In the spring of 1861, as the nation balanced on the brink of the Civil War, a farmer from the Hudson Valley brought a pedigreed colt to his new home in the Cowanesque Valley of northern Pennsylvania. What were his intentions for the young stallion?
For the next three decades, the stallion was controlled by various members of the Wood family and passed from father to sons. From the Civil War through the Gilded Age and into the era of...