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

by John Hankins Wallace

CHAPTER XXVI.
THE BLUE BULL AND OTHER MINOR FAMILIES.

Blue Bull, the once leading sire—His lineage and history—His family rank— The Cadmus family—Pocahontas—Smuggler—Tom Rolfe—Young Rolfe and Nelson—The Tom Hal family—The various Tom Hals—Brown Hal—The Kentucky Hunters—Flora Temple—Edwin Forrest—The Drew Horse and his descendants—The Hiatogas.

Blue Bull, the real head of this family, was one of the most remarkable horses that this or any other country has produced. He was a light chestnut, just a little over fifteen hands high, with one hind pastern white and a star in his forehead. He was strongly built and his limbs were excellent, except perhaps a little light just below the knee. He was foaled 1858 and died July 11, 1880. He was bred by Elijah Stone, of Stone’s Crossing, Johnson County, Indiana. For a time he was owned by Lewis Loder and Daniel Dorrel, before he passed into the hands of James Wilson, of Rushville, Indiana, who kept him many years and whose property he died. At one time he stood at the head of the list of all trotting sires in the world, and yet he could not trot a step himself, but he could pace amazingly fast, and it was claimed he could pace a quarter in thirty seconds. He was the first and only horse that was ever able to snatch the scepter from the great Hambletonian family, but after a brief reign of a couple of years he had to surrender it again to that family, where, from present appearances, it is destined to remain.

The breeding of this horse is very obscure, and after we have told all that is known about it we will not have given very much information. He was got by a large dun pacing horse that was known as Pruden’s Blue Bull, and he by a blue roan horse known as Merring’s Blue Bull, or Ohio Farmer. The latter was taken to Butler County, Ohio, from Chester County, Pennsylvania, and it has been said, without confirmation, that he was of Chester Ball stock. He was a large, strong farm horse, a natural pacer, as were many of his progeny, and dun and roan colors were very prevalent among them. He died the property of Mr. Merring about 1843. His son, Pruden’s Blue Bull, was of a dun color and a natural pacer, but his dam has never been traced. He was large, strong, rather coarse, and had some reputation as a fast pacer, for a horse of his size, and his color was quite prevalent among his progeny. He was bred in Butler County, Ohio, and about 1853 was taken to Boone County, Kentucky. In 1861 he became the property of G. B. Loder, of the same county, and in 1863 he traded him to James Pruden, of Elizabethtown, Ohio.

The pedigree of Wilson’s Blue Bull, the head of the family on the side of the dam, is equally unsatisfactory so far as the blood elements are concerned. We know that this dam was called Queen, that she was bred by Elijah Stone, and that she was got by a horse called Young Selim, but we know nothing about Young Selim. We also know that the dam of Queen was called Bet, and that Mr. Stone bought her of Mr. Sedan, and there all knowledge ends. Since the days of the great racing progenitor, Godolphin Arabian, of whose origin and blood nobody, living or dead, had a single shadow of knowledge, down to the day of Wilson’s Blue Bull, no horse equally obscure in his inheritance has ever been able to prove himself really great as a progenitor of speed.

In the days of Blue Bull’s rising fame, and indeed till his death, there was developed such a condition of muddled morals as one seldom meets with in a lifetime. Whenever a horse of unknown breeding, in any one of three or four States, began to show some speed, his owner at once called him a Blue Bull, and if he went fast enough to enter the 2:30 list, he was at once credited to Blue Bull by his friends, and they were all ready to fight for it. If the books of Blue Bull’s services did not show that the dam of the “unknown” had ever been within a hundred miles of that horse, it was all the worse for the books. With a large number of men interested financially in Blue Bull stock, ready to claim everything in sight and anxiously looking for something more to appear, it became a most laborious task to keep this class of frauds out of the records. Another cause of dissent and dissatisfaction among the “boomers” of Blue Bull blood was the final discovery of the breeder in Elijah Stone and that there was no “thoroughbred” blood in his veins. At that time a very large majority of the horsemen of the country honestly believed that all speed, whether at the pace or the trot, must come from the gallop. It was not the truth, therefore, that these people were looking for, but something to support that ignorant and stupid theory.

A careful study of the statistics of this horse will teach a valuable lesson. He put fifty-six trotters into the 2:30 list, varying in speed from 2:30 to 2:17¼, and five of this number in 2:20 or better. He also got four pacers with records from 2:24½ to 2:16¼. It thus appears that this horse, without any known trotting blood, got fifty-four trotters to four pacers, which clearly shows that an inheritance of speed at the pace may be transmitted at the trot, as well as the pace. When we come to his progeny, we find that forty-seven of his sons have to their credit one hundred and four performers, making an average of a little more than two each. These sons are all past maturity and some of them dead of old age, and not one of them has ever reached mediocrity in merit as a sire. He left seventy-seven daughters that have produced one hundred and seven performers, and if we had time to trace out these performers we would find that they were generally by strains of blood stronger and better than the blood of Blue Bull. While, therefore, we can acknowledge Blue Bull’s greatness as a getter of speed from his own loins, we must acknowledge that his sons and daughters as the producers of speed are failures. It is possible that some representative of the tribe may spring up and restore the prestige of the family, but as the source is sporadic and as the country is filled up with trotting elements that are more prepotent, it is more likely to be swallowed up and lose its family identity.

Cadmus (known as Irons’ Cadmus) was the head of a very small family that occasionally developed phenomenal speed either at the pace or the trot. He was a chestnut horse nearly sixteen hands high, strong and active, with four white feet. He was foaled 1840 and was got by Cadmus, the thoroughbred son of American Eclipse, and was bred by Goldsmith Coffein, Red Lion, Warren County, Ohio. His dam was a chestnut pacing mare that Mr. Coffein got in a trade, from a traveler, and nothing was ever known of her breeding. A pedigree was shaped up for her that seemed to make her thoroughbred and her son took a prize on it once, as a thoroughbred, but it was wholly untrue. Mr. John Irons of the same county became joint owner in this horse, and he became widely known as “Irons’ Cadmus.” To close this partnership he was sold, 1850, and taken to Richmond, Indiana; then to George Shepher, of Butler County, Ohio, and next to a company in Wheeling, West Virginia, where he made two seasons, and was sold to St. Louis, Missouri, and died without further service, in 1858. From birth he was double-gaited, inclining more to the pace than to the trot. From unskillful handling his gaits became mixed up so that it was never known whether he might have been able to show any speed or not.

Pocahontas, the pacer, was the most distinguished of his get, and if there were no others of merit from her sire this one alone would be sufficient to command a place in the volume. She was a large, strong chestnut mare with four white legs, a white face, and a splotch of white on her belly. She was bred by John C. Dine, of Butler County, Ohio, and was foaled 1847. Her dam was a very strong mare got by Probasco’s Big Shakespeare, a horse over sixteen hands and very heavily proportioned, a very valuable farm horse with good action, many of whose tribe were disposed to pace. The grandam was also a descendant of Valerius, that was brought to Ohio from New Jersey. Pocahontas passed through several hands at very low prices and was used for all kinds of heavy farming and hauling until she reached the hands of L. D. Woodmansee, when her speed began to be developed. She was soon matched against Ben Higdon, the fast pacing son of Abdallah, and beat him in 2:32. In December, 1853, she was taken to New Orleans, and beat several celebrities there early the next spring. Before her last race it was discovered she was in foal, and some two months afterward she dropped Tom Rolfe. In the autumn of 1854 she was brought to the Union Course, Long Island, and it was not till June, 1855, that her owners and managers could get a match with her. At last Hero, the famous son of Harris’ Hambletonian, met her for two thousand dollars, he to harness and she to wagon. In the first heat she distanced the gelding in 2:17½, and it was maintained by her driver that she could have gone at least five seconds faster, if it had been necessary. For racing purposes she was no longer of any value, for nothing would start against her. She was then sold and became a brood mare at Boston, Massachusetts, and produced the sires Tom Rolfe and Strideway, Pocahontas, 2:26¾, and the dams of May Morning, 2:30, and Nancy, 2:23½, thus ranking as a great brood mare.