Happy Friday! Here is your First Friday Flashback, a piece about Hale’s Green Mountain Morgan, provided by historian Betsy Curler. (Be sure to go watch the Green Mountain Standard Class at the upcoming Lippitt Country Show!)
“Green Mountain Morgan 42 (Hale’s)”
Noble Prentiss, native of Windsor County, Vermont, noted that many men born in that county became distinguished in their own right. But, he added that “the most famous living creature known in the traditions of the country was not a man, but a horse–‘Green Mountain Morgan,’ ancestor of a famous equine race which has made Vermont the Arabia of New England.” He was considered to be a fac simile of the founding progenitor of the Morgan breed, Justin Morgan.
Originally known as Young Woodbury, this dark chestnut stallion was foaled ca. 1832-1834. HIs sire was Gifford Morgan, son of Woodbury Morgan. His dam was a dark bay daughter of Woodbury Morgan and noted for her “great beauty and action.” Green Mountain was sold by George Bundy, Bethel, Vermont, at four months of age to Hiram Twitchell of the same town.
Twitchell kept him until four years of age and sold him to John Woodbury, also of Bethel, for $75. For the first two seasons that Woodbury owned him, the horse was managed by Daniel Cushing of Springfield, Vermont. While Woodbury owned him the horse was used extensively (and successfully) as a sire, primarily in the Bethel area.
After examining several offspring of Young Woodbury in the Bethel area, and finding them to be of excellent quality, Silas Hale of South Royalston, Massachusetts, purchased the stallion for $700 in 1842. Hale changed his name to Green Mountain Morgan and the horse spent the years under his ownership standing at stud in numerous locations in Vermont, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. His daughters and gelded sons generally sold for between $300 and $800; his entire sons for $800 to $1,200. There were several exceptions for which higher prices were received. Of his matured offspring, few sold for less than $200.
Green Mountain also had a career as a parade horse under militia officers and various other dignitaries throughout his life. He not only appeared in Vermont ceremonies, but is known to have participated in events in New Hampshire and Massachusetts also. Colonel Truman Ransom (1802-1847) rode him at least once during a county muster ca. 1835-1837. Ransom was appointed Vermont’s Major-General of Militia (1837-1844) and also served as president of Norwich University (1844-1846).
During the 1840’s, ridden by Colonel William Leberveaux, he was at the head of a militia parade, accompanied by his sire Gifford Morgan with Colonel Zebulon Converse up. an observer later commented that Green Mountain “made one think of the description of the [war] horse given by the inspired Job.” Yet another remarked: “There was no military line too long, no companies too scattered for the ‘Hale Horse’ to go up and down the line at a three minute, or a three minute and a half gait; or if the Colonel wanted to be one hour passing one company of soldiers, (especially the Royalston Grenadiers), the Colonel had only to make the request with a gentle pull on the bit, and the ‘Hale Horse’ would comply, with more style and spirit than I have ever seen since, and would do it from five a.m., until eight p.m. with one hundred seventy-five to two hundred and fifty pounds weight on him.”
Although Green Mountain was a reported 25 years of age in 1859, he was engaged for the use of Governor Nathaniel Banks of Massachusetts. An “old-fashioned” encampment of the Massachusetts militia was held in Concord, MA in September of that year. General John Wool, who made his mark during the Mexican War, was also present and proclaimed Green Mountain to be the “finest parade horse ever.” Other observers proclaimed that “his preeminent qualities as a parade horse excited the enthusiastic admiration of every beholder.” Green Mountain was consistently compared with the war horses described in Job 39:16 (of the Bible).
