Читать книгу The Horse of America in His Derivation, History, and Development - John Hankins Wallace - Страница 14

Table of Contents

Settlement of New Amsterdam—Horses from Curaçoa—Prices of Dutch and English horses—Van der Donck’s description and size of horses—Horses to be branded—Stallions under fourteen hands not to run at large—Esopus horse—Surrender to the English, 1664—First organized racing—Dutch horses capable of improvement in speed—First advertised Subscription Plate—First restriction, contestants must “be bred in America”—Great racing and heavy betting—First importations of English running horses—Half-breds to the front—True foundation of American pedigrees—Half bushel of dollars on a side—Resolutions of the Continental Congress against racing—Withdrawal of Mr. James De Lancey—Pacing and trotting contests everywhere—Rip Van Dam’s horse and his cost.

For several years after Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the employ of the Dutch, discovered the harbor of New York and the great river which took his name, in the year 1609, there is uncertainty and doubt as to the nature of the settlement. For a time it seems to have been merely a trading post, occupied only by those in the employment of the company that owned it, and without many of the elements requisite to make up a permanent colony. At Fort Orange (Albany) and at Esopus (Kingston), the conditions were the same as at New Amsterdam, as New York was then named. The first party of immigrants that seemed to have the elements of permanent colonization about it arrived in 1625, and consisted of six families and several single men, making in all forty-five persons, with furniture, utensils, etc., and one hundred and three head of cattle. Doubtless some of these “cattle” were horses, and the general instead of the specific term was used in enumerating them. Very little is known of the early horse history of the New Netherlands, as the whole region was then named; there can be no doubt, however, that they increased and multiplied. Sometime, probably about 1643, a cargo or two of horses were brought up from Curaçoa and Azuba, in the Dutch West Indies, but the climatic change was too great for them, and they did not do well, being specially subject to diseases from which the Dutch horses seemed to have complete immunity. In 1647, Isaac Allerton, as agent, was authorized to sell twenty or twenty-five of these horses to Virginia, and whether the authorities were able thus to get clear of a bad investment does not appear from the existing records. In a report to the home company, made in 1650, I find the following prices were given at that time: A young mare with second foal, one hundred and fifty florins; stallion, four or five years old, one hundred and thirty florins; milch cow, one hundred florins. The same report makes a comparison by giving the prices of New England horses, as follows: A good mare one hundred to one hundred and twenty florins; stallion, one hundred florins; milch cow, sixty to seventy florins. Neither horses nor cows were then allowed to be shipped out of the province without permission of the council.

Adrien Van der Donck wrote a description of New Netherlands which was published 1656, in which he speaks of the horse stock as follows:

“The horses are of the proper breed for husbandry, having been brought from Utrecht for that purpose; and this stock has not diminished in size or quality. There are also horses of the English breed which are lighter, not so good for agricultural use, but fit for the saddle. These do not cost as much as the Netherlands breed and are easily obtained.”

From a large number of facts collected for the years 1777 and 1778 the horses then averaged about fourteen hands and one inch, and when compared with earlier data it is evident they had increased in height. In the gaits of those advertised, fifteen both paced and trotted, nine trotted only, and seven paced only. As this was in the period of the Revolution, and right in the center of hostilities, some allowance should be made for horses from other colonies.

The people of this colony, like those of all the others, branded their horses and turned them out to seek their own living in the summer season, and this resulted in many losses, and oftentimes in much bad feeling. The Dutch were not accustomed, in the “old country,” to building fences around their crops high enough and strong enough to keep out all the droves and herds of animals running at large. In the line of improvement and increase of size in their horses, they provided that all stallions running at large, of two years and nine months old, must be fourteen hands high or be castrated. This law was in force in 1734, and no doubt was effective. Among the many laws for the suppression of vice of different kinds, I find one prohibiting horse racing on Sunday, and from this we might infer that it was not forbidden on other days of the week.

In old newspapers, advertisements, etc., we sometimes come across “Esopus Horses, Esopus Mares,” and, for years, I was not able to tell what this term meant. The locality of Kingston was originally called Esopus, and in that neighborhood there were several farmers who bred horses largely, at an early day in the history of the colony, and the locality became famous for the character and quality of the horses produced there. They were of the best and purest Dutch blood, and for what we would call “all-purpose horses” their fame was very wide in that day. Hence I infer that the term “Esopus” was used to indicate what was considered the best type of Dutch horses. There is danger of going astray in the meaning of the term “Dutch horses,” as in later times it was applied to the great, massive draft horses of Pennsylvania. They were better “for agricultural purposes,” as Van der Donck puts it, than the Connecticut horses, because they were larger and stronger, but they were sprightly and active and some of them could run very well. They had a fine reputation in the adjoining colonies.

New Amsterdam, and consequently all the plantations in New Netherlands, surrendered to Colonel Nicolls, commanding the British forces, August 27, 1664. Colonel Nicolls remained as governor of the colony three or four years and until he was succeeded by Governor Lovelace. Among his early official acts, Governor Nicolls laid out a race course on Hempstead Plains, and named it Newmarket, after the famous course in England. No engineering or grading was necessary, as nature had already made a perfect course without stick or stone or other obstruction. The first race was run 1665, and although it was a long distance from the city, the presence of the governor gave the occasion prestige and there was a great gathering of the gentry from town, and the farmers of Long Island. These meetings were kept up annually by the appointment of succeeding governors, and after a time they were held twice a year, spring and fall. There are some very important facts about these races that are not known and probably never will be known, namely, who were the nominators and what breed of horses were entered in these contests. With these two essential facts left out the value of the information is greatly impaired. As it is known, however, that there were but two breeds or types of horses that could have been engaged in these contests, it becomes a matter of interest to reach a conclusion as to which were the victors. Mr. John Austin Stevens has done some very excellent work on this part of the horse history of New York, but I cannot agree with him in his characterization of the Dutch horses as being Flemish. They did not come from Flanders, but from Utrecht. They were not great unwieldy brutes, such as we would associate with Flanders, but hardy, compact animals that could make their way in the wilderness. Although larger, it does not follow that they could not run as fast or even faster than the New England ponies. All breeds of horses were very much smaller two hundred years ago than they are now. These races were instituted, evidently, for the improvement of the breed of horses in the colony, and the great majority of these horses were the descendants of the original stock brought from Utrecht. We must, therefore, conclude that they were not slow, heavy, unwieldy animals with no action, as the language of Mr. Stevens would seem to imply, but capable of improvement in the direction of speed. No doubt there were very many New England horses in the colony, “lighter and better adapted to the saddle,” but neither the interests nor the pride of the old Dutch settlers would have permitted them to support racing for a period of more than eighty years, unless the early Utrecht blood was represented. Besides this, the weights carried, one hundred and forty pounds, and the distance, generally two-mile heats, were conditions that were strongly against the New Englanders, even if they were lighter of foot. With these two breeds in the field, we may accept it as an inevitable sequence that the superior qualities of the one would very soon be engrafted on the other, and by this process of breeding, a better type would be produced than either of the originals. This first step was only a prelude to the next, and that again to the next, until the common, plain lesson was thoroughly learned, that if a running horse was wanted the way to get him was to breed to a running horse that had proved he was a running horse. The improvement became very wide and general, and occasionally an animal was produced with such phenomenal speed that he was barred from stakes and purses. On this foundation, and this alone, the running turf was built up and continued for about eighty years, with occasional intervals, when the gamblers made it so nasty that no decent people would go near it.

The first subscription plate race of which we have any trace is to be found in the New York Gazette, of September 27, 1736, of which the advertisement is given below. The course indicated is believed to have been on the Church Farm, west of Broadway, and not far from where the Astor House now stands. There is no account of what horses won, and all we know is just what is in the advertisement.

“On Wednesday, the 13th of October next, will be run for, on the course at New York, a plate of twenty pounds’ value, by any horse, mare or gelding, carrying ten stone (saddle and bridle included), the best of three heats, two miles each heat. Horses intended to run for the plate are to be entered the day before the race, with Francis Child, on Fresh Water Hill, paying a half pistole each, or at the post on the day of running, paying a pistole. And the next day being the 14th, will be run for, on the same course, by all or any of the horses that started for the twenty-pound plate (the winning horse excepted) the entrance money, on the conditions above. Proper judges will be named to determine any disputes that may arise. All persons on horseback or in chairs, coming into the field (the subscribers and winning horse only excepted) are to pay sixpence each to the owner of the grounds.”

Passing on to 1747 we find a duplication of the foregoing for the plate race of that year, with some variations. Entries are restricted to animals that never won a plate before “on this island,” and a horse named Parrot is not permitted to compete. This race was advertised to take place on the Church Farm. The next that I will notice is the advertisement of this same stake for 1751, when the weight was reduced to eight stone, and in addition to the usual exclusion of previous winners, we have for the first time a restriction of the entries to animals “bred in America.” At the May meeting at Hempstead Plains, the year following, 1752, the entries are again restricted to animals “bred in America.” From this, then, we are able to fix the precise period when English Race Horses were first brought to this colony. At this time there were two or three other courses on Manhattan Island, besides several noted speeding grounds on the roads and elsewhere, for the trotters and the pacers, of which no advertisements appear, and consequently no notice was taken by the newspaper press.

From about 1760 up to the time when the Revolutionary struggle began to engross and absorb all thought and all action, racing received a tremendous impetus, not only in this colony but in others. Ten or twelve years before this a very few rich men in Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina commenced importing English running-bred horses with great success, and Mr. James De Lancey and other rich men of this colony were only a year or two behind them. This fancy grew and spread until a great many breeders and planters of the richer class had imported stock of their own, while their less wealthy neighbors were well supplied with half-breds. These half-breds were, for a short time, classed by themselves and purses were offered and run for, restricted to this class. After experimenting with animals bred in this way it was found that not a few of them were able to hold their own in any company. Mr. Morris’ mare Strumpet was only half-bred, but she was able to beat many of the imported animals, as well as the full-breds that started against her. From this it would appear that breeding for speed for a hundred years had produced results in this country as well as in England. These experiments led many owners of old-fashioned stock to try it, and right there is where thousands and thousands of our best old American pedigrees end. The decade from 1750 to 1760 witnessed a complete transformation from the old methods to the new, from the old blood to the new, and more than all from the old managers to the new. During the next decade, from 1760 to 1770, the new blood came out in great strength, and the saturnalia of horse racing grew more and more furious. Purses of a hundred dollars, as in the olden time, sprang up to ten times that sum, and matches were made for sums that were fabulous in that day. One match, between Mr. Delaney of Maryland and Mr. De Lancey of New York, specified the consideration on each side as a half bushel of silver Mexican dollars, and the Marylander had the satisfaction of carrying home a bushel of silver dollars. The great struggle, in New York, for supremacy on the turf was between the De Lancey family and the Morris family. These two families had been bitter political rivals for years, and when they met on the turf it was for “blood.” The De Lanceys were Tories and the Morrises were Whigs, and this intensified the feeling that had so long existed between them. When the Continental Congress adopted that remarkable resolution, advising the people to abstain from horse racing, cock fighting, gambling and some other more slight offenses, on the grounds of “economy,” in view of the approaching conflict with the mother country, the effect was thrilling and electrical. Every man who loved his home and his country obeyed it. True, as I have said, it was drawn in the form of advice and in the interests of “economy,” but there was but one great evil, one great prodigality at which it was aimed, and that was the gambling connected with horse racing. It was well aimed and struck the bull’s eye. It came in the midst of preparations for the greatest race meetings ever then projected, but everything was dropped and there it lay through all the years of the bloody struggle and until peace again smiled upon a land of free men. Before avowed hostilities commenced, Mr. James De Lancey, one of the first and largest importers and breeders of his day, sold out every animal of the horse kind that he possessed and retired to England. Thus, as the colonial period drew to its close, the brave little colonial horse that had weathered the storms of a hundred winters and carried his master in safety and comfort through all that time, is superseded by another race, and no one has ever attempted to write even so much as his epitaph.

As the contests of speed considered, up to this point, have all been at the running gait, I must not close my review of this colony without giving some attention to the pacers and the trotters. At these gaits all sources of information are almost hopelessly barren of facts and incidents. We know that the running horses of the colonial period were the saddle horses of the country, and we know that the best and most fashionable saddle horses were pacers. When we connect these two facts and place them alongside of the pacing and trotting experiences of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, we have no difficulty in reaching the safe conclusion that the same conditions would produce the same results as in those two States. Pacing and trotting contests were just as frequent and as exciting in this colony as in any other, but they were sustained chiefly by road-house keepers and butchers, and were never advertised. Matches were made one hour and decided on the road in the next. In the “Annals of New York,” compiled and published in 1832, by John F. Watson, we find the following curious, but very valuable, scrap of horse history:

“Some twenty or thirty years before the Revolution, the steeds most prized for the saddle were pacers, since so odious deemed. To this end the breed was propagated with much care. The Narragansett pacers of Rhode Island were in such repute that they were sent for, at much trouble and expense, by some few who were choice in their selections. It may amuse the present generation to peruse the history of one such horse, spoken of in the letter of Rip Van Dam of New York, in the year of 1711, which I have seen. He states the fact of the trouble he had taken to procure him such a horse. He was shipped from Rhode Island in a sloop, from which he jumped overboard when under sail, and swam ashore to his former home. Having been brought back he arrived in New York, in thirteen days’ passage, much reduced in flesh and spirit. He cost thirty-two pounds and his freight fifty shillings. This writer, Rip Van Dam, was a great personage, he having been president of the Council in 1731, and on the death of Governor Montgomery that year, he was governor, ex-officio, of New York. His mural monument is now to be seen in St. Paul’s Church.”

As New England saddle horses were only worth forty dollars in 1650, and this horse cost more than four times as much, when horses were more plentiful, we must conclude that he was a fine specimen of the breed, and was, probably, bought for stock purposes. The date of this transaction is a significant fact that should not be forgotten, as 1711 is the same year in which the first of the two great founders of the English race horse, Darley Arabian, was brought to England.