Steel Dust

Steel Dust. Settled 1852. , Among the stock brought to Texas by Jones, Greene and Middleton M. Perry, sons-in-law of Thomas McKee Ellis, was a yearly colt, nondescript in appearance except for lines which suggested to the two farmers and stockmen that he might develop into a good specimen of the quarter horse, then sometimes called a" Virginia" horse. In the spring of 1855 the two men settled on the E.L.R. Patton Survey, land purchased to augment their 640 acre allotments located nearby off the creek. The colt, which they named "Steel Dust," matured into a "Short" horse which by 1855 had beaten all neighborhood competition in the quarter mile races then popular on the Texas prairie. In that year he was taken to McKinney to be matched against Monmouth, the Collin County champion. Young Henry Ellis, his usual rider, was left at home, his devout Baptist mother refusing to let him ride on Sunday, the day of the match. Instead, black Tom McKnight, an Ellis slave, was selected as his jockey for the race, word of which was spreading throughout North Texas. A long line of supporters followed Steel Dust to McKinney, most of them prepared to bet all they had on the Lancaster horse. Monmouth supporters were similarly inclined, and when the McKinney betters ran out of cash their visitors readily covered their horses, saddles, bridles, and anything else they wanted to stake on Monmouth., Tom McKnight smeared Steer Dust's back and sides with blackstrap molasses to aid him sticking to the animal and, riding barefooted and barebacked, rode the Lancaster horse to clear win over Monmouth. Lancastrians took home nearly all the loose money in North Texas plus sundry other property., Later Steel Dust bested Brown Dick, a Hopkins County champion. Finally, in a match with Shiloh, owned by Jack Batchler on Bear Creek, he suffered an injury while plunging in the starting chute. Batchler collected his forfeit, and Steel Dust went completely blind from the effect of a splinter in his shoulder. He was at stud for many years thereafter. Jenny, usually called "The Denton Mare,' owned by Sam Bass, was a Steel Dust daughter. Today Steel Dust blood is claimed in nearly all lines of pedigreed "cutting" and “short" racing horses, including those from the King Ranch.