Horse, p.40
Horse,
p.40
John Benjamin Pryor, 1812–1890
A slaveholder (of as many as twenty-seven individuals) and a leading racehorse trainer, Pryor was employed for a time by the prominent Mississippi politician Adam Lewis Bingaman. He is widely credited with Lexington’s successful races at Metairie, although at least one of the two occasions on which Lexington injured himself—the colic incident—occurred when the horse was under his supervision. In 1881 he gave an account of the incident in a letter to The Kentucky Livestock Record in which he called Lexington “undoubtedly the best racehorse that ever was foaled.” Like Ten Broeck, Pryor went to England during the Civil War. He lived there with his wife, Frances, who was Black and probably one of Adam Bingaman’s daughters. He trained horses at Chesterfield House in Cambridgeshire and Roden House in Berkshire. He wrote: “I have seen all the best horses run here for five years and seen them run all distances, and feel sure, without prejudice, that Lexington was superior to all horses in England or any other country.” When they returned to the United States in 1872, the family settled in New Jersey, where at least four of his sons also pursued careers as trainers.
Thomas J. Scott, born Tullytown, Pennsylvania, c. 1831, died Lexington, Kentucky, 1888
A pharmacy graduate, Scott became an itinerant thoroughbred painter known for incorporating insights into the horse’s personality in his portraits. He also worked as a regular correspondent for the newspapers Turf, Field and Farm, and the Kentucky Livestock Record. During the Civil War he served as a hospital steward in Company E, 21st Infantry Regiment, Kentucky Volunteers: 218 men from the regiment were lost; 152 died of disease. In Washington in 1878, Scott visited Lexington’s skeleton at the Smithsonian. He noted several anatomical inaccuracies and wrote: For the benefit of Mr. A. H. Ward, of Rochester, N.Y., who prepared and mounted the skeleton of Lexington, I would suggest that, as a useful guide, he should always obtain an accurate description of the living animal from those familiar with the form. Scott married late, in 1871. Though they had four children, Scott and his wife lived together only intermittently, as Scott resumed his itinerant career just three months after the wedding.
Edward Troye, born Switzerland, 1808, died Georgetown, Kentucky, 1874
Troye, the preeminent horse portraitist of his era, taught Scott drawing and painting in the mid-1850s and the two remained close colleagues.
Willa Viley, 1788–1865
Viley was a captain in the War of 1812, a farmer, a thoroughbred breeder, and the first president of the Lexington Racing Association. With his brother-in-law, Junius Ward, he was part of the syndicate that purchased Darley from Dr. Warfield. His son Warren had a farm near Woodburn, and Viley was captured there by Quantrill’s raiders and rescued only after a harrowing chase and gun battle.
Elisha Warfield Jr., born Anne Arundel County, Maryland, 1781, died Lexington, Kentucky, 1859
Warfield was named by Thoroughbred Heritage as “one of the most important early figures in Kentucky racing and breeding” and was a founder of the Lexington Jockey Club. A businessman, farmer, medical practitioner, and professor of surgery and obstetrics, he delivered Mary Todd Lincoln. In 1945, his stud farm, the Meadows, became a residential subdivision of that name in the Lexington suburbs. His graceful sixteen-room brick mansion was razed in 1960.
About the Author
Geraldine Brooks is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel March and the international bestsellers The Secret Chord, Caleb’s Crossing, People of the Book, and Year of Wonders. She has also written the acclaimed nonfiction works Nine Parts of Desire and Foreign Correspondence. Born and raised in Australia, Brooks lives in Massachusetts.
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Geraldine Brooks, Horse
