January 13, 2006
The Message of Bayou of Foxstand (Part II)
"CARDED" — The First Decade of A. K. C. Registrations
A USEFUL AND FASCINATING BOOKLET was published in 2003 by New Englander Nancy Cowan of Deering, New Hampshire. Entitled "CARDED! (Siberian Husky Profiles Prior to 1945)", it consists largely of photocopies of the index cards accumulated by Margaret Dewey of Komatik Kennels during a three-week period of research in 1942 at the headquarters of the American Kennel Club in New York City. The cards provide a fascinating survey of the earliest registered Siberian sleddog population during the first decade following A. K. C. Siberian Husky breed recognition. With their aid we can survey the registered Siberian population of the 1930s and separate it into bloodline groups.
Thirty-two breeders’ names account for all the Siberians listed in the Dewey card collection; better to say fewer than thirty since in a couple of instances a kennel name was substituted for the actual breeder’s name. About half these names account for fewer than five dogs each in the 284 listings. Some of the breeders fall into reasonably well-defined lineage or bloodline groups according to the original sources of their breeding stock. Others do not. Several names who accounted for only two or three listings in the late 1930s went on to become major players in the 1940s: Marie Turner and William L. Shearer III are the most outstanding examples. Some minor breeders tended to straddle two bloodline groups, but overall tendencies are clear. Next to the names I have shown the number of individual dogs in this group bred by each individual, but to preserve clarity I have taken no account of owners’ names.
An Analytical Breakdown of the "CARDED" Database
Northern Light Bloodline (84 dogs)
Julien A. Hurley, Fairbanks, Alaska - 41
Elsie K. Reeser, Fairbanks, Alaska - 6
Oliver R. Shattuck, Alton, New Hampshire - 18
Ford Cary, Traverse City, Michigan - 3
C. H. Young, Center Sandwich, New Hampshire - 7
John D. McIlhenny, Gwynedd Valley, Pennsylvania - 7
Norman D. Vaughn, Hamilton, Massachusetts - 2
Chinook/Alyeska Seeley Bloodline (76 dogs)
Mr. and Mrs. Milton Seeley/Chinook Kennels, Wonalancet, New Hampshire - 57
Lorna B. Taylor, Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire - 19
Seppala Bloodline (41 dogs)
Leonhard Seppala, Fairbanks, Alaska - 5
Alex G. Belford, Laconia, New Hampshire - 1
Elizabeth M. Ricker/Seppala Kennels, Poland Spring, Maine - 8
Harry R. Wheeler, Canada - 13
Stouder Thompson, Willoughby/Gates Mills, Ohio - 6
Kathryn S. Post, Montclair, New Jersey - 6
Marie Turner, Beverly Farms/South Hamilton, Massachusetts - 2
Suzanne Bloodline (35 dogs)
Jacques Suzanne, Lake Placid Club, New York - 21
Jack S. Hagy, Elmira, New York - 14
Komatik Bloodline (21 dogs)
Margaret A. Dewey/Komatik Kennels, Lake Placid Club, New York - 15
Edward A. Shepard, Cassville, New York - 4
Dr. Beverly Sproul, Lake Placid, New York - 2
Others (20 dogs)
Laika Kennels, Ipswitch, Massachusetts - 1
Everlyn Washburn, Lewiston, Maine - 3
Ray J. Thornton, Lake Placid, New York - 3
Joseph A. Booth, Carlisle, Massachusetts - 1
Joel E. Nordholm, Jr., Tilton, New Hampshire - 3
William L. Shearer III, Boston, Massachusetts - 4
Margaret S. Deardorff, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania - 4
Nancy Moffat, Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire – 1
Imported Stock (7 dogs)
"Import" - 7
It should be noted that the above numbers represent A. K. C. registrations only, and bear little relationship to the actual sleddog populations of the various groups! In particular the Seppala faction, especially Ricker and Wheeler, registered very few of the animals they produced.
Northern Light — Dominant Bloodline in 1930
THE EARLIEST AND LARGEST single bloodline group is that headed by Judge Julien A. Hurley of Fairbanks, Alaska, whose Northern Light Kennels registered the first two dozen or so AKC Siberian Huskies. No fewer than 84 dogs are accounted for by the Northern Light bloodline group; moreover, it should be noted that even Lorna B. Taylor, whose 19 entries are credited to the Seeley bloodline group, actually bred her prized foundation bitch TOSCA OF ALYESKA to NORTHERN LIGHT LITTLE BEAR—five of those 19 entries come from that mating! It should begin to be quite obvious now that the most dominant and widespread bloodline group in 1930 was the Northern Light lineage. The Seppala bloodline was second in the breadth of its distribution, though not in number of registered animals, largely because Seppala Kennels seemed to take a jaundiced view of registration, both the Poland Spring original and its St. Jovite successor!
Oliver R. Shattuck of Alton, New Hampshire was an experienced dog man before the Siberians came along. His Pointsetter Kennels was well known for its gundog breeding, and Shattuck was a skilled dogsled builder! Well before Siberian breed recognition in 1930 he had acquired Siberian bitches AMMORO and RIGA from Seppala Kennels in Poland Spring, as well as a Seppala male TEX purchased from the Gunnar Kaasen tour team, and had begun breeding. He began to acquire stock from Julien Hurley and by November 1929 had already bred one litter from NORTHERN LIGHT KOBUCK and NORTHERN LIGHT LASKA. He continued to acquire and breed Northern Light stock after breed recognition.
To these facts must be added another significant dimension. In the early bench show history of the breed, the Northern Light bloodline was not at all an obscure sideshow. The first bench show Champion of the breed—an honour that must have been hotly contested among the early fanciers—was CH. NORTHERN LIGHT KOBUCK, owned by Shattuck. KOBUCK was a white Siberian with brown eyes. Another Shattuck Siberian, KOBUCK’s daughter POLA (also white I believe), came close to becoming the first female Champion as well, but died still lacking one point for her bench title. (Viral diseases such as distemper took a heavy toll of dogs in those days, when every dog show and race brought a strong risk of infection and there were no preventive vaccines.) Shattuck’s dogs regularly won over the dogs of the Seeleys, Dean Jackson, and others, creating a long-standing prejudice in the Seeley camp against white Siberians. As late as the mid-1960s there was still agitation for adding all-white coat colour as a disqualification to the breed standard, coupled with great discrimination against whites in conformation classes.
To be continued . . . Posted by ditkoofseppala at January 13, 2006 04:40 PM