
We have here before us a condensed view of the trotting inheritance of the Clay and the Patchen families from Andrew Jackson to Sam Purdy, and its most remarkable feature is its poverty in recognized trotting blood. On the maternal side, the pacing habit of action seems to prevail in almost every succeeding generation. The second thought is that the tribe has not held its vantage ground of the first and the longest line of developed trotting speed. The third is that it has failed to transmit speed with uniformity, but rather sporadically. This may be accounted for by the general character and uncertainty of the maternal side, and suggests the question whether animals so bred can be relied upon to transmit with uniformity an inheritance received sporadically. From its place in the first rank as to time and popularity, this family has not been able to hold its own and it has declined to a place among the minor families of trotters and bids fair to be absorbed by tribes of stronger trotting inheritance.
CHAPTER XXV.
AMERICAN STAR, PILOT, CHAMPION, AND NORMAN FAMILIES.
Seely’s American Star—His fictitious pedigree—Breeding really unknown—A trotter of some merit—His stud career—His daughters noted brood mares— Conklin’s American Star—Old Pacing Pilot—History and probable origin —Pilot Jr.—Pedigree—Training and races—Prepotency—Family statistics summarized—Grinnell’s Champion, son of Almack—His sons and performing descendants—Alexander’s Norman and his sire, the Morse Horse— Swigert and Blackwood.
Of all the hundreds of difficult and obscure pedigrees that I have undertaken to investigate and straighten out, I have given more time, labor and money to that of Seely’s American Star than to any other horse. In 1867 I got his pedigree from a gentleman in Morris County, New Jersey, who claimed to have bred him, and this pedigree and the history accompanying it embracing several details that were interesting, I published it, at full length, in the Spirit of the Times. This represented the horse as a light chestnut about fifteen hands high, with star and snip and two white hind feet. He was represented to have been foaled 1837 and to be by a horse called American Star, son of Cock of the Rock, by Duroc; dam Sally Slouch by Henry, the race horse; grandam by imported Messenger. As there was no horse of that name, so far as I knew, by Cock of the Rock, but as there was one of that name by Duroc, I wrote to know whether this was not the breeding of the sire, and the answer came that it might have been so.