Calvin 400

Happy Holidays!!

(Article below by S.L. Wooldridge from June 1955 The Chase magazine )

Wooldridge's CH. Calvin 400 (F)
S. L. W. March, 1933

Wooldridge's CH. CALVIN (F) 400-Winner First All-Age at the National, Bardstown, Kentucky, 1906. Will Richards, breeder. (Walker). Black, white and tan Dog. W'helped July, 1903. By Young Hustler (J. Bennett) ex Nell (Richards). Nell by Tom York ex Lottie; Tom York by Drive ex Phoebe; Lottie by Brown's Calvin ex Dinah. Young Hustler by Cliff ex Bee; Cliff by Hustler ex Nell; Bee by Ed Walker ex Kate.

In the summer of 1905 1 received a letter from W. S. Walker, Point Leavell, Kentucky, saying that he was shipping a hound called Dart that was by Arp, to be bred to Calvin. This was the first intimation I had of owning Calvin. W. A. Wade, of Huber Kentucky, and later of Versailles, had been to my place hunting and wrote Mr. Walker that he wanted to buy the most outstanding Walker hound for a stud dog in America, and for him to recommend the hound. Mr. Walker's reply was that he had recently sold a pair of hounds; Calvin 400 and Hustler 112, to J. H. Wilder, then of Vincent Alabama. Mr. Wade got in touch with Mr. Wilder and tried to buy Calvin alone, but he wouldn't sell him without his littermate, so he wired him to ship them to me. In a few days this pair of hounds arrived, a wonderful pair of hounds to look at and entirely different in type and looks. Calvin was a very near white hound with blue specks on him, coarse hair, flag tail, 24 inches tall, black ears and black spot on the root of his tail. Hustler was a black, white and tan ring necked hound, short hair, 24 inches tall.
Hustler was one of the greatest hunting hounds the writer has ever known, could find more foxes and trail them up better and up to the time that he began quitting ,was an outstanding hound. He was poisoned when young and some say this caused him to quit, but a lot of good hounds run back to him, and it took hard, long race for him to get enough.
Calvin was a hound that has as much gameness as any hound had, a wonderful hunting hound and a hound that would not cry such a cold trail, but knew how to get his fox to running. When this happened be was the master of any pack he ran with. He was one of the most beautiful hounds in motion I ever saw and although I have beard thousands of hounds' mouths, I have never heard one with as good a mouth as Calvin had. This he transmitted to his pups, although be never got a hound with as good a mouth as he had, unless it was Chinn's CH. Pete (F).
Calvin's breeding is given above and it shows excellent breeding as the pedigree will show. When I say this, a great many of the Walker breeders are going to disagree with me. I may be wrong, but at the time Calvin arrived in Kentucky the Walker hounds I hunted did not have the speed and get-away they should have. They dwelt too long in one place and were more or less leggy, but the minute these bitches begin being crossed on Calvin, class began to show every day. They began to win at the field trials and I am going to show you a remarkable record a little later in the story.
The best breeding hound crossed on Calvin to my knowledge was Wade's Ella 88 by Arp out of Lippie; Lippie by Dickerson's Don. Through this cross, the wonderful Pride family of bounds originated, also the John Branham family of hounds and many others of note. CH. Pride (B) was third at the National at LaGrange, Kentucky; won the National bench show twice, was the pivot hound in the Walker July race that ran at Barre, Massachusetts; also won at the Kentucky.
CH. Pride bred to Cable produced Pride II that won the Kentuckv State All-Age in 1914. She was also second at the National and won in ten other stakes which was remarkable. She disappeared while suckling a litter of pups.
CH. Pride III (F) out of Pride II by Wade's Alex, a mate to Hub Dawson. won the National at Crab orchard, running on three legs. She had had a bad steel trap foot and the last hour of the race she was better than the first day she started.

Pride IV out of Pride III by Running Sam 524, a Calvin bred bound, won the National at Bowling Green and Pride V by Flying Cloud, out of CH. Pride IV, was placed high at the National.

Wade's Phoebe 151 by Joe White out of Nancy, was another hound crossed on CH. Calvin that made hound history. Through this cross the Big Stride blood comes. In this litter were several outstanding hounds. I have mentioned them before, so will not go into detail about them, but Creek of this cross will go down in history as one of the greatest hounds of all time. She won at the Forked Deer Club, won high at the National and was just one of the greatest bounds of her day. Bred to Wade's Alex she produced Sprite who won the Kentucky Derby and Sprite, bred to Cable, produced Big Stride.

Another great field trial hound by Calvin was Wooldridge's and McHenry's Ike 114. Ike did a world of winning. He was out of Topsy; Topsy was by Scott out of CH. Ailsie (F), a mate to Arp. Scott was a mate to Frank. Ike's winnings in 1912 included V.H.C. at Forked Deer Red Foxhound Derby, second at Brunswick Derby. V.H.C. at National (highest award that year), and the combination cup at the National. Won the Kentucky Derby, won the Kentucky All-Age and sired Hot Point that won the Forked Deer Derby.

Another bound of unusual merit by CH. Calvin was Speed sold to W. K. Herrin of Clarksdale, Mississippi Speed was a beautiful, black, white and tan, arched-back, racy gyp. She ran a wonderful race at the
National at Crab Orchard and a though she only won second, her performance was outstanding. She was later shipped to Mississippi where she won the Forked Deer Red Fox Club All-Age. Although an old hound she was brought back to Kentuckv and ran at the National at Olvmpia and was placed high. She was out of Tadlock's Lindy who was by Phill out of Coyle's Ollie.

In the John Branham blood , John Branham was by Lockhart, a son of Hub Dawson and out of Hayden's Ella, she by McKenna who was byCalvin out of Ella- McKenna being a brother to CH. Pride, only a little younger.

Another great hound of this litter that won at the National was Vain. In fact, there were a great many Good ones. Calvina, another sister, was the dam of CH. Audrey Alford (F) that won the National.

Looking over the National list, it certainly is surprising to se how strong this Calvin blood is. After 1906 when CH Calvin won the National at Bardstown, a pup of his, CH. Pete, out of Lady won the National. Two grandpups of his, CH. Audrey Alford and CH. Hustler by Skipper out of Winona, won the National. Then a great grandpup of his CH. Pride III by Alex out of Pride 11, won the National and from that time he has not skipped a generation with some of his family winning the National All-Age Stake.

Here is a list of the winners and you can see that of the 26 years, in 14 of these years the National championships have been won by CH. Calvin blood. The list of winners are:
1909 CH. Pete, 1915 CH. Audrey Alford, 1917 CH. Hustler, 1920 CH. Pride 111, 1924 CH. Pride IV, 1922 CH. White Rowdy, 1927 CH. Model Rowdy, 1925 CH. Betsy Stride, 1926 CH. Ona Stride, 1928 CH. Maydell, 1923 CH. Diana Mayo, 1930 CH. Churchill Weaver, and 1931 CH. Gay Nell.

All of these are field champions and in lots of cases the winners of second and third carried the CH. Calvin blood. It is my honest opinion that be did more toward giving the Walker hounds, run, dash, class, mouth and speed and improving the breed than any bound up to his day. When be was running with a pack it was a race sure enough. The minute be would be thrown at a loss and it looked like the bottom fell out of it, he had just that way of running a fox.

Remember once at a field trial, Calvin hounds were all winning right along and some one said something about Calvin. Bill Leavell remarked that the way his pups wagged their tails has made CH. Calvin famous. They had a way of wagging their tails that was beautiful when after a fox and whipping themselves around.

Couldn't finish this story without mentioning Ramey by CH. Calvin out of Creamer, an Arp gyp. Ramey won second in the National Derby, was sold to Col. T. G. James of Mississippi and won second in the National. Placed high again at the National and won second at the Forked Deer and Red Fox Club. She was later given back to me and was a very outstanding hound.