Ethan Allen was one of the best horses of any age or clime. As a colt he was a family pet. "You couldn't get him by the window but that he would put his head in to get a piece of cake ", says Mrs. Holcomb. "Of all the horses that have been favorites with the American people, no one has ever approximated the popularity of Ethan Allen. His remarkable beauty, his wonderful speed, his perfect action, and, above all, his kind and gentle disposition, made him the admiration and the pet of everybody", writes Mr. Wallace (2 Wallace's Monthly, 456). "No one has ever raised a doubt as to his being the handsomest, finest-styled and most perfectly gaited trotter that has ever been produced", writes Mr. Parlin of the "American Cultivator". "Grand old horse! Others have beaten his time; a few others (and very few) have beaten his stud career, and other families have risen to greater popularity than his; but in all the course of trotting history no other stallion ever gained and held such wide-spread admiration from the people, or was ever so taken right to the public heart. What words can picture his grace of action, his perfect poise and animated glow! He carried the magic wand that commanded admiration. To see was to admire. They loved him for himself. Long after he shall have passed away, the brightest encomium that can be paid to the action of a trotting horse will be that he is gaited like old Ethan. That compasses all. It is the end of the law". (" Hark Cornstock" [Peter C. Kellogg ] in 1873.)

A half interest in Ethan Allen, when a colt, was sold to Orville S. Roe of Shoreham, Vermont, and during the earlier years of his life he was owned jointly by Holcomb and Roe. During these years he was kept for service mostly at Larrabee's Point, Shoreham, Vermont, and some seasons at Cambridge, Massachusetts; but he was used on the track, more or less, nearly or quite every season, trotting many races, the most of which he won. In 1862 he was sold to Frank Baker, who, after a time, sold him to Dan Mace and I. D. Walton. In 1866 he was purchased by J. E. Maynard of Boston, who sold him to Eph. Simmons, but afterwards bought him back, and again sold him, November 5th, 1868, to Wesley P. Balch of Boston, who in turn sold him to Col. H. S. Russell of Milton, Massachusetts. In 1866 and 1868 he was advertised to stand in Boston at one hundred dollars the season. In 1869 he was kept at Mystic Park, Medford, Massachusetts, at one hundred dollars the season, and in 1 870 at the same place at two hundred dollars the season. He was finally sold, October 17th, 1870, to Col. Amasa Sprague of Providence, Rhode Island, for seven thousand five hundred dollars. Col. Sprague kept him at Providence for a time and then sent him to the Sprague and Akers stock farm at Lawrence, Kansas, where he passed a serene old age in peace and comfort, and died on the 10th of September, 1876, in his twenty-eighth year. He was buried at the entrance of the trotting park, and there a suitable monument was erected to his memory. His skeleton was afterwards exhumed and now stands in the Museum of Natural History at Lawrence. Perhaps no other horse has ever done so much service both in the stud and on the track, the same seasons. It appears that all his trotters with fastest records, as well as all his most noted sires, were got during the period while he was kept at Shoreham. Born the same year as Rysdyk's Hambletonian, he sired up to 1872 a precisely equal number of 2:30 trotters; and it would appear not unlikely that had he staid upon the stock firm at Shoreham, as his great competitor did at Chester, and, like him, been used solely for stock purposes, he would now have to his credit as full a 2:30 list, and that many other such sires as Daniel Lambert, Holabird's Ethan Allen, DeLong's Ethan Allen, American Ethan, Bacon's Ethan Allen and Honest Allen, would have been left to fill the country with the finest race of roadsters and some of the fastest trotters known to the world.

All that was known of the origin of the dam of Ethan Allen prior to our investigations was that she was owned by Rufus Rising of Hague, New York, about 1835; that he said he got her in Vermont, and that she came from over the Green Mountains. After a long and expensive investigation we succeeded in tracing her to her breeder, and learning her entire history, which is this:

In the year 1834, Frederick A. Leland (until his death, in 1891, a substantial and reliable citizen of Middlebury, Vermont) was working for John Field, a farmer of Springfield, Windsor county, Vermont, and was present when Mr. Field bred his dark brown or black mare, known as the Burns mare, to the Moses G. Bates horse, Robin or Red Robin. This was frequently stated by Mr. Leland while living.

The produce, foaled in April, 1830, was a mouse-colored filly that became gray; Mr. Leland was the first to see the filly after she was foaled. Leland's time was out, and he went away the same April, and engaged in peddling, and returned to Mr. Field's when the filly was four years old, traded with Field for her and took her to a place he had in Sherburne, Vermont, where she was wintered the winter of 1834-5. In the spring following Mr. Leland took her over the mountain to Middlebury, put her in a new peddlar's wagon that he had made there, and drove her to Albany, New York, where he got a load of goods; drove from there to Fair Haven, Vermont, and there met I. C. Shaw, who was engaged with him in the business. Shaw took the gray mare and drove his route with her, which was along the lake, including, on the New York side, the towns of Hague, Schroon, etc. Leland, with another team, peddled on the Vermont side, and they came back and met at Whitehall, New York. Here the gray mare, a nervous animal, got frightened and ran away, doing no damage, but convincing Leland that she was not steady enough for that business. She was afraid of the bearskin that was used over the withers, so that it could not be used with her, and she was frightened whenever goods were taken from the cart. Thereupon Leland directed Shaw to sell or trade the mare; soon afterward he heard from Shaw that he had a customer for the mare, and a meeting was arranged at Apollos Austin's in Orwell. Leland went there, and the customer was introduced by Shaw as Rufus Rising of Hague; the mare was there traded to Rising for a gray gelding, and Rising took her away. This was early in July, 1835. The next year Mr. Rising was in Middlebury with the mare; Mr. Leland met him there and went to the stable of the Middlebury House and saw the mare. Leland was acquainted with J. W. Holcomb, and, in 1848, saw Holcomb with the gray mare at David Hill's, and saw the mare bred to Black Hawk. It had been talked over several times between Leland and Holcomb that he had the gray mare that Leland traded to Rising.

The above is the substance of Mr. Leland's statements as taken in his lifetime. It is remarkably corroborated in all its essential points by a large amount of evidence concerning the mare that we had gathered previous to meeting Mr. Leland.

Rufus Rising, a well-to-do farmer of Hague, took the mare home and kept her one or two years, and bred a colt from her; and then, at the place of Curtis Baleore in Hague (who also testifies to the fact), he sold her to George Johnson of Hague. Johnson kept her till the fall of 1838, when he sold her to Warner Cook of Hague for sixty-five dollars. George Johnson's brother, Hoyt Johnson, with whom we have talked, knew this mare from the time she was brought into Hague to the time of her death. The delivery from George Johnson to Warner Cook was made in the presence of Hoyt Johnson and his wife, Rebecca, and they both recollect it perfectly, and fix the date by the birth of one of their children that was born two or three months before. Mr. Cook, who was a man weighing two hundred pounds, used to ride the mare that fall, and Gustavus Wicker of Ticonderoga, who had a little trial of speed with him, says the mare would trot close to a three-minute gait with Cook on her back. The next season, Warner Cook, who lived near Lake George, sent the mare down to his son William H., who owned the present Rev. Joseph Cook place in Ticonderoga, and he used her until he sold his farm and moved back to his father's place to take charge of the old gentleman's affairs, in October, 1840, taking the mare with him. These facts are attested by Mrs. W. H. Cook, who is still living; by the record of the deed of the farm, and also by other witnesses. The mare was put to heavy work on a team and got a spavin, probably the next winter. She was put to breeding and produced in 1842, 1843 and 1844 three valuable colts by Young Sir Charles (Burge Horse), and was sold by William H. Cook, in the summer of 1844, to George Weed of Ticonderoga, with her last foal by her side, for fifty dollars, which was paid in boating. Weed kept her till fall, and swapped her to J. W. Holcomb. In 1845 she produced a bay filly by Young Sir Charles; in 1846, the black mare, Black Hawk Maid 2:37, by Black Hawk; in 1847, Red Leg (a gray colt with a red leg), a fast trotter, by Black Hawk; in 1848, a chestnut filly that died at three years, by Wicker's Sir Walter; in 1849, the bay colt Ethan Allen by Black Hawk; in 1850, missed to Black Hawk, having produced for eight consecutive years; and in 1851, died in foal to Black Hawk.

The following descriptions of this remarkable mare are given in the language of the persons named:

Hoyt Johnson, who knew her first when Rising had her, describes her at that time (1835) as "a small, low, thick-built mare, kind and good to work. She had good full mane and tail; was iron gray when I first knew her. She was a handsome mare, handsome made, round all over; good roadster; long hips; square behind; smooth, handsome limbs; not very long neck ".

Justus B. Rising of- Ticonderoga, a nephew of Rufus, who knew the mare at the same time and used to see her in his uncle's pasture (1837) with a colt by her side, says: "She was not a big mare; probably in good condition, ten hundred pounds. She was a regular jumper; couldn't keep her anywhere. She was a good-bodied mare, chunked; that is, there was a good deal of her; about medium height, good head and neck; a good traveler, never knew of her being fast, but active. She had good mane, and tail nearly down to the ground"

Azro M. Bailey, late of Ticonderoga, who long kept a livery stable, was a keen judge of a horse, and knew the mare from the time Warner Cook got her (1838), said: "She was not very large; would weigh nine hundred and fifty pounds in good flesh; pretty long body; pretty long, slim neck; carried her head up well. She was a screamer on the road. I once drove her to Weybridge, Vermont, by the side of a chestnut mare. I never drove a better team. I think this was in 1842. She was sound. She was full fifteen hands; pretty good chest; pretty broad; shoulder good; hind leg rather crooked; you would call her a little leggy. She had a very good back; long hip; legs rather fine, not heavy. She had a splendid ear, slim, thin, pretty good length, stuck them right up; handsome mane and tail, good length, but not what you would call heavy or bushy; long slim head, wide between the eyes; not a Roman nose, a mare-faced head, a little inclined to be dishing; a first-rate eye, large and bold-looking, a mare of great intelligence. She was as fine a roader as you ever sat behind; ambitious, full of vim all day long". Mrs. W. H. Cook describes her as a very spirited animal when they first had her, and so much afraid of a buffalo robe that it was difficult to drive her with one in the carriage. Mrs. Cook frequently drove the mare when her husband had her.

Rev. Joseph Cook, who is a son of William H. Cook, says: "She had a long hip, fine limbs, rather long neck, and was very graceful. She was neither slim nor stout; she was very docile and intelligent, rather nervous. She had the graceful shape of a high-blooded horse; she had the look of an aristocrat."

Concerning the origin of this Moses Bates horse, Robin or Red Robin, sire of the dam of Ethan Allen, the most searching investigation leaves us in doubt. Mr. F. A. Leland draws his picture thus: "Red Robin was as handsome a bay horse as ever you saw; a playful horse, supple as a fox; as handsome as Ethan Allen, who looked like him." Mr. A. Litchfield of Springfield, Vermont, who knew Robin well, says he was a round- made, nice, pretty, bay horse, not a large horse; would not weigh over ten hundred pounds, a beautiful horse; a nice traveler and a trotter. He was also a good draft horse, and they used to drive him on a team to Boston. He was about the size of Gifford Morgan; had a longer hip; a very pretty horse, with mane and tail about as near right as could be. Mr. Bates gave the horse to his son-in-law, James A. Grimes, who lived on the Field farm in Springfield. Mr. Litchfield has an impression that Robin came from the Gills. The Gills and the Bates were related. Thinks he may have been by a Gill horse.

Mr. Parker of Springfield, Vermont, born in 1811, says: "Robin was a Morgan-built horse, about fifteen hands; thick set; he had the go in him. If it had been the trotting days, he would have been a sporting horse; he went right to the ground, and carried his feet behind outside of his forward ones. My father raised a colt from him, that did wonders down country. Sold at a high price and became a trotter ". Mr. Parker thinks Moses Bates or the Gills raised Robin.

Mrs. Gill of Springfield, over ninety years old, remembered that previous to 1819 her husband's father, Amos Gill of Springfield, had two red horses, one, she thinks, a son of the other.

Mr. Howe of Springfield, an old gentleman, thinks Amos Gill had a stallion before he had Black Prince. He says that Robin was a full-grown horse, owned by Moses Bates, in 1820.

Abiaer Bisbee of Springfield, Vermont, says: "I think Moses Bates raised Robin, a small bay horse. When I first knew him, the horse was perhaps two years old. I was a boy then, ten or twelve. I was born in 1806. Mr. Bates kept him a number of years and used him as a stock horse. I should call him about nine or ten hundred pounds; a very pretty horse, not very thick set, not very slim; just about as good-shaped a horse as you could make him, and a good traveler ".

David Lockwood, Springfield, Vermont, says: "I went to live with Moses Bates when I was eleven years old; I was born March 7th, 1816. I lived with James A. Grimes, Moses Bates' son-in-law, the fall I was fourteen; Mr. Grimes had Robin in his possession the summer before. That winter after I was fourteen, 1830-31, Robin went to Shipton, Canada. Robin was about my age. He was a dark red, smooth and handsome as a dollar, about ten hundred pounds. He wasn't a tall horse, a good fair-sized horse, and a good-built horse. I am pretty sure Mr. Bates raised him from a colt and presume he was his when foaled. Have heard him tell of his running at the stack and getting the straw on him when he was a colt. Always called him old Robin. I should think he was of Morgan descent. He was a Morgan-shaped horse anyway".

George W. Morrison of Rockingham, Vermont, writes: "I knew very well the Robin horse, but cannot tell you much about him. Charles Sherwin of Weathersfield had a pair got by Robin that he sold to Parker of Ludlow for about four hundred dollars. Parker sold those horses to go South, for sixteen hundred dollars; a fine pair."

E. W. Bisbee of Moretown, Vermont, born at Springfield, Vermont, a gentleman of high character and intelligence, in a letter written us November 29th, 1891, thus describes Red Robin: "He was a good-looking horse, and a good-feeling one when in condition; a bright bay color, heavy black mane and tail, white hind feet and a star; long-bodied, and heavy, flat limbs; foaled 1816; weight, about ten hundred pounds, and fourteen and one-half hands high; a little sway-backed, but not so much as old Sherman. Is not that a good description of an old-time Morgan horse? It is correct. I find by the books that old Justin was owned, about that time, by Joel Goss of Claremont, New Hampshire, only about three or four miles from the Bates place. I give the age of the horse on the statement of Mr. Bates that the horse in 1830 was fourteen years old".

Mr. Bisbee, on another occasion, wrote: "I have investigated the matter, and come to the honest conclusion that he [Red Robin] was a son of old Justin Morgan". Mr. Bisbee writes again, November 22nd, 1892: "I knew Red Robin well from 1825 to 1830. Saw him often, and have a vivid impression at this distant day of how he looked and appeared. I am strong in the belief that he was of Morgan blood, foaled about the year 1816 and sired by the celebrated old Justin Morgan horse ".

We have given the substance of all the evidence which we have been able to get relative to the history of Red Robin. It is probable that he was foaled in 1816, and that he came into the hands of Moses Bates before 1820. Possibly Moses Bates bred him. It is more probable that Amos Gill was the breeder. At best, his breeder and breeding are purely matter of conjecture; but the opinion of Mr. Bisbee, who knew him well, that he was by the Justin Morgan, is very probably correct. It certainly is sustained by the character and appearance of the horse, and by the fact that the original Morgan horse stood near where he was begotten, and not improbably included in his circuit the town of Springfield itself, in 1815, the year that Robin is supposed to have been bred.

Ethan Allen was capable of great bursts of speed. Darius Tallman, the eminent New York horseman, says: "He could outspeed at the score even Flora Temple herself ."

Gen. U. S. Grant, when making his tour, in 1874, after enjoying a ride behind Ethan Allen, commissioned Mr. Akers to buy two brood mares and breed them to him.

One of the most graphic sketches of Ethan Allen ever written was by John H. Wallace, then editor of the "American Trotting Register ", and published in "Wallace's Monthly" of April, 1877. The parts of the article describing the horse and his most famous victory are here given entire:

"On the 21st of June, 1867, on the Fashion course, it was my good fortune to witness the crowning event of his life. Some three weeks before, Ethan, with a running mate, had beaten Brown George and running mate in very fast time, scoring one heat in 2:19. This made horsemen open their eyes, and there at once arose a difference of opinion about the advantage to the trotter of having a runner hitched with him, to pull the weight. This resulted in a match for twenty-five hundred dollars a side, to trot Ethan and running mate against Dexter, who was then considered invincible. As the day approached, the betting was about even; but the evening before the race, word came from the course that Ethan's running mate had fallen lame, and could not go, but they would try to get Brown George's running mate, then in Connecticut, to take the place of the lame runner. As the horses were strangers to each other, it was justly concluded the change gave Dexter a great advantage, and the betting at once changed from even to two to one on Dexter. Long before noon the crowd began to assemble, and sporting men everywhere were shaking rolls of greenbacks over their heads, shouting, 'Two to one on Dexter'. I met a friend from Chicago, who sometimes speculates a little, and when he told me he was betting 'two to one on Dexter', I took the liberty of advising him to be cautious, for I thought the team would win the race, and that its backers knew what they were doing. Before the hour arrived, I secured a seat on the ladies' stand, from which every foot of the course and the countless multitude of people could be taken in at a glance. The vehicles were simply incalculable, and the people were like a vast sea. The multitude was esti mated at forty thousand!

"Upon the arrival of the hour, the judges ascended the stand, and rang up the horses, when the backers of the team came forward, explained the mishap that had befallen the runner, that they had Brown George's mate on the ground, but, as he and Ethan had never been hitched together, they were unwilling to risk so large a sum, and closed the race by paying one thousand two hundred and fifty dollars forfeit. When this announcement was made, there was a general murmur that spread, step by step, through all the vast multitude. The betting fraternity were just where they started, and every spectator realized a feeling of disgust at the whole management. As soon as this had had time to exert its intended effect upon the crowd, the backers of the team came forward again, and, expressing their unwillingness to have the people go away dissatisfied, proposed a little match of two hundred and fifty dollars a side, which was promptly accepted by the Dexter party; and when it was known that there would be a race after all, the shout of the multitude was like the voice of many waters. This being a new race, the betting men had to commence again. The surroundings of the pool stands were packed with an eager and excited crowd, anxious to get on their money at two, and, rather than miss, at three to one on Dexter. The work of the auctioneers was 'short, sharp, and decisive', and the tickets were away up in the hundreds, and oftentimes in the thousands. But the pool stands did not seem to accommodate more than a small fraction of those anxious to invest, and in all directions, in the surging crowd, hands were in the air, filled with rolls of greenbacks, and shouting, 'two to one on Dexter'! I was curious to note what became of these noisy offers, and I soon observed that a quiet-looking man came along, took all one party had to invest, and then quietly went to another of the shouters, and then another, and so on, till I think every one who had money to invest at that rate was accommodated. The amount of money bet was enormous, no doubt aggregating a quarter of a million in a few minutes.

"When the horses appeared upon the track to warm up for the race, Dexter, driven by the accomplished reinsman, Budd Doble, was greeted with a shout of applause. Soon the team appeared, and behind it sat the great master of trotting tactics, Dan Mace. His face, which has so often been a puzzle to thousands, had no mask over it on this occasion. It spoke only that intense earnestness that indicates the near approach of a supreme moment. The team was hitched to a light skeleton wagon; Ethan wore breeching, and beside him was a great, strong race-horse, fit to run for a man's life. His traces were long enough to fully extend himself, but they were so much shorter than Ethan's that he had to take the weight. Dexter drew the inside, and on the first trial they got the 'send-off', without either one having six inches the advantage. When they got the word, the flight of speed was absolutely terrific, so far beyond anything I had ever witnessed in a trotting horse that I felt the hair rising on my head. The running horse was next to me, and, notwithstanding my elevation, Ethan was stretched out so near the ground that I could see nothing of him but his ears. I fully believe that for several rods at this point they were going at a two-minute gait.

"It was impossible that this terrible pace could be maintained long, and just before reaching the first turn, Dexter's head began to swim, and the team passed him, and took the track, reaching the first quarter pole in thirty-two seconds, with Dexter three or four lengths behind. The same lightning speed was kept up through the second quarter, reaching the half-mile pole in 1:04, with Dexter still farther in the rear. Mace then took a pull on his team, and came home a winner by six or eight lengths, in 2:15. When this time was put on the blackboard, the response of the multitude was like the roar of old ocean. Although some distance away, through the second quarter of this heat, I had a fair, unobstructed side-view of the stallion and of his action, when going at the lightning rate of 2:08 to the mile. I could not observe that he received the slightest degree of propulsion from the running horse; and my conviction was then, and is now, that any such propulsion would have interfered with his own unapproachable action, and would have retarded, rather than helped him. The most noticeable feature in his style of movement was the remarkable lowness to which he dropped his body, and the straight gliding line it maintained at that elevation.

"The team now had the inside, and in the first attempt they were started for the second heat, but they did not appear to me to be going as fast as the first heat. Before they had gone many rods Ethan lost his stride, and Dexter took the track at the very spot where he had lost it in the first heat. The team soon got to work, and, near the beginning of the second quarter, collared Dexter, but the stallion broke soon after, and fell back, not yards nor lengths, but rods, before he caught. Incredible as it may seem, when he again got his feet he put on such a burst of speed as to overhaul the flying Dexter in the third quarter, when he broke again, and Mace had to pull him nearly to a standstill before he recovered. Dexter was now a full distance ahead, and the heat appeared to be his beyond all peradventure. I was watching the team in its troubles very closely, and my idea of the distance lost was the result of a deliberate and careful estimate at the moment; and the query in my mind then was, whether the team could save its distance. At last the old horse struck his gait, and it was like a dart from a catapult, or a ball from a rifle. The team not only saved its distance, but beat Dexter home, five or six lengths, in 2:16.

"In the third heat Mace had it all his own way throughout, coming home the winner of the race in 2:19. The backers of Dexter, up to the very last, placed great reliance on his well-known staying qualities; but the last heat showed that the terrible struggle had told upon him more distressingly than on the team. It is said by those who timed Dexter privately that he trotted the three heats in 2:17, 2:18, 2:21.

"If ever there was an honest race trotted, this was one, but there was such a specimen of sharp diplomacy, of ' diamond cut diamond ', in the preliminaries, as is seldom witnessed, even on a race course. It is not probable that Ethan's intended running mate fell amiss at all, the evening before, as represented; and if she did, it was not possible to send to Connecticut for another horse, and have him there early the morning of the race, as was pretended. This was a mere ruse put out to get the advantage of the long odds. The backers of the team knew just how the horses would work and knew they had speed enough to beat any horse on earth. When the race was called, and they came forward and paid forfeit, it was merely to give the 'two-to-one-on-Dexter' money encouragement to come out. It did come out most vociferously, and was all quietly taken. It was said John Morrissey was the manager-in-chief, and that his share of the winnings amounted to about forty thousand dollars.

"After witnessing the second heat, and studying it carefully, I am firmly of the opinion the team could have gone the first heat in 2:12 if it had been necessary."