Happy Friday! Here is your “Friday Flashback!”
A Lippitt Lore piece by Mant Horton
“The Billies”
When A. Fullerton Phillips started his quest for the original type of Morgan that is now referred to as Lippitt, he covered considerable ground before he finally found what he was seeking. His search started in Maine, then southern and eastern New Hampshire, on to western Vermont, and at last to northeastern Vermont. In this setting, he found the true Morgan working alongside his master still clearing fields, plowing snow, pulling a buggy, or pulling a stone boat to win a pint of ale for his master.
The Peters family of Bradford, Vermont used the Woodbury line and produced fine stock. The farmers farther north, however, inbred intensely to the colorful, energetic little Billy Root. According to D.C. Linsley, Billy Root was sired by Sherman and out of a mare by Justin Morgan. Because the line was so popular, more and more colts were also named Billy, such as Billy Boudette, Billy King, Billy Roberts, Billy Hoffman, and many others.
The strong Sherman breeding and the fact that Sherman’s stable name was Billy caused those early farmers of northern Vermont to call their own horses “Billies” rather than “Morgans.”
(From LCN Vol XXVI, Historical Issue, May/June 1998, p. 12. Drawing of Billy Root.)
