Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1894-10-12
VERMONT MORGANS.
100 Miles in Day Over New
England Roads.

An Old Timers Reoollections---A Mid
winter Ride from Bellows Falls to
Somerset.
The first Morgan of my remembrance
was a chestnut mare sCant 10 hands and
weighing about 900 pounds. She was one
of span driven by DR.. Pierce of Straf-
ford, VT, on visit to his wife's relatives
at Templeton, Mass, some time about 1886
and traded to my father, who kept her for
ten years or more. This was the first
horse | ever sat. She would hold down
her head so l could halter her in
the pasture and stand up by the stone wall
for me to climb on her back. She was
round as an apple, and with me clingng
to her name she stepped with gentleness
so l should not slide off Could she go?
When my father held the reins, hitched to
Concord wagon or chaise, she was in the
lead. l have rid len her to pillow corn
Tempeton is flush 80 miles from Boston
and was the home of the Hon. Artemus
Lee, who always kept the best of road
horses. For pastime as well as the money
there was in it, my father melted wild
pigeons and sold them at Faneuil hall mar
ket. The net would be sprung in the
morning, the pigeons dressed during the
day, and Just as evening came on they
would be loaded on the wagon and the
mares head turned oceanward. At day
light the following morning only the Gus
tom-house would be between the mare and
"Long Wharf" The load sold, he went
over to Cambridge and after breakfast be-
gan the home trip. Suffice it to say she fed
in her own pasture and drank of the wa
ter of Otter river that night This 100
mile journey, performed inside of "A hours,
was made several times in season, ac-
cording to luck had with the ''crop of pig
cons" Grass fed? The mare fed in the
summer with the yoke of oxen. A lane
connected that pasture with the barnyard,
and she came to the barn, whether she
worked or not, every day to get her two
quarts of oats.
AS the years went on and grew up"
as boys will, my father sometimes criticised
me for driving too hard When inquired,
seeking for a precedent to justify myself,
if he di not think the drives he gave old
Doll on the returns from Boston were
rather hard ones, he replied: "My son, |
did not drive her hard. She wanted to 90
home to mother and the children, and l
let her take her own gait" Doll was a nat
ural roadster, a granddaughter of Bull
Rush Morgan.
Some time about the year 1854 it became
necessary to procure for prominent cti-
zen, whose liberty was in jeopardy on ac-
count of the false testimony that was
brought against him in the court of com
mon pleas being held at the old court
house in the city of Worcester, Mass, the
presence of certain witnesses. When
conrt adjourned on Saturday afternoon |
was deputed to seek these witnesses, who
lived in the town of Somerset, VT, and Sc
cure their attendance at court on Tuesday
morning. Midnight found me by railroad
at the Island House, Bellows Falls. Sun
day morning | called at the livery stable of
Charles Town, between whose knees |, as
an eight-year-od boy, had often sat, be-
lieving l was driving his four horses as
they sped down the hill into Fitzwilliam
village, and told him of the necessity fol-
nv having a good horse. 1t was winter
the drifts were high, and | had got &c
plunge into the mountains after left New
fame Charley loaned me his fur overcoat
: and gloves, hitched to the cutter black
mare, II hands high, weight $50 pounds,
remarking as the hitching up process wen
on: George, this is one of your father!
, kind. When you leave the river road low
er the check line so if she founders in th,
, snow she can have her head, and if you
are as attentive to the mare as you used Il
be when | was teaching you to drive stag
9 horses you will be back tonight all RICH
n and | will set up for you until 10 o clock.
The mercury stood at about 10' abov
q zero all day. The mare went like bird
| rested her at Newfane, and rested my
self by walking up to the COURTEOUS
=, there and looking at the portrait of tn
! great lawyer, S. h. Brady, and pushed on
N The mare never faltered nor tired, an
~ having secured the promised attendance a
= court of the parties | sought, | was bac
at Newfane for supper Toward night
m grew colder; the wind swept the mountai
', heights: the snow whirled thick in III
- keen air, but over the drifts went the littl
mare, never making mistake in her foo
- ing. and seemingly as cheerful as in til
morning. When she got to SaXtOn's Ri'
er. and she realized that she was nearin
u home, with a smooth road and no MOI
III drifts, she expressed her joy at the journt
st nearly done by sharp Whitney, and wit
u uplfled head struck a sharper trot.
re found Mr. Town waiting for me at 9:a
IS o'clock p. NJ | was half an hour ahead
10 the time allotted. | had driven not an inc
Oh less than 100 miles. My mission had bee
le successful. | "fet good" and up at IL
p Island House, despite the Maine law, Cha
lev and l drank "hot flip" with repea
= What of the mare? | called on her Il
next morning before the train left, and 81
was as fine as silk. Why shouldn't 81
be? She was a daughter of Clifford Mo