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A Locality of Interest to all Lovers of Horse History—The ‘Jonas Shankine Farm at Maybrook Junction—The Sale of Dexter—is Breeding—A Mother of Trotters. The village off Maybrook at the junction of the Orange County rail road with the P. P. and B. road, is located on a site interesting to lovers of horse history. It is the Jonas Hawkins farm, where were foaled Shark, Dexter, Dictator, Kearsarge and others known to fame, and was the life long home of the great brood mare Clara. Clara was badly hurt when she was a year old. At that age she start ed one day, in company with another colt,to run up a lane toward the barn across which was a bar, and, in attempting to jump over this, she tripped, turned a somersault, fell on her back and “hipped ” herself; yet this never seemed to interfere with her speed, when afterwards boken for no horse could pass her on the road, when driven to and from Mont gomery to school by Jonathan and Cornelius, the sons of her owner. She however always had trouble from this cause in foaling her colts, and it was necesssary to watch and assist her at such times. On the street running east from the railroad crossing, by the old farm house, at that time the only road there, Dexter was shown to George B. Alley, the day he purchased him. The colt was not well enough broken to be exhibited in harness, and so was let loose on the highway, with a couple of men at each end of the level stretch to turn him and incite him to trot. ‘This he did so effectualy that Mr. Alley paid a big price for him, because of his royal breeding and his splendid action. A few hypercritical horsemen still insist that Dexter was by Harry Clay, basing their assertions mostly on the fact that he had Clay color and four white legs; but Jonas Hawkins and his sons said and say, that Hamble tonian not only was his sire but the only possible sire. As to the color and marks, his dam, Clara, was black with white legs, a most unus ual color for the get of American star; and her dam, the McKin stry mare, was brown, Dexter’s col or, and marked with four white legs, as he was. She undoubtedly possessed great individuality, as shown in her influence on her off spring for several generations. She was presented to the wife of Jonas Hawkins at her marriage, as a wedding gift from her father, and was a faithful servant of the family for many years, and is now known as the mother of a famous line of trotters. Her breeding was unknown and cannot now be traced, but on the au thority of the rule “by their fruits ye shall know them,”’ she must have been ‘‘ of noble birth.”
Newspaper Details
Middletown Daily Argus
Middletown, New York, US
Fri, Aug 05, 1892
Page 8
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
NY, USA 18 Feb 2026
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