Merle D. Evans

Merle D. Evans first started breeding Morgans without using a prefix. Later he used the prefix Devan. His foundation Morgans were six from the Government Farm in Vermont and he later added the mostly Western Morgan, Hawk Jim. In the later years, his herd was tightly close bred, going back over and over to his foundation horses.
The photos below were taken by Sumner Kean on his 1951 trip.

Star hawk 9100

(Hawk Jim x Gorgeous) foaled 1944, photo taken 1951

This horse has a little different look from the ones posted below. He was retained by Evans and sired many for the Devan prefix. His sire had different lines from Evan's other horses. Hawk Jim was bred in Kansas, by Elmer Brown and his sire was Linsley. Linsley was by General Gates, while all Evan's other foundation Morgans got General Gates on the sire line thru his son Bennington. Linsley's dam was a western mare who ended up in Vermont and was by Headlight Morgan. Hawk Jim's dam was also bred by Elmer Brown and was of mostly the Old Midwest Family, being by Sparhawk and out of a Dude Hudson daughter.
In my opinion, Hawk Jim brought more elegance and correctness to Evan's program.

Captor 7789

(Mansfield x Narissa) foaled 1932, photo taken 1951

Over the years, I saw many Devan Morgans & Morgans who had at least one Devan parent. Many were very typey and lovely Morgans. Some were not. And some had very heavy necks. Captor was Merle D. Evans foundation stallion and most of the Devan horses had him at least once in the pedigree.

OCR 9099

(Captor x Roz) foaled 1941, photo taken 1951

King Captor 9551

(Captor x Tippy Tin) foaled 1946, photo taken 1951

Devan Mares

Over the many years that Merle Evans bred Morgans, he bred 100's of them. To have that many foals, one needs a lot of mare. He had them.

Dorthea Bar 06310 & Ellen Bar 07036

Dorthea Bar (Barberry x Dorothy DH)
Ellen Bar (Barberry x Elberty Linsley)
colt out of Ellen Bar
Chilocco Indian School, OK

colt at Chilocco Indian School

(Felix Lee x Elberta Linsley)

Bret Allen 9642

(Blackman x Bettina Allen)
on Roberts High Pass Ranch

Waer's Mona Lisa & Frieda Waer

Sumner Kean in Oklahoma

Find the Morgan!

more from Sumner Kean

More from his California ranch visits along with photos from his stopover at Merle Evan's Ohio farm.

Fleetwing 8884

(Captor x Gorgeous)
bred by Merle D Evans.

King Captor 9551

(Captor x Tippy Tin)
bred by Merle D Evans.

Roland Hill ranch

Roland Hill had ranches for his cattle in California and Nevada but his Morgans were at the central California ranch near Rocklin. Here are two scenes.

Roberts Ranch

Roberts had his ranch in extreme Southern California, near the Mexican border. The horses ran the hills, as shown in the right hand photo. His mares were shipped to the nearby Imperial Valley to graze on irrigated alfalfa fields, as shown in the left hand photo. He bred many good Western Working Family Morgans at his High Pass ranch.

More Sumner Kean photos

These were from his visit to California on his road trip, 1951.

Cavendish 10200 w/Eve Oakley

(Jubilee's Courage x Paragraph--Jubilee King)
foaled 1949, bred by Mrs. Frances Bryant, VT

Rex's Major Monte 9996 w/ Frank Waer

(Monte L x Lana)
foaled 1948

Jubilee Hawk 9820

(Flyhawk x Julara--Jubilee King)
foaled 1947, bred by Sam Doak, IL

Trilan 8666

(Katrilan x Clover Bud)
bred by Hearst-Sunical, CA
foaled 1942

Don Melody by Silver Dan

Sumner Kean & his Photos

All of yesterday's & today's photos were taken in 1951 by Sumner Kean, then editor of The Morgan Horse Magazine, on a trip he took thru the midwest & west to see Morgans.

Major RM 8011

(Romanesque x Dorothy DH)
1936, bred by Elmer Brown, Kansas
Joel C Jackson, up

Ken Carmen 7815

(Jubilee King x Heroda)
foaled 1932
Ira Mosher of Utah, up. The Mosher Bros. bred some good working Morgans. They ran a cattle ranch and needed stout working horses.

Steller 10009

(Mentor x Naiad)
foaled 1948

Abbott 7704

(Monterey x Klyona)
foaled 1930, bred by US Gov't Farm, VT

Colonel Battel 9337

(Monterey x Quadroon)
foaled 1945, bred by Thomas Adams, MT

Red Lass 06616

(Redman x Easter Lass)
foaled 1945, bred by Warren Halliday, CA

Star Gates 06908

(Agazizz x Jipsy L)
bred by Robert Tynan, Neb.

H. Monte Keno 10585

(Monte Leon x Belayr)
foaled 1948

Yearling colt by Nemaha Herod & out of Ella Gates

Plains King 7684

(Romanesque x Ella Linsley)
Bred by Heibert Bros. Kansas, foaled 1936.

His sire was bred by Richard Sellman, sold to Elmer Brown of Kansas and mostly sired for Brown. His dam was bred by Brown.
He never gained a lot of respect in the upper Midwest as many thought he was "coarse". Like his sire, he was a big, stout Morgan.

Plains King daughters

Just Buttons x-07190
Plains Beauty x-06841
Flyaway Queen x-06921

All sired by Plains King 7684
All out of Black Beauty [unreg] by Monterey

Don Hudson 9148

(Bar S Winterset x Mary RM)

Upwey Ben Prince x-9319

(Upwey King Benn x Upwey Princess [unreg]-- by Upwey Prince Tarik & out of UPwey Bess [pedigree untraced])

Ruthven's Beatrice Ann

(Cornwallis x Gill)
colt by Lippitt Moro Ash

Squire Skimp 9631

(Congo x May Burger)

Jenney Lake 06961 & Jubilee Joy 05767

Jenney Lake-- (Senator Graham x Monty)
Jubilee Joy-- (Flyhawk x Sentola)

Unnamed mares in Roy Brunk's pasture

from TMH, Aug. 1951

Kathleen C 05754

Payday 9208

Rita Pershing 07848

(Anndy Pershing x Senorita Morgan)

Last Day of Registry Volume 6

This is the last of the photos from Registry Volume 6. Tomorrow will start photos from August 1951 TMH

Wendy 05699

(Rosco Morgan x Easter Maid)

Victoria Czar 06565

(Chief of Chestnut x Deana Czar)

Willys 04623

(Bennington x Artemisia)
dam of 13 foals

Townshend Lass 04772

(John A. Darling x Gladwin)

Torchy 05622

sire--Mansfield
dam--Daisy of Willowmoor x-05826 by Troubadour of Willowmoor and out of Queen by an Arab, 2nd dam by Denning Allen 74

Compare to dam of Upwey Casssandra below.

Upwey Cassandra x-05153

Registered as Cassandra x-051533 in Reg. Vol. 5.
Sire--Mansfield
Dam--Daisy (unreg) by Troubadour of Willowmoor, out of mare by an Arab, 2nd dam by Denning Allen 74

Verran's Lassie 06683

(Lippitt Moro Ash x Ruthven's Polly Ann)

That Bad Penny 06846

(Pongerod x Dixie Doll)

Terra Alta 04440 & Rosemere 04354

Terra Alta--(Bennington x Eudora)
Rosemere--Bennington x Juno)

Daughters of Querido