Days Gone By.....

[matt_aggie04]

I went and visited my grandpaw over the weekend and we got to talking about hunting as we often do and he reached into his magazine basket next to his recliner and pulled out this picture that he had found and wanted me to have.  These were three of his better dogs that he owned in 1953.  They were used on cows and hogs and were a necessary tool for everyday life for him.  He made his living for a lot of years with these dogs and their parents before them.  I know not many of you will know where this picture was taken at but it is in my great uncle Bud's back yard.  The front yard faced on FM 1960 and about two hundred yards behind those horses is where Red Oak Drive is today.  There is a medical complex there and strip shopping centers and apartments as far as the eye can see there today but many times they cought hogs riding those woods at the edge of that pasture down to Cypress Creek and then on to the San Jacinto River....it was nothing but woods and animals.

[sbrooks]

Pretty cool picture Matt.  I often find myself looking at them and wondering what a different time it was back then.  Thanks for sharing

[Cull Buck]

Thanks for sharing Matt.  That's really cool.

[Circle C]

Cool picture Matt.


Just for grins, I looked up the location on google earth. Here it is today.

[Texas_Cur]

thanx for that pic matt.  Put some glasses on your grandpa and i would have thought it was you 

[matt_aggie04]

Haha Yeah Adam you didn't get to see me with my contacts on like I have on most of the time.  My grandpaw wears glasses now but if you get pictures of him, my dad and me when were in our teens-twenties and even now we look like triplets. 
These dogs came out of the Theiss and Hilderbrant and Fouch lines of dogs that they used for A LOT of years on cattle and hogs and to my knowledge there are none left.  It was interesting to me because almost all of their dogs were saddle back and they bed saddle back to saddle back but every now and then a dog would come along like the one in the middle that would have a white ring neck or some "off" color and the rest of the litter would be saddle back, very few culls ever came out of these litters.  I would love to get my hands on some if there were any left but I think they died off over the years and were never kept going.  Sadly enough the dog on the far right in the pic was one of the better dogs of the three and was shot and killed by a "newcomer" to the area a couple years after this picture was taken.  I guess idiots have been shooting good dogs for years.
Scott this is just west of the Hooters prolly not two-three miles.....good landmark though.

[Bryant]

Very cool pic, Matt!

The dog on the right could be a sptting image twin to my saddleback dogs.  These dogs are from an old south texas bloodline and between one of my hunting parters and I we have about eight of them.  VERY good bloodline of dogs, just wish I knew more about the history.

Here's a pic, even with their heads turned the same way.

[matt_aggie04]

Bryant, I think it is time yall had some saddle back pups    Call me when you do!!

This is a little hard for me to get my mind around but if Red Oak Drive is the red line the green is the geographic area that they worked in with free ranging cattle and hogs.  They would work them push them catch them you name it.  Put the bottom pic on the right in your head and it easy to see it is an arse load of land and it was all covered on horse back.

[Mike]

Cool picture Matt!

There's still a few hogs runnin' those creek and river bottoms... remember we were in it last summer!

[matt_aggie04]

Oh I remember!!  My grandpaw worked cows for old man Bender so we were right smack dab in the middle of the same woods my grandpaw hunted and worked cows in.  Kinda neat when you think about it.

Matt

[Wmwendler]

Matt.......Thats a darn good picture, and I can see the family resemblance.  I like how that ring neck dog is posturing dominantly and the far left dog is submitting.  Then you got the horses in the back ground, they look like they had confirmation that modern day quarter horse breeders would die for.  Pretty good photagrapher to capture a moment in time like that.   

I know a fella from that area who does day work for us pretty often.  He's got some cow dogs that look allot like those in the picture.  Black and tan or saddle back, his dogs have a slighter build than allot of curs these days, like those in the picture.  I suppose that was a result of the fact that they did'nt have walmart down the street to go buy kibble and it meant something to feed a dog.  Big dogs just ate too much for people who had to work for a living.  Next time I see him I will ask him about his dogs and thier lineage.......He lives on family land that they have owned for generations.  Might not be related at all to the dogs your grandad had but then again you never know.

When it cools down You Chris and I need to get together and hunt.

Waylon

[Mr. HG]

Cool pixs Matt. I think we have lost sight of what they did back then because of money, pride and really not having to use our dogs to support and feed our familys.The dogs back then they were use in a way and culled that I can only imagine. My dad is one of 13 from Wellborn and they had cur looking dogs and hogs and my dad said the marked hogs using the dogs and get them out of the woods and back to the pens and back again.But by know means I'm saying his dad had hog dogs they had using dogs.You know some the older guys we hunt with Matt they cull I mean hard and early because they still believe in no purpose no feed horse, dog and man alike.Awsome picture and great story. Des

[cactuflage]

Nice pic Matt. Hollar at me sometime.

Chris

[elliscountyhog]

I like the pic of bryant and his twin and my dog .  That is amazing how much land they were runnning back then. But i guess 10k acres to them was like 500 acres to us. Those saddle back dogs like reseamble the leapord hound. I know a lot of people look for them saddle back dogs like that and i for one wouldnt mind having one after seeing bryants work.