north there were the Stevenson family and the Walker family that were equally proud of their stock. They took a great deal of pride in their livestock and in their land, and most of them made their living farming. In elaborating on these fine people, Mr. Brantley pointed out that even the youngsters wore ties a lot. There wasn’ t a Walking Horse breed as such in those days but the horses had lineage of which the area farmers were proud. The names of those horses were based on their lineage and the heritage of such stock as the COPPERBOTTOMS( doubtless a roan line), the HALS, the STONEWALLS and the MT. SLASHERS came up frequently. In discussing these early horses, Mr. Brantley said, " These were inbred Standardbred horses,” as he pondered the development of the natural walking gait in Tennessee.
One of the most interesting facets of the development of the Tennessee Walking Horse was the recognition of the " gait.” With this in mind, I asked Mr. Brantley who first really recognized that the running walk, which BLACK ALLAN did so well, was a different gait. Scratching his head, he smiled and said, " Why, my father... J. R. Brantley. He was first drawn to the gait because it’ s all that the black horse wanted to do. He could really go in the running walk, too!" With this fact established, we set about the business of getting the real story about BLACK ALLAN.
BLACK ALLAN, registered as ALLAN F-l, was foaled in 1886 and died in 1910, at age twenty-four.
The contribution that he made to this breed is well known. His selection as the number-one foundation horse was not too difficult, as most people agreed that the distinct walking gait came from him. The next most popular horses, with regard to ancestry and the contribution that they had made to the proposed breed, were the GRAY JOHNS. As a matter of record we will insert previously documented information about the history of ALLAN F-l so that there will be no confusion as to the background and life of this famous horse. He was bred by E. D. Herr in Lexington, Kentucky, who later sold him and his dam to George H. Ely of Elyria, Ohio. As a young horse, ALLAN was trained as a trotter, but he preferred to pace and his owner returned him to Kentucky to be sold at auction. John P. Mankin of Murfreesboro, Tennessee purchased him on February 12, ' 891 and paid $ 355.00 for him.( Editor’ s Note: J. R. Brantley and J. French Brantley were the first to substantiate the complete details of ALLAN F-l’ s life.) The story, as told by French Brantley, relates that Mr. Mankin sent his son and a neighbor to Lexington for ALLAN, and they brought him back via rail in a boxcar with another horse, perhaps COL. HOOK ER, known as " TONY.” Both horses were unloaded at the railroad station at Rucker, near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Mr. Tom McKaig, one of the most expert blacksmiths and farriers in Tennessee, recalls that he soon had ALLAN shod as Mr. Mankin directed, and that he was ready for the half-mile track on Mr. Mankin’ s big farm in the immediate community. Mr. J. E. McDonald, and indeed he was a most reliable horseand trainer, states by letter that he drove ALr on the track from March through September of
1. ALLAN made very creditable showings in speed under the care of Mr. McDonald.
Again, ALLAN was unfortunate. When he was in Ohio, his own brother, ELYRIA, over-shadowed him in size and speed as a trotter, and now in his new home in Tennessee, across the road from Mr. Mankin’ s farm, was the well-known BONNIE NUTWOOD, that had been purchased in Lexington a year or two previous for $ 1750.00. He had a mark of 2:291 / 2- Other Standardbred horses around Murfreesboro with reputations for speed and as breeders were well and favorably known, also liberally patronized by owners of the best brood mares, so the " little black pacer” was again unfortunate in not attracting attention commensurate with his good blood lines.
The late Dr. Giltner of Murfreesboro, a great horse trainer and judge in his day, sent us a letter from Estill Springs in 1940, a short time before his death, attesting that he drove ALLAN for ninety days, and while he was speedy, as all handlers, owners, and trainers reported, he did not finish well in a hard drive, and that he was returned to Mr. Mankin for use as a breeding stallion.
While there, a few mares came to his court which were not the type to produce outstanding pacers or trotters, or horses for saddle. No one seemed much concerned at this time about a natural pacer, and certainly this was the gait of ALLAN. He was a small horse, beautiful in all lines, with wonderful conformation. He produced a daughter that seemed to have good speed, and it was said of her that she was one of the best walkers known in the entire section. However she died before being fully developed.
It was here that ALLAN started on his trading career, having attracted very little attention for speed, or as a sire. We would naturally assume that he sold at low prices, as there was no demand for such a horse in competition with many established and proven sires of that immediate section.
He was first sold about the year 1898 to a neighbor of Mr. Mankin’ s, Mr. Bennett Goodlow, who owned him until the winter of 1900, when ALLAN was sold again at Mr. Goodlow’ s Public Sale to a Mr. West Orrin, of an adjoining county, for $ 97.50. Mr. Orrin kept him at stud through the breeding season in 1900, and traded him in the spring of 1901 to R. L. Ashley, Manchester, Tennessee. His pedigree was stated then, as now, and
the bargain price of this transaction was a black yearling filly, a black Jersey heifer, and a $ 20.00 bill, a
total value of approximately $ 80.00. Mr. Orrin afterwards told the buyer, Mr. Ashley, that he traded AL LAN because his neighbors would not breed their mares to him.
He was kept by Mr. Ashley in 1901 at a stud fee of $ 5.00. He produced a few good colts, notably a black mare, ALINE, and a pacer out of an IDLE BOY dam, and ALMONIA, a trotter, with his dam a FISHER MAN mare. This mare seemed speedy for her training, as well as others of his get, but this particular individual was destroyed in the Stokley Jacobs barn fire.
Again ALLAN was the unfortunate, and that fall he was traded for a black jack to Dr. J. M. Price, of Manchester.
Dr. Price traded him to Ben Dunn at Hillsboro, in Coffee County, for a work mule. Mr. Dunn owned AL LAN for the 1902 season, but no records of his production have been found.
90 Voice of the Tennessee Walking Horse