Spirit of the Times
I have lately received great satisfaction from hearing what appears to be a correct account of the origin of the Morgan Horses of Vermont; a breed known and esteemed for activity and hardiness throughout all the northern states; not remarkable for size, and scarcely known to sportsmen for speed. This race is perhaps as highly celebrated as any for general usefulness, and for such a degree of fleetness as entitles it to the appellation of fast traveller. Their height is from fourteen to fifteen hands, color bay, make round and heavy, with lean heads, broad and deep chests, the fore limbs set far apart, clean and sinewy legs, short strong backs, with that projection of the ribs from the spine which is a sure indication of powerful lungs, and consequently of great wind and bottom.
The original Morgan horse, called also the Goss horse, is very well known to have appeared in Randolph and in St. Johnsbury (Vt.), some forty years since, and to have been kept as a stallion, at first with but little, and subsequently with very great patronage, some five and twenty years, or until he was thirty years old or more. Various accounts are current as to his origin; many think it quite distinct from the Canadian breed of Norman French extraction, and consider the horse to have been of Dutch blood, and to have been introduced from some of the settlements on the Hudson river, southward of Albany. Stories are also told of a traveller's brood mare having got with foal by a Canadian or Indian pony at various places north and west, and having brought forth this horse; all these accounts are improbable, and appear to be unauthenticated.
For the last dozen years, being aware, both by observation and experiment, of the surprising results of crossing the Canadian with other breeds of horses, and having become acquainted with the vast variety and different qualities of various races in the Canadian breed, I have believed that the original Morgan horse was of French Canadian origin. This opinion being confirmed by the account here given, I am anxious to ascertain whether any one can prove it erroneous, and if not to make it public, that thousands of horses may be obtained in French Canada of the same blood, and not inferior in quality to the Morgan, whose existence added several thousand dollars to the wealth of Vermont.
GEO. BARNARD
Sherbrook, P.C. August, 1841.
[AFFIDAVIT]
I was about 13 years of age when the Morgan horse was first brought to St. Johnsbury, in Vermont, where my father lived. As I am now 50, it must have been about 1804. On the eve of the second Tuesday in June (for I well remember that the morrow was training day) I was at my father's house, and a man of the name of Abel Shorey, a skillful horseman of the neighborhood, was there also; when David Goss Jr., my cousin, then aged about seventeen, came up from his father's, distant about three-quarters of a mile, with a message to Shorey, requesting him to go to his father's (my Uncle David's) and trim a horse that uncle John Goss had just then brought over from Randolph, distant forty miles. I accompanied them, and at Uncle David's we found Uncle John from Randolph with a little heavy, handsome, active bay horse which he requested Shorey to trim, chiefly by pulling out and cutting the hairs of his tail, which appeared as if it had been gnawed by calves. Uncle John said he was a Canadian horse that he had just got from Justice Morgan of Randolph, who had lately brought him from Montreal. I afterwards frequently heard the manner of his purchasing the horse related in my father's and Uncle David's families, which was this:
Uncle John had lent Morgan the sum of forty dollars on occasion of the latter's going a journey to Montreal in Canada. Morgan obtained the horse, then four years old at Montreal, and being unable to repay the money on his return, disposed of him to Uncle John to pay the debt. Uncle John, who was no horseman, now brought him to his brother, my Uncle David, who was much of a horseman, in the hope that something might be made by keeping him for mares. I remember Shorey's calling him " a full blood French horse."
Uncle John Goss engaged Shorey to take the horse next day to training at Major Butler's, and there I saw him cover four mares. My uncle, David Goss, kept the horse through the season, working him on his farm, and putting him to the mares when they were brought; he also kept him through the next winter and the ensuing spring, when the foals were found to be universally excellent; Uncle John took him back to Randolph where he made his second season; the third season he was brought to St. Johnsbury, and stood at Uncle David's again. After this, I went to learn my trade, I cannot give so particular an account of the horse, but remember that he was kept several seasons in St. Johnsbury.
This and more to the same purpose may be attested to by David Goss Sen., Phillip Goss, Jr., Clark Stearns, Abel Shorey, Abel Butler and Thomas Pierce, all of St. Johnsbury.
JOHN STEARNS.
Sworn before me at Charleston Village, this 14th August, 1841.
DAVID CONNELL.
George Barnard
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