220 THE MORGAN HORSE 



So it will be seen that the dam of Gifford Morgan was almost 

 certainly a high-bred mare tracing to some of the very best of the 

 early imported thoroughbred stock. 



I. D. Davis, Barnard, Vermont, says: "The dam of Gifford 

 Morgan I knew well. She was a nice-appearing mare. I should 

 say looked like the Morgans; a pretty fair specimen of a Morgan 

 mare". 



Gifford Morgan was purchased when coming four by Ira Cool- 

 idge, Barnard, Vermont, who kept him three or four years at Bar- 

 nard. Mr. Gifford then took him back. His transfers thereafter 

 were: To Russell Topliff, Barnard, Vermont, March 1 7th, 1840; to 

 Lyman Stewart, in 1844; to F. A. Weir, Walpole, New Hampshire, 

 in 1846; to a stock company, at Walpole, for two thousand dollars. 

 He died October 3Oth, 1850, at Walpole. He was kept also several 

 seasons at Woodstock, Vermont. He was in Addison county, Ver- 

 mont, for a number of seasons (the first probably as early as 1830), 

 part of the time being in New Haven in charge of Ira Gifford, brother of 

 Ziba, and part of the time at Middlebury in charge of Joshua Bal- 

 lard and later of Joshua Scott. He was also for three seasons kept 

 by James Whitcomb at Stockbridge, Hancock and Bethel, Ver- 

 mont. In 1836 or 1837 ne was at Warren, Vermont. While in 

 New York, he was in Washington county, and left quite a number of 

 excellent stallions there. 



Justin Morgan, Jr., speaking of his father's horse, says : " Those 

 who have seen the Gifford Morgan will have a very correct idea of 

 the size, shape, style and action of the Morgan horse, as the resem- 

 blance between them is very close, not only in those particulars, but 

 in most except color. The stock of the Gifford Morgan, with 

 which I have always been well acquainted, is very similar to that of 

 the original horse". 



Mr. Linsley says : " His style and motion were much admired, 

 and he was a favorite parade horse. He has left some excellent 

 stock". 



Gifford Morgan was shown at the New York State fair in 1847. 

 The "Albany Cultivator", in its account of the fair, says: "The 

 Old Gifford Morgan paraded in the van of the cavalcade with all 

 the fine action and gaiety of a horse of six instead of twenty-three 

 years". 



Mr. Gardner Wirslow, Pomfret, Vermont, writes: "I have 

 ridden Gifford. What a good one he was; his were staying colts, 

 better than Green Mountain's. I have had both. I shall never see 



