On Research, and When Enough is Enough

A good friend of mine recently sent me an article he wrote for Grub Street, a Boston-based writing workshop, about research. He is, like me, a historian and researcher and wanted to provide some useful tips for those who might want to write stories but had no academic background in digging into sources.

I wrote back to him that if he was thinking of writing more, I'd love a musing on when "enough is enough." He asked for clarification and got this essay in return, which I thought I'd cross-post here as it's applicable.

So here's what I'm grappling with at the moment.

I'm working on researching the history of the first Morgan horse, a stallion named Figure. There have been sketchy histories done of him in the past, but nothing substantive, with true primary source research.

Figure was in Vermont from approximately 1792 - 1819. He had upwards of a dozen owners during that time, in over half a dozen distinct different parts of the state.

I have in my mind the idea to go to each of the places where we know Figure was and look for journals, diaries, and letters dated within a few years of that time, and read through them ALL to see if any mention this strange horse. I could also do the same for newspaper accounts during his lifetime.

Even more specifically, there's a story that in 1817, when James Monroe visited Vermont as part of his Era of Good Feelings tour, he rode Figure in a parade in Montpelier. There's one published source about the visit; it doesn't mention the horse. But surely there are letters, diaries, etc., remembering the president's visit to Vermont. Would one of them be the original source for this story? Would one of them have mentioned that the president was given Justin Morgan's horse to ride? Those accounts could potentially be located all over the state.

Is it worth it to read every single word? Is it worth it to track down every source that could possibly have bearing on the topic you're researching, especially when it's statewide? Or do you hit a tipping point when you have enough evidence to support your thesis and tell your story and doing even more research than that clutters it? Is it just fun to read 8 million things even if they don't necessarily have strict bearing on it?

I think that this problem becomes more seductive the more you know and understand about history and good primary source research. As you learn to do a close reading of the sources you see how themes can track through contemporary accounts that might not even have anything to do with your primary subject. (Would a farmer's account of how he uses his workhorses be useful to illustrate the world that Figure lived in? Would 10 farmers accounts yield a sort of average lived experience for a workhorse in Vermont? How about reading 100 accounts in order to find the perfect encapsulating quote?)

So, when do you draw that line without going completely insane/wasting your time/never finishing your project?

James Monroe's Visit to Vermont in 1817: One Source

One of the oft-repeated set pieces of Figure's story is that in 1817, while he belonged to Samuel Stone of Montpelier, he served as a parade mount for President James Monroe.

First things first. James Monroe visited Montpelier, and in fact the entire state of Vermont, as part of a general tour of the northern states of the US shortly after becoming president. (By "northern states" at this time we basically are to read New England.) He spent 15 weeks touring, following a tradition apparently begun by George Washington. He had won the election in a landslide, and his two terms in office were marked by strong one-party control. He was enormously popular, and riding a wave of national optimism that was coined the "Era of Good Feelings." In fact, the phrase came about following an early stop on his northern tour, a stay in Boston.

James Monroe, c. 1819

So, what of his visit to Vermont? I have a lot to dig up to see what the original source to this story is, and therefore whether to lend it credence or not.

One good source that speaks generally about Monroe's New England tour in 1817 is a pamphlet written by Samuel Putnam Waldo and published in 1819. Titled "The Tour of James Monroe, President of the United States, Through the Northern and Eastern States, in 1817: His Tour in the Year 1818; Together with a Sketch of His Life; with Descriptive and Historical Notices of the Principal Places Through which He Passed" (yes, really) it is an exhaustive and lengthy treatise of where the president spent each hour of each day on his trip, and even what he had for breakfast. Thus it is that according to this pamphlet we can track Monroe's movements in Montpelier on July 22, 1817.

At 10, he was met and welcomed by the Committee of Arrangements, at Mr. Stiles' in Berlin. The procession was then formed, under direction of the Marshals, and proceeded to Montpelier.

A little before 11, a discharge of artillery announced the near approach of the Chief Magistrate of the nation. On entering the village, he alighted from his carriage, and proceeded with the cavalcade, on horseback, to the Academy, through the Main-street, lined one each side by citizens, under direction of Joseph Howes, Esq. Returning to the head of State Street, the President dismounted, was received by the First Light Company, commanded by Lieut. E. P. Walton, and conducted to the State House under a national salute from the Washington Artillery. 

Monroe never gets on a horse again. In fact, our friend Waldo is careful to say that he walked among the people with an uncovered head. At the end of his visit, he gets back into a carriage and continues on to Burlington.

No mention at all of a special horse that he rode during this very brief (one mile? two?) procession. This from the same author who makes sure to note that lunch that day was a "cold collation provided with admirable taste and elegance." Every notable person in Montpelier who gave a speech or commanded a militia company was mentioned. No Samuel Stone. No specific horse. This pamphlet is about as good as sources get. So where does the story come from?

Next steps: newspaper and diary accounts at the time.

(Waldo's pamphlet has been scanned and is available online through Google Books; the trip to Montpelier is on pages 240 - 244.)

Questions: Myth and Legend and the American Dream

One of the primary questions for me about Figure's story is how much actual documentation we have. Quite frankly, it's not a lot - mostly tangential, hearsay, reported years after the fact. So far, the contemporary documentary trail is thin on the ground. (Though of course I do hope to uncover some new sources during my work.)

In the absence of that primary source evidence, a series of legends have grown up around the story of Figure, and what fascinates me particularly is trying to parse them out from history.

For example: There are several different and conflicting stories about Figure's breeding, with some later sources (mostly gathered by Linsley or Battell) that claim him to be a Dutch horse or a Canadian horse. Some have interpreted that to mean, variously, Friesian, Cheval Candien, or some other heavier breeds that might help to explain the physical traits that were clearly passed on down the line.

The story that interests me the most, however, is the one that has Figure sired by a Thoroughbred stallion named True Briton.

True Briton, the story goes, was the prized cavalry horse of Captain James Delancey, Loyalist officer during the American Revolution and member of the New York Delanceys, a family of immense power and wealth in colonial America. True Briton is supposed to have been stolen out from under Delancey's nose and spirited off to Connecticut, where he was re-named Beautiful Bay. (Delancey later got his comeuppance when he was forced to flee to Canada after the Revolution.)

Justin Morgan, who made part of his living as a stallioneer (ie, he leased and stood stallions to collect breeding fees) is supposed to have stood Beautiful Bay at stud for a few years, and during that time bred him to a mare he owned of indeterminate breeding. By the time the foal Figure was born, the mare was out of Morgan's possession. Morgan came to own Figure again some years later.

The more I think about this origin story, the more it fascinates me. So much of the story of Figure and the first Morgan horses is tied up in the twinned ideas of the American frontier and American exceptionalism. Figure was by this re-telling a true all-American, born out of the Revolution, fathered by a British stallion of impeccable breeding, who belonged to a wealthy landowner, and foaled by a scrappy mare of unknown breeding. He was an amalgam, a true American blend of pedigree and grit. He would go on to sire a line of horses who become closely identified with American history, from their service as cavalry mounts in the Civil War to their role in opening the American West.

This story of Figure as all-American gets particular play in fictional accounts of his life, in particular Marguerite Henry's Justin Morgan Had a Horse, which ends as follows:

"Well, the schoolmaster and Farmer Beane both be dead now," Joel said, restoring the piece of evergreen to the horse's headstall, "and likely nobody will ever know who was this fellow's sire and who was his dam. He was just a little work horse that cleared the fields and did what was asked of him."

Joel's face suddenly lit up as if he had thought of something for the first time. He spoke now to the horse, as though he were the one that mattered. "Why, come to think of it, you're just like us, Bub. You're American! That's what you are. American!"

It's a neat narrative trope for Henry, who after all made her living transforming equine history into young adult books, many of which had similar themes about the horses who made made America. But it appears in other sources - Eleanor Waring Burnham's Justin Morgan, Founder of His Race: The Romantic History of a Horse, and explicitly or implicitly this storyline is repeated in nearly every other article or history of Figure.

Figure, American original, has become such a hard-wired narrative that any history of his life will have to navigate it and to deconstruct it. It becomes crucially important, then, to look at the various stories of his origins and see when they came on to the scene, and by whom they were repeated. As my research continues, I'll do just that.

Introducing the Project

I've always been fascinated by horse stories through history, and though I make my living as an historian, I've never felt the itch to dig into a particular story myself.

Since I moved (back) to Vermont in 2012, that itch has been slowly growing as I read and researched and grounded myself in the Green Mountain state's history.

I've been doing quiet background reading for some time now, and I'm ready to officially launch this project on this blog.

I'm going to research the story of the first Morgan horse, Figure. So many talented people have written so much about him, but the deeper and more closely I read, the more amazed I am at how little analysis, research, and historiography has been applied to the sources about his life. There is no single, overall, scholarly history, and I'd like to see if I can do one.

In subsequent posts, I'll examine some of the questions that fascinate me about Figure's story, which is so tied up in American history, Vermont history, equine history, genetics, politics, myth, legend, and some really basic questions about how humans interact with horses.

In the meantime: welcome! Please feel free to contact me at any time by leaving a comment on a post.