1795, at the same place and the same price, when, as Mr. Van Ranst expressed it, “he took with our horsemen.”
1796, at Pine Plains, Dutchess County, N. Y., where he covered 106 mares at $30 the season.
1797, I have no advertisement for this year, but it is probable he was at the same place at the same price.
1798, at Pine Plains, as before, and the terms $30 for the season and $40 to insure.
1799, I have no definite trace of him this year, but there are some indications he was in West Jersey.
1800, for the spring season he is not located, but he made a fall season at John Stevens’ in Maidenhead, Hunterdon Co., N. J.
1801, at Goshen, Orange Co., N. Y., and I have seen the book account of expenses, etc., while he was there.
1802, at Cooper’s Ferry, opposite Philadelphia, Pa., but the price of services is not mentioned.
1803, at Townsend Cock’s, near Oyster Bay, Long Island, at $20 the season.
1804, at the same place and the same price.
1805, at Bishop Underhill’s, in Westchester Co., N. Y., fifteen miles from Harlem Bridge. Price reduced to $15.
1806, back again at Townsend Cock’s, and the terms fixed at $15 for the season, and $25 to insure.
1807, again at Bishop Underhill’s on the same terms as before, and this was the last of his twenty years’ stud services. It will be observed that the horse is located every year except two, and these locations are determined, not by tradition or hearsay, but by copies of his advertisements for each year. In giving the prices charged for his services I have given the value of the guinea or the pound as five dollars.
Messenger died January 28, 1808, in the stable of Townsend Cock, on Long Island, in his twenty-eighth year. This date has been as familiar to all intelligent horsemen for the last forty years as any prominent event in the history of the nation. The news of the death of the old patriarch spread with great rapidity, and soon the whole countryside was gathered to see the last of the king of horses and to assist at his burial. His grave was prepared at the foot of a chestnut-tree some distance in front of the house, and there he was deposited in his holiday clothing. In response to the consciousness that a hero was there laid away forever a military organization was extemporized, and volley after volley by platoons was fired over his grave. Some of the young men and boys who witnessed and participated in the ceremonies of the occasion were still living twenty years ago, and as they related the incidents of the occasion to me, their recollections seemed to be as clear and bright as though the occurrence had been of yesterday.