Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1886-02-12
lContinucd.I
PEDIGREE HUNTlNC:
THE WRATH OF THE OLD GRAY
MARE
BEING A TRUE HISTORY OF THE DAM OF
ETHAN ALLEN.

we made the route again around by
lIoyt Johnson's, interviewing Mr..
Clark on the road, who, we were told, was
strong on pedigrees. Mr.. Clark said ::
warner Cook got this mare of George
johnson. She came from Ludlow, VT,
think. They came from there, think
and johnson brought her from there
Ethan was dropped when the mare was
Is"
Mrs. Rebecca Johnson, Oct. 2, said /.
81 don't think my father passed the
Green Mountains when he peddled. He
had brothers that lived in Reading, but
he did not go there when he was ped
ding. | was born jan, 1871 my brother
Franklin, Oct, 1913. When he got tossed
by the mare he was a little fellow MY
father bought 100 acres of Ackerman's
father and lived on that place till he was
past laboring. 1t is about mile towards
the lake from Sam Ackerman's. He
came up and bought the farm and work
ed on it year, then went back and got his
family Think old Mr.. Ackerman's name
was james; not sure. Father did not
peddle the first year after he moved here.
He began the second winter with small
gray mare, they called "a Dutch horse.
He used her till he snapped for the bay
mare. | know he traded in Vermont in
the winter; guess they snapped even.
II couldn't tell what they did with that
gray colt. recolect the colt. 1t
wasn't gray when born, but am
very sure became so. 1t wasn't so
very light nor so very dark gray. mid
ding. They must have kept it till it got
to be quite Il colt. don't know how old
The boys were numbering; they kept one
horse for father, to team around as he
was mind to. The boys would trade
horses and had different ones. NY old
est brother. Clark, was born in $500:
owned the farm next east of sam Acker-
mans. where my father died. He lived
there % or 30 years. He had two child
rem before | was married; was married
June. 1927.
tween him and Clark that died. Ira was
probably about four years younger than
Clark. Next brother was Franklin. two
years younger than | then Alvah. about
two years younger than Frank. That is
all the boys. | had two sisters; oldest
child "A sister, long dead; one sister liv-
ing near Bellows Falls. Franklin is
alive: his address is lie Mars. Plymouth
Co., Iowa.
The mare father got in Vermont was Il
bay mare, round bodied. not very large,
rather long-bodied: star or strip. not ON
the nose but below the eyes little
think. About common size. | used to
ride her horseback.
Il don't think father peddled any after
| was 10 years old. He did not peddle
for some time before my youngest sister
was born. She is 63 years old. She was
not born for quite while after he got
through peddling. don't think he ped
died more than two, three or four years.
He came in spring of 1915, and worked
during the summer, and in fall of the
same year he moved his family here He
did not peddle that winter, but did the
next, and two or three years more; think
not over. think it was three, but not
positive. | know before my sister was
born there had been some years that he
had not peddled. 1t must have been the
| las lae I,,t Int hA l.l
that he snapped horses. and got this
mare He would 90 and be gone a week
or ten days, and sometimes 90 twice in
the same winter. | don't recoliect of his
ever going out with the bay mare after lie
brought her home; that would show it
was the last year. If he had gone he
would have gone with her.
The one he got was the best traveller /;
the old one was chunky and logy; the
new one was more Spry. The bay mares
name was Nell. think he got her of
some one he knew who told her name
He may have got her of Judge Hand of
Shoreham. don't know. Clark married
first and left first, They would 90 driv-
ing; then they got married. | don't
think Clark took this bay mare. Don't
think the bay mare was alive when sam
Alderman went to live with Alvah Bev-
inS.
Father peddled with one horse; he
was not a very tall man; short, chunked
man rather, blue eyes and light hair /;
wore side whiskers. Was very pleas
ant"
We now drove around again by Sam
Ackerman's, entered the lot east of his
house by newish road that game before
long to the old road across one of these
large mountains to Horizon. There were
some woods at the top of this mountain,
and a short distance that had not been
numbered, but the numbering in this part
of the country is mostly finished. We
went by a small pond on the mountain