Purchased by John B Decker in 1853 from a hat peddler and, taken with the mare's even temperament, had bred her to Alexander's Abdallah (formerly known as Edsell's Hambeletonian) in the hopes of producing a fine farm colt. Alexander's Abdallah was also a grandson of Abdallah, which meant that Maid was very inbred in her male lineage. While Old Ab may have been gentle and even tempered, her first foal was a wild, fiery tempered filly that was quite taken with jumping and crashing through Decker's fences and running through the corn fields of his neighbors. The filly was Goldsmith Maid.