BigGameHoundsmen.com

I've got a book that Haiden Trigg wrote back in the late 1800's. Lots of good stuff in there if you are a hound dogger. I can type some of his letters up if you care to read them. Here's one:

Weatherford, Texas, Jan. 16, 1895

H. C. Trigg,
Dear sir: You ask for my opinion in regard to your breed of fox hounds as compared to other fox hounds. Well, I have been running your dogs for the last four or five years, have run them after fox, wolf, deer, and wild cat, and have run the best dogs in my country and will say that the Trigg dogs were always in the lead and stayed to the finish. They have good nose and mouth and are dead game when they catch a wolf, in fact I regard them the best dogs in the world. And in regard to Jim, the dog we got from you, I think he was the best dog that ever went to the woods. One fall and winter he caught and I got, twenty three foxes, seventeen wolves, three deer and one cat, the best record I ever knew a dog to have.

Your friends,
D. Cullum
W. J. Morton

Weatherford, Texas, Jan. 1, 1895

H. C. Trigg,
Dear Sir:
I have just returned from a deer hunt and found your letter awaiting me, and was glad to hear from you as I have often wanted to correspond about your dogs for I think they are the fastest in the South. The little bitch, Maud, I have is the fastest dog I ever saw and is a stayer. Her breeding is as Mr. Couts wrote. You spoke of the last dog you sold the boys at Weatherford, Jim. I ran him and he was a grand dog. He is dead now; a wolf killed him up at Mineral Wells, about twenty-five miles from Weatherford. Write me what is your fastest dog and your price on him. Will be glad to hear from you.

Very truly, C. M. Miller

"These dogs were called "Irish hounds" by Dr. Henry. Mr. Birdsong insisted they be known as the "Henry hounds", but they became famous as the Birdsong strain. Since the importation of the dog "July" and the death of Mr. Birdsong they have been called indiscriminately the "July hound".
Haiden Trigg

Here's one from Dr. Henry, where it all got started:

Quincy Fla., -----15, 1867
Dear Sir: Yours of the 9th inst. to hand, and I reply at once. I have had a stroke of paralysis which incapacitates me for writing, being compelled to use my left hand. I consider my dogs without peer. They have been bred with as much scrupulousness and exactness as the race horse of England. Your Birdsong is the dog. I am the originator of them. First bred them in Virginia twenty-four years ago, from pure parent stock and a judiciuos system afterwords of selecting and crossing until I am of the opinion they are nearly perfection. I hunted them in Virginia two years, against all comers and never found the first dog that could live with them in a red fox chase and come out alive. The same thing can be said by Mr. Birdsong, to whom I gave the pack twenty-one years ago. I see from the last "Turf, Field and Farm" that at the great match race at Oil Springs, held in November last, that "the celebrated Birdsong dogs owned by Mr. H. C. Trigg, of Glasgow, Kentucky, exibited game and speed". That coming from a Madison man is a compliment. There are no fox hounds anywhere to be found can speed or stay with these dogs. Should I ever vist Kentucky I shall certainly accept your invitation and call and see you.

Respectfully yours,
T. Y. Henry

History of any hound lends insight. You cannot accurately plan your future or current breeding without knowledge of a breeds development and past. Most often this is overlooked as people seldom realize our job is to maintain and improve not create. Unless a true and distinct need is apparent. even then history is a great guide of the do's and don't s

Pegleg,

I just read this Thread to Dad.

He said to say "AMEN" to your Post and to leave it at that!

C. John Clay
Dads Dogboy

George Birdsong was a good writer, his letters are full of information. Unfortunately for me, they are also long. I have a lot more practice cleaning kennels and training dogs than I do typing, and I need to get busy with my day job

I will try to get some of the Birdsong letters on here along with some form the Walkers and Maupins if you are interested.

Thanks CJ. I'm interested in the history of a hound or two. I can read hound history for days on end. Now the industrial revolution about two seconds

I am very interested. Post some more when you get time.

Great Stuff
I will look forward to reading the rest of the story

Riverbottom, I believe that a scanner and some simple cut and paste skills would ease your pain. You have some valuable historical info there. Much appreciated.

Keep in mind when reading these that the civil war lasted until 1865. It's a wonder these hounds survived let alone shaped a new breed of American fox hound.

Thomaston, Ga., April 23, 1867

H. C. Trigg, Esq.,

Dear Sir; Yours of the 8th inst., duly received and I avail myself of the earliest opportunity of replying. I have selected two of the oldest puppies for you and can send you a very superior young dog three years old for $100. He is a thoroughbred of my full stock, well broke and reliable. A good strike dog, has a good nose and is a very rapid and superior trailer, distinguished for taking off a track when lost. His speed among my dogs is only medium, though when running on a moderately high scent it takes a very fast dog to lead him. He seems to run as fast by scent as by sight. He is a dog of great bottom and endurance, a dog of never tiring energy and perseverance. Indeed he has too much in him. His mouth on a trail is tolerable good and he uses it free enough. When he first scents he will whimper and squeal a few times; after this his mouth is full and tolerably coarse. When running at full speed his mouth is a clear loud long shrill note. He is a tall, lean raw-boned dog, and very poor at this time, so much so I dislike to send him to you.. His health is good, but he is such a restless inveterate hunter that I can not keep him in condition on the scant allowance I am compelled to mete out to my dogs during the summer months in these times of famine. He goes to the hunting ground by himself about twice a week and runs an old red fox to his burrow. I have given you a fair description of the dog, George. You will find him as represented. If you want him send me a check on New York for the whole amount $150.

My dogs are thoroughbred fox-hounds and pursue the fox instinctively as a pointer will sit or pause at the scent of his first bird. You will find puppies I send you to be well broke and reliable on the first drag of a red fox that they scent. If they do not take the first drag or they quit to pursue any other kind of game I will refund the money you paid for them. Since you have sent me an order for them I feel free to say more in their praise than I should have done. I never have to break my dogs. All that is necessary is to take them out early on the ground where the foxes are. They will soon know all about the habits of the fox. My dogs prefer the scent of the red fox to that of any other game, and a few of them become very indifferent to a gray fox after running a red. I prefer to let my young dogs run rabbits about the farm until they are two years old before entering them for a red fox. They take to it just as readily, and they last much longer by it. I could send you some dogs, crosses on my stock belonging to my friends, for from twenty-five to fifty dollars, but they are aged and second rate. I could not recommend them as red fox dogs, but are good gray fox dogs. You will find the gray fox will disappear after the reds establish themselves firmly, and you had better prepare for them. To become a successful red fox hunter you must divest yourself of all old-time prejudices. Hunting red foxes and catching red foxes is two things. Anyone can hunt them. You can’t sit with your leg over the pommel of your saddle and hear your dogs run in a briar thicket for half an hour, and the pack that dwells upon the drag or goes back to take a second scent to assure themselves that the game is about will never be again so near a red fox as they were at the start.

The red fox is a very wild cowardly animal. He trusts nothing to cunning, but everything to heels. He will get up as far ahead of the hounds as possible and continue to distance his pursuers until he gets far enough ahead to maintain his advantage at his natural gait, which is a long leap. If permitted to pursue his own gait, the d---l couldn’t catch him, for he can run a week. To overcome the advantage in favor always of the pursued, you must have dogs that will push ahead on a faint scent, and make quick and rapid casts ahead on the line of chase and speed enough, with a good high scent, to push the fox to his utmost rate of speed, and then if your hounds have got the bottom and endurance to keep him up to his rate he is bound to strike his flag to them in from sixty minutes to two hours. When you have got speed it becomes then a question of endurance: without speed the test can not be applied. I have never seen one of the old-fashioned stag hounds with their deep, mellow, long toned mouths that had speed to cope with the red fox, and I have learned to love the short chops of the more speedy fox hounds. It sounds like success, and I had rather glimpse a flying pack at break-neck speed than to sit half a day and listen to the slow drolling notes of a slow pack.

The pleasure of the chase is not in the pursuit with me; ‘tis the catch at the finale that overflows my cup. Having successfully pursued red foxes for the last twenty years, I venture these remarks to you. Commencing life with a shattered and feeble constitution, I feel indebted to fox hunting for a long lease on life, and hope it may be the means of restoring you to health.
Hoping to hear from you soon, I am
Very respectfully,
G. L. Birdsong.

P. S. I enclose a letter to show you how my dogs are prized here. I sold Longstreet for $200 in a lot of others. After he was sold, Dr. Sterling, of Legrange, wrote to buy him. I wrote to Mr. Ward he could sell Longstreet at a profit and here you have his laconic reply.
Yours, etc.,
G. L. F. B.


Cuthbert, GA., March 1, 1867

To G. L. F. Birdsong, Esq.,
My Dear Friend: I send you this evening $500. I hope you will receive it.

Tell the gentleman whom you spoke of buying Longstreet that he will never have money enough to buy him from me.

Your friend,
A. G. Ward

Very nice! if only the current hounds people had their minds made as firmly, and the honesty to describe ALL of their hounds traits as they see them. Not worried about what others may say of the very traits they prize. Only one man may own a hound at anyone time except for the rare occasion one is great enough in the eyes of many to be owned in shares. Technology sure hasn't advanced the clear understanding of the animal kingdom by the majority of mankind. Everyone has a right to what they feel are the prized qualities of a good hound and if and when they strive for those with out worry of money or prestige history shows they are happier in their quest and more prone to success.

My Lord! $100 - $500 for a hound back then!
I wonder what that would be in todays dollars...

Being called on by my friend, neighbor and fellow huntsman John S. Jackson, for the pedigree of his fast running dog Jane whose fleetness I am well acquainted with (as well as many others). Jane was sired by my dog July about the year 1861. I brought July from Maryland. His sire was imported from Ireland, and known as the “Irish Red Fox Hound”.
….I have been a constant fox hunter for the last forty years and have tried all kinds of dogs, but could never catch more than one fox out of every ten chases until I introduced the Irish dogs. Since then I catch at least seven out of every ten. Believing the Irish stock to be the finest in the world I do hereby subscribe myself.

Miles G. Harris

Thomaston , Ga., June 10, 1867

H. C. Trigg, Esq.,

Dear Sir: Yours of the 28th May came to hand on the 3rd inst., and I hasten to reply. I am truly sorry the dogs did not come up to your expectations. I endeavored to prepare your mind for their condition. Dogs necessarily fare badly in a country where famine stalks abroad in daylight, and it is strange thousands of worthless curs are not destroyed by their owners. A great many dogs actually perished to death last summer and it is incredible how long they can endure starvation. I know of one pack of hounds that subsisted entirely on roasting ears and watermelons as they gathered them from the stalks and vines.

I have written to secure the dog Forest for you, but I very much fear he can not be bought singly at any price. If I can get Forest for $100 I will let you have one of my finest bitches for $100, or the two for $200, as you proposed. I did not think I would part with this bitch, Fannie, but as you are somewhat disappointed with those I sent you, and as you feel you are paying a high price for dogs and much more than your friends are paying for fine dogs, I am determined you shall have the very best specimens of my stock, and if they do not sustain themselves and their reputation in a contest with the Tennessee dogs it will be the first time they ever failed to do it.

The bitch, Fannie, is three years old, medium in size, a perfect model of symmetry and beauty. She is well worth $200 to any man fond of fine fox hounds, and you will not take that for her after you get her in your possession. She has been in Jasper county where I have been breeding her. I enclose a letter from Mr. Robinson, who bred her for me on shares. He hunted her last winter with his dogs. You must admit that the performance of his dogs is good enough. He hunts with a small pack, only seven dogs, and he caught with them above ground, fairly and squarely, twenty red foxes and two gray foxes. His dogs were sired by Boston, the maternal half brother of Fannie. I sold him when fourteen months old for $150.

Very respectfully,
Geo. L. F. Birdsong.