Hildreth

boldness. It is pre-eminently respectable. . . .
Mr. Hildreth is a republican, with a tendency,
the full strength of which he unconsciously dis-
guises from himself, toward socialism." In 1855
he published Japan as it Was and Is, which has
been several times reissued and was, for its day,
a good compilation of data. From 1855 to 1861
Hildreth was a contributor to the New York
Tribune. In 1861 he was appointed consul at
Trieste, where he served till ill health forced him
to resign in 1864. He died at Florence and was
buried in the Protestant graveyard, near Theo-
dore Parker.

In addition to the works already mentioned,
and a few other books of minor importance, Hil-
dreth wrote numerous controversial pamphlets,
dealing chiefly with slavery and abolition, tem-
perance, and banking. An estimate of him, ap-
parently written by a friend, says : "He took a
decisive part in several campaigns, and was al-
ways esteemed a powerful friend and a bitter and
formidable foe. Very decided in the utterance of
his opinions, vehement and caustic in contro-
versy ... he was not likely to receive full jus-
tice for the finer qualities of his mind and heart.
His intimate friends, however, recognized in him
a certain sweetness of nature that called forth
sympathy, and often love ; . . . and an inability
to harbor personal malice, that perhaps made
him unconscious of the force of his denunci-
ations" (New-England Historical and Gene-
alogical Register, January 1866, p. 80). He
seems to have had too little originality in ideas
or style to win for himself a great place in his-
tory, and his reputation is likely to remain simply
that of an active editor and writer whose com-
petence in historical craftsmanship saved him
from oblivion.

[The best list of Hildreth's writings is in Joseph
Sabin, A Diet, of Books Relating to America, vol. VIII
(1877). Brief sketches are in Nouvelle Biographie
Generate (1862-70) ; S. A. Allibone, A Critical Diet.
of Eng. Lit., vol. I (1858) ; E. A. and G. L. Duyckinck,
Cyc. of Am. Lit.f vol. II (rev. ed., 1875), See also his
own Origin and Geneal. of the Am. HUdreths, reprint-
ed from New-Eng* Hist, and Geneal. Reg., Jan. 1857;
Vital Records of Deerjield, Mass., to the Year 1850
(1920) ; Gen. Catalogue of the Officers and Students
of the Phillips Exeter Acad.f 1783-1903 (1903) ; New-
Eng. Hist, and Geneal Reg., Jan. 1866; Wm. T. Davis,
Bench and Bar of the Commonwealth of Mass. (1895),
vol. I ; F. L. Mott, A Hist, of Am. Magazines, 1741-1850

K.B.M.

HILDRETH, SAMUEL CLAY (May 16,
i866-Sept 24, 1929), turfman, was the son of
Vincent Hildreth, a roving owner of "quarter-
horses" who traveled about with his family in a
covered wagon in Missouri and adjacent states,
making match races and sometimes wagering al-
most everything he possessed on one of his run-

Hildreth

ners. "Sam," the youngest of ten children, was
born at Independence, Mo. Acting as rider and
groom of his father's horses and living with
horses as intimately as Arabs do, he learned the
art and mysteries of horsemanship in the dia-
mond-cut-diamond school of frontier horse rac-
ing, where cunning and strategy usually formed
the groundwork of success. In 1883 he began to
train for a Mr. Paris at Parsons, Kan., at the
same time working at the bar of his employer's
hotel. Later in Parsons he turned to blacksmith-
ing in the belief that he could earn more money
by shoeing horses than by training and racing
them. As a blacksmith he went to New York in
1887, but on seeing the golden opportunities there
which racing offered, he soon abandoned the
forge. His knowledge of farriery standing him in
good stead, he soon had conspicuous success as a
trainer. Operating chiefly on minor tracks where
speculation was active, Hildreth's ability in 1895
attracted the attention of E. J. Baldwin, who
engaged him to campaign a stable of superior
horses on metropolitan tracks. Thereafter, his
services were utilized by William C. Whitney,
Elmer E. Smathers, Charles Kohler, Baron
Maurice de Rothschild, August Belmont, and
Harry F. Sinclair, all of whom raced on a grand
scale. When not employed by others Hildreth
raced in his own colors, and in 1909, 1910, and
1911 headed the list of winning owners on the
American turf. Under his management Sin-
clair's Rancocas Stable repeated this rare
achievement by leading the list three years in
succession, ending in 1923. That year its earn-
ings were $438,849, then the largest amount ever
credited to any American stable in a single cam-
paign. Zev accounted for $272,008 of this
amount. He was officially chosen as the best
three-year-old in America to meet the English
Derby winner Papyrus in an international race
at Belmont Park, New York, in 1923, for a purse
of $80,000, which Zev won. Hildreth, however,
rated Purchase and Grey Lag first and second
respectively in worth among all the horses he
had trained. His success in bringing the latter
back to winning form after he was ten years old
and had been retired to the stud as a broken-
down race horse was one of many brilliant feats
which attested the seeming wizardry of Hil-
dreth's horsemanship. Another was the trans-
forming of Ocean Bound from a filly thought to
be hopelessly lame into a winner of the Spina-
way Stakes at Saratoga, within three weeks.
Knowledge of the horse's foot and how to shoe
it accounted for this memorable triumph. Infi-
nite pains on the part of the trainer and his help-
ers in caring for Grey Lag had much to do with

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