WINTHROP, OR MAINE MESSENGER.—Perhaps no son of Messenger, not excepting Hambletonian and Mambrino, produced a more marked effect upon the stock of any part of the country than this horse did in the State of Maine. The impress he there made was not only remarkable at the time, but it is still felt and acknowledged in his descendants to this day. There have been many conflicting statements made to the public about him and his history, but I think I am now able to give, in authentic and reliable form, all that is really known of his origin and history. He was foaled about 1807 and was among the last colts by the imported horse, but unfortunately we know nothing of the blood of his dam. Mr. Alvan Hayward, for many years a citizen of Kennebec County, Maine, but more recently of York, Livingston County, New York, says his dam possessed some imported blood; but as all his records and memoranda were burned up in 1845 he is not able to give the pedigree of the mare that produced him. Mr. Hayward bought the horse about 1817 or 1818, in the village of Paris, Oneida County, New York, of a man by the name of Rice or Wright, but did not remember which. He took him to Winthrop, Maine, where he was first known as “Messenger,” then as “Kennebec Messenger,” or “Winthrop Messenger,” and when he became old, as “Old Messenger.” The earliest contemporaneous account I have of this horse is his advertisement for the season of 1819, which I copy from the Hallowell _Gazette_ of May 12, of that year, and is as follows: “THE VALUABLE HORSE MESSENGER. “The subscriber hereby recommends to the public and all who feel interested to improve in the breed of good and serviceable horses, the good horse Messenger, that stock so well known and approved of on Long Island, New York, and Pennsylvania. Said horse was raised on Long Island, and owned by Mr. Rylander, a gentleman who has taken the greatest pains to import the best breed of horses that came to his knowledge. Said horse is a silver grey, well proportioned, of a large size, and a good traveler. Gentlemen who are desirous of raising good horses will do well to call and see for themselves. “The Messenger will stand for the most part of the time in the village at Withrop Mills. ALVAN HAYWARD. “Winthrop, May 1st, 1819.” From the foregoing it will be seen that the new element, brought out in the history of this horse is the statement that he was owned at one time by Mr. Rylander, of Long Island. There were two brothers of this name, and they imported a great many horses, but never before had I heard their names connected with Winthrop Messenger. This carries us back to a period in the history of the horse before he was taken to Oneida County.