Theis Mares TMH 12-53

These pictures were with an article by Sumner Kean, "Back to New England", and is about the sale of the band of broodmares from Kansas to Cecil Ferguson's Rhode Island Morgan farm. The mares were not named in the photos.
Quotes from the article: "In one of the biggest Morgan sales in the history of the breed, Locke Theis of Dodge City has sold the popular stallion Panfield, 20 mares and a dozen weanlings to Mr & Mrs J Cecil Ferguson of Greene, RI. ... Theis, whose family has raised Morgans for generations is a cattleman, Morgan stallions on his big ranches are gelded for stock work. A rapidly growing band of mares was kept to produce these working horses and soon grew too big. Three years of drought and Mr Theis was forced to do something. So he advertised the whole band. ... I saw that band of mares in 1951 and rated them one of the finest collection of Morgan dams & fillies on the entire western trip. Good-headed with excellent necks, bodies and legs, they are a collective sight to move any Morgan lover. Theis has culled sharply every year, kept only the best and bred to the best available. The result is remarkable uniformity, chestnuts and light bays with a lot of light manes and tails. ... "

Ferguson kept many of the mares and sold others who went into many of the major Morgan breeding farms in New England of that time. They can be found behind many of today's Morgans.