. Breeder and sportsman. Horses. June, 1918] THE BREEDER AND SPORTSMAN U ST. CLAIR, THE FORTY-NINER By W. H. Gocher In 1849, when the call of the gold turned the world's mind towards California and lured thou- sands from their Eastern homes across the isthmus or over the plains on horseback or under the can- vas of a prairie schooner, St. Clair, the subject of this sketch, was six years old and eating his fodder in a stable near Springfield, 111. He was a dark brown horse with the usual tan markings, about fifteen and a half hands high, and weighed a trifle over a thousand pounds in fair condi
. Breeder and sportsman. Horses. June, 1918] THE BREEDER AND SPORTSMAN U ST. CLAIR, THE FORTY-NINER By W. H. Gocher In 1849, when the call of the gold turned the world's mind towards California and lured thou- sands from their Eastern homes across the isthmus or over the plains on horseback or under the can- vas of a prairie schooner, St. Clair, the subject of this sketch, was six years old and eating his fodder in a stable near Springfield, 111. He was a dark brown horse with the usual tan markings, about fifteen and a half hands high, and weighed a trifle over a thousand pounds in fair condition. When the gold fever rolled along the banks of the Sangamon River, the breeder of St. Clair gave the horse to one of his sons, before he moved away to- ward the setting sun to seek his fortune in the Sac- ramento Valley. From that day all trace of the horse was lost, while even the name of his breeder as well as the name of the man who drove him in the lead of an ox-team into the town now known as Placerville, Cal., in the fall of 1S49, is unknown. The only link connecting the gallant pacer that founded a little racing family in the gold country with the prairies of Illinois is an old man's repeti- tion of a conversation on a street in Sacramento in 1853, when Peter Roberts, who at that time owned St. Clair and was working him in a dray, was stop- ped by a stranger, who said he brought the horse to California. Roberts made a memorandum of what the stranger said in regard to the history and the breeding of St. Clair, but it was burned before anyone interested in the light harness horse made an inquiry in regard to it. This made St. Clair an unknown quantity in his little world, which was limited to Sacramento and that vicinity until he was in 1864, like his pedigree, destroyed by fire. The above is all that will ever be known of the early career of St. Clair, a name that was also tacked on to him late in life by a pedigree maker, who, after favoring him with an inheritance
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjecthorses, bookyear1882
