Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-11-09
CONCERNING THE DAM OF ETHAN
ALLEN AND A. w. THOMSON'S
WORK THEREON,

Editor Register In recent issue of
the Manchester Mirror and Farmer APP
peared an article by A. w. Thomson
concerning the above-named mare. 1t
contained copies of letters from j. G.
Balloon of Gardner, Mass, and Jusrus B.
Rising of Ticonderoga. The latter, it
will be remembered, was three times in
terviewed by Mr. Battell and myself in
the fall of 1885. and the interviews were
published in the REGISTER the next win
ter. Mr.. Rising's statements were all
clear and consistent to the effect that he
saw and knew the gray mare that be-
came the dam of Ethan first in the
hands of his uncle, Rufus Rising, from
about 1885 to about 1887 and not earlier,
as he thought, than 1885; that he after
wards knew her in the hands of Warner
and William H. Cook and j. w. Hol-
comb; that he learned from the Cooks
that Warner Cook had her of George
johnson. In all these interviews Mr..
Rising, who is very candid and trust
worthy man, never intimated that he had
seen the mare earlier than 1885, which
date he carefully fixed by his own age at
the time and by the death of his father nor
did he suggest that he ever knew or heard
of her being in the hands of any other
person than Rufus Rising and George
johnson before Warner Cook had her.
The statement of F. A. Leland, that
this mare was bred by John Field of
Springfield, VT, foaled in 1880, and that
she passed through his Oelands) hands
to Rufus Rising in the early summer of
1885, fitted this testimony of Justus B.
Rising as key fits lock, and enabled
lis to give the full history of the mare
from birth to death without an interval.
The statement was also consistent, at all
points, with the great mass of testimony
that had been taken by us and published
two years before the statement was
made, as was pointed out in an article
by me in the REGISTER of May 20, 1887,
in which the interviews with Justus B,
Rising are quoted. 1t unfortunately hap
pened, however, that this discovery
threatened to demoish the reputation
as pedigree hunter of Mr.. Allen W.
Thomson of Woodstock and that being
the only reputation which that gentle
man seems to have had, he was naturally
put out about it. He had pinned his
faith to gray mare that one w. II. Bal
com gave away to one Ira Wallace in the
fall of lS4l, having owned her for some
five or six years previously. The fact
that the dam of Ethan was clearly proven
to have been in Warner Cooks hands as
early as 1889 did not shake Mr.. Thorn
sons faith; for he has abundant leisure,
and if person does not state exactly
what he desires, he writes letters to him in
that misspelled, pot-hook chirography OF
his until the witness becomes demented
The ugly circumstance respecting the
Balcom mare was that Balcom bred five
colts from her, and therefore (if Cook
had her in 1880 must have owned her as
early as 1884. Mr.. Thomson's task, then
was to make Justus B. Rising remember
that it was earlier than 1884 that he saw
the mare in possession of his uncle Ru-
fus, and that she passed through the
hands of Caleb Balloon and son, w. ii
Balcom, and Ira Wallace to Warner Cook
Nothing then would remain but the com
paratively simple task of sticking letters
into w. II. Balcom until he should re-
member that he gave the mare away in
1888 instead of 1871. Another trifle in
the way was that the Balloon mare wa;
badly hipped, and the dam of Ethan, a;
appeared by a weighty balance of testi
mony, was not hipped. Furthermore
the dam of Ethan was spawned and the
Balloon mare was not. Again, it was