This article was originally published in Showsight Magazine, October 2021 issue.
Can anyone tell me what geography, tyranny, the Declaration of Independence, and the most dominant hound ever developed to chase fur-bearing critters through the forest of America have in common? If you guessed “the Bluegrass State of Kentucky,” then you are absolutely right.
Kentucky became the 15th state in 1792 after spending a great deal of time as part of a large land grant called Virginia. In 1609, when King James I established Virginia, this area covered from what is now known as North Carolina in the south to Maine in the north, with the western boundary extending essentially to infinity or the Pacific Ocean. The land was given to the Virginia Company as a private entity and would be managed as a company. This sizable grant would be amended in 1612 and revoked in 1624. Following in King James’ footsteps, his son, King Charles I, would continue to restrict colonial borders as well, but it was not until 1665, under King Charles II, that the North Carolina/Virginia border would be set at 36 degrees 30 minutes north latitude. This line of demarcation would extend west to the Kentucky/Tennessee border in the mid-1700s. Using a straight line as a land boundary wasn’t a completely new endeavor; however, it was not an exact science in colonial times, and geographical boundaries were far more typical. This 36-30 boundary would cause numerous disputes during this period. Finally, men from each state would form a team to survey the boundary once and for all.
In 1728, a team led by William Byrd started at the Atlantic Ocean and made it 241 miles west before rattlesnakes and the summer heat required them to stop, approximately two-thirds of the way across. Twenty-one years later, in 1749, a second team led by Peter Jefferson and Joshua Fry picked up the line and extended it further west to just east of Bristol, Tennessee. Peter Jefferson, Joshua Fry, Thomas Walker, and Edmund Pendleton formed the Loyal Land Company and secured an 800,000-acre tract of land along the Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee borders. This tract of land would later become a bit of a headache for Peter Jefferson’s son, Thomas.
In 1763, King George III took back this land grant and placed the area west of the Appalachians under the governance of a new province named Quebec. Quebec was won from the French during the “Seven Years’ War.” This did not sit well with the Colonies, as one might imagine. Along with increased taxation, the Revolutionary War was upon us. This bothered our forefathers so much that Thomas Jefferson saw fit to include the following sentence in the Declaration of Independence: “For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies…
As you can see, surveying of land parcels was a very important job in colonial days and even after the Revolutionary War. Thomas Jefferson would enlist the services of family friend, guardian, and Loyal Land Company owner Thomas Walker to pick up where Peter Jefferson had left off and continue the surveying expedition of what is now the Kentucky/Tennessee border.
Thomas Walker was a physician and an explorer. He had explored what is now the Allegheny mountains, named the Cumberland River, and explored present-day Kentucky nineteen years BEFORE Daniel Boone. As head of the Loyal Land Company, Walker had secured a land grant of 800,000 acres in what is now Southeastern Kentucky. He led an expedition to survey this land in 1750. Following the Revolutionary War, even after Thomas Jefferson became President, the boundary between Kentucky and Tennessee was still in dispute. At the age of 64, Thomas Walker was again commissioned to survey the boundary in question and establish what became fittingly known as “The Walker Line.”
Louisa. That is the name that Dr. Thomas Walker gave to the land the Native Americans called Ken-tuck-E. He would name the Cumberland River and the Cumberland Gap, which would later be the porthole into the expansion west of America, known as the “Wilderness Road.” An excerpt from his personal journal shows that along with supplies for his exploration, Dr. Walker, an avid hunter, would also take along a pack of dogs to help feed the party.
“Two of their horses were bitten by snakes, which I successfully treated with bear grease. One horse choked on reeds that grew along the streams, and I drenched its throat with much water. One dog was badly injured in a fight with a bear and was carried on horseback for seven days—until he was able to travel.” – Excerpt from Dr. Walker’s Diary
This love of hounds and hunting would be passed on to his 12 children, grandchildren, and so on. These descendants would settle in North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and Missouri, but it is the Kentucky Walkers who are credited with the development of the Walker hound.
Joseph B. Thomas, M.F.H. of Middleburg, Virginia, wrote the first comprehensive book on hound hunting in the United States. Published in 1928, his Hounds and Hunting Through the Ages is a treasure trove of information on the development of the Walker hound. From our own Treeing Walker history, we know that John W. Walker and George Washington Maupin, known as Wash, owned a great pack of foxhounds in what is now Garrard County, Kentucky. Their pack was known for its great speed and ability to run fox to the ground, meaning the pack would put so much pressure on the fox that it would be forced to find a hole, a place of refuge, or die. With the influx of settlers to Kentucky, the imported Red Fox also made its way west. The Red Fox, bigger and faster than the indigenous Gray Fox, soon put the pack to a test that often saw them fail. An excerpt from Hounds and Hunting Through the Ages tells of Walker and Maupin’s endeavors to speed up their pack:
“In the early fifties (1850s), General Maupin and his friends imported many dogs from South Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland, sparing no expense to improve their stock. In 1857, they imported from England, I think, three dogs, Fox, Rifle, and Marth. About this time, General Maupin got from east Tennessee the dog, Tennessee Lead, which he, Maupin, thought the best he ever owned.”
These men spared no expense to produce a dog that could run a fox to ground. The story of Tennessee Lead is known to ALL Treeing Walker enthusiasts, as it is not only the foundation stone for which our breed was built but also a metaphor for those who enjoy the fruits of Lead’s progeny today. For those unfamiliar with Tennessee Lead’s story, I will briefly discuss his “acquisition.”
Tom Harris was a drover who would drive livestock from Tennessee to Kentucky and back, as well as haul merchandise. On a return trip from Tennessee, Harris heard a pack of hounds chasing a deer. He was in the mountains, just south of the Obey River basin, when he heard one hound well ahead of the rest. Harris, a consummate salesman who knew his clientele well, caught this dog and delivered him to Madison County, Kentucky, where George Washington Maupin bought him, bred to him, and forever marked the evolution of the American running hound. The dog, known as Tennessee Lead, did not look like the foxhounds of the day. He was a small, black-and-tan-colored dog with a rat tail. What he lacked in looks, he made up for in speed, drive, and game sense. His clear, short mouth was easy to hear, but his ability to reproduce was why he was bred to all of Maupin’s and Walker’s top bitches. Turning to Joe Thomas’ book:
“The cross of the English dogs, and especially the Lead cross on their previous importations, produced a dog which has justly become famous and has become known as the Maupin dog. This strain has been preserved and bred with great care by W.S. Walker and Brothers, of Garrard County, Kentucky, and are known today as the Walker dogs.”
By 1868, the Maupins had a very distinctive hound, which was preserved firstly through the efforts of Jason Walker, as 1868 marked the year Wash Maupin passed. From 1870 on, we are indebted to the Walker brothers. W.S., Arch, and Wade Walker’s records show that by 1900, the dogs were sold to people in Texas, Missouri, Tennessee, and throughout the South. With the turn of the century came a new sport for these hounds: the field trial. It was these field trials, and later, night hunts, that would take these “Walker Hounds” from the foxhound packs of the well-off into the hard-working hands of the common man.
Speed, Speed, Speed. Human competitiveness has long been a driving force, and this spirit runs strong among coonhound enthusiasts. In the early 20th century, field trialing became a popular sport. While the exact origins of the first coonhound field trial are unknown, the 1920s-50s saw many of these events, which were featured in Mountain Music Magazine, Full Cry, Hunter’s Horn, and The Chase. Unlike today’s shorter trials, early field trials could cover distances as long as seven miles.
In March 1942, Full Cry credited George Slatzer of Marion, Ohio, with organizing the first advertised field trial, though similar events had occurred before 1924. Slatzer’s field trial winner was “Bones,” a UKC-registered English Coonhound. Despite being classified as a Bluetick in his day, all foxhound-related breeds were registered under the English Fox & Coonhound category at the time. With this victory and its $50 prize, the sport of field trialing gained popularity, dominating coonhunting for over 30 years.
Following Slatzer, Col. Hank Pfeiffer organized a $1,000 event, Leafy Oaks, in May 1927. Sanctioned by the United Kennel Club (UKC), Leafy Oaks attracted hounds nationwide, primarily from Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. The event’s success caught the attention of UKC founder Chauncie Bennett, who began registering hounds, including the Black & Tan, Redbone, and English coonhounds—all under the Fox & Coonhound category. Winners like “The Sheik” and “The Ghost” demonstrated the growing influence of Walker hounds in these competitions, even before they were formally recognized as a distinct breed.
Leafy Oaks inspired the Kenton Nationals and many high-stakes field trials, ushering in a golden age for the coonhound community. Another prominent event, the Tree Top Field Trial, launched in August 1930 in Niagara Falls, New York, with a $300 purse, which doubled by 1934. The Smith brothers, originally from Kentucky, moved to Ohio, bringing their Walker-bred hounds with them. They achieved notable success with hounds like “Red Fox” and “Leapin Spider,” earning around $2,500 from 1931-1933. As the stakes rose, the value of coonhounds soared from $25 to $100 or more, fueling a breeding boom centered on the prized “Walker power.”
On December 21, 1931, Mountain Music Magazine began publication, branding itself as the National Fox, Wolf, and Coonhound Journal. Editor and publisher A.B. Hartman offered a registry through the magazine; hounds could be registered by submitting a pedigree and a small fee. Breeds such as Triggs, Walkers, Redbones, and Black & Tans appeared in the registry, identified by an MM#. Among these was “Big Stride,” a Kentucky Walker owned by Samuel L. Wooldridge. Honored as one of the best hounds of his time, Big Stride’s grave marker bears the inscription: “Opinions Die; Records Live.
Mr. Wooldridge would hunt Big Stride would hunt in several of the Ohio field trials during the 1920s with great success. Daughters of Big Stride would win the 1925 and 1926 National Foxhound Trials. His ability to reproduce was unmatched during his time, but the reason he is important to Treeing Walker enthusiasts is because of a dog called Brays Speed.
In 1927, Brays Speed was purchased by Herman Bray for $75.00 from Glenn Walsh. Mr. Walsh had acquired Speed from some foxhunters he knew after witnessing Speed fall out of a nighttime foxhunt and tree a raccoon. Brays Speed was of Big Stride breeding and was the prototypical Walker dog. He would be bred to Foland’s Queen, another Walker hound, in January of 1932.
Foland’s Queen was sired by a Walker hound by the name of Ring that ran loose in a small southern town in Ohio. Duke Shell, a traveling salesman for a tobacco company, would pick up Ring and ship him to his brother Perry in Perkinsville, Indiana. No one in the town would claim old Ring, so he wasn’t technically stolen, though no one was paid for him either. He was whisked away to Indiana, and the Shell brothers would enjoy many nights hunting raccoon with Ring. He would also be bred to several local females, producing some outstanding coonhounds.
The Speed x Queen cross of 1932 would produce a litter of 12 puppies. Lester Nance of Arcadia, Indiana, would purchase two of the pups. One pup, a female, would be run over and killed. Mr. Bray kept two pups as well, one of which he named King. At eight months of age, Lester Nance would purchase King from Mr. Bray, and the story of White River King would begin.
Lester Nance was born in 1912 and always had a fondness for hunting dogs: bird dogs, foxhounds, coonhounds, and rabbit dogs. If it pursued game, Mr. Nance was a fan. He went on his first coonhunt in 1926 with Charlie, Glenn, and Floyd Newby and their Bluetick hound, Queen. Along with Queen were several other hounds, including Charlie Newby’s Lead dog. The hunt must have been a great night, as Lester Nance would continue coonhunting for the next 50 years.
During King’s lifetime, Lester would use him on raccoon as well as fox, but King was known best as a coonhound. Over the next 10-12 years, King would be bred to the best bitches available to lock in the treeing instinct. It was Lester Nance and a small group of men who approached UKC and AKC in the early 1940s to have these Walker hounds registered as their own breed. Neither UKC nor AKC were initially interested, as the hounds weren’t breeding true to type and were already registered under the English Fox and Coonhound breed. Often, the dogs didn’t even have three generations of pure breeding.
With these doors closed, Nance and Raymond Motley used their influence with Full Cry magazine to get them to register Treeing Walkers. The Full Cry registry had been registering Walkers and other foxhound breeds for years and started registering coonhound breeds in late 1940. Bill Harshman served as the head of the Full Cry Kennel Club. Around this time, the Mountain Music registry began hosting coonhound events, spreading across the U.S. from Oklahoma and Texas to Ohio and Pennsylvania.
In 1945, Dr. Fuhrman, Chauncie Bennett’s son-in-law, took over UKC. Seeing the popularity of the hounds, he met with the newly formed Treeing Walker Association and the Bluetick Coonhound Association at Floyd Reeder’s home in Logansport, Indiana. Treeing Walker enthusiasts present included Floyd Reeder, Les King, Lester Nance, Charlie Lord, and Russell Baker. At the end of the meeting, Dr. Fuhrman decided to register these dogs as English Coonhound (Walker treeing). Floyd Reeder drafted the first Treeing Walker Breed Standard. Although this wasn’t exactly what the enthusiasts had envisioned, it was the start of what would become the most dominant coonhound breed.
Raymond Motley had been breeding Treeing Walkers since the 1920s. His strain of coonhounds was derived solely from Walker foxhounds. Motley’s first straight coonhound was a Walker named Mike, purchased in the early 1920s for $35.00. His second coonhound was a female Walker he found caught in a fence while coonhunting. From then on, Motley’s hounds were of the Walker variety. In Lester Nance’s Treeing Walker History and Memories, he is quoted as saying, “Beyond a doubt, the Motley-bred bloodline of Treeing Walkers deserves a lot of credit for the foundation blood of the outstanding Treeing Walkers of the present era.” Motley’s Major can be found in many of today’s Treeing Walkers. Both Raymond Motley and Lester Nance were influential early breeders and the first big-time promoters of the breed.
Ingraham, Illinois, would become ground zero for UKC’s venture into licensed Nite Hunts. In 1954, they sponsored their first event. This event was won by Plotts named Overbeck’s Lucky and Brandenburg’s Big Lucky, with third place going to Lester Nance and his Treeing Walkers. Many local clubs had been holding Wild Coon Hunts before 1954, but with the support of UKC, ACHA, and other respected registries, the Nite Hunts gained popularity. These hunts tested a coonhound’s ability, the handler’s knowledge, and the breeder’s skill in producing quality dogs. The popularity of the sport saw kennel names like Finley River, House, Lone Pine, Yadkin River, and Spring Creek rise in the Treeing Walker kingdom. With this popularity came increased sponsorship, with purses reaching $25,000 and prizes like new trucks valued at $50,000.
Today’s Treeing Walkers are among the top coonhound breeds, with sires producing up to 5,000 pups and influential dams achieving a 60% success rate in hunting titles. Now included in the AKC Hound Group, the Treeing Walker has transitioned from “nite” activities to the broader stage of televised dog shows.
As the lights dim and the crowd leaves Madison Square Garden after another Westminster Kennel Club dog show on a cold February night, somewhere in America, a Treeing Walker is giving Mr. Ringtail one more chase through the woods.
