As Good As The Best, Better Then The Rest!
This site was created to share and preserve the history of the Great Coon Hound that started a Strain of Treeing Walkers called Mack Twain. Through this site and the different pages on it we will also give some the the history of this great breed called Treeing Walker.
We will show the numerous strains that crossed well with the Mack Twain strain. We will also show some of the hounds that have Mack Twain in their bloodlines that you may not know about.
Through the facts of history we will show you the respect the hunters of his day had for Mack Twain and his ability in the woods and also his ability to put the coondog qualities in his offspring.
Nicely's Superior Patches Nite Ch California Mack Twain Jr. California Mack
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What could be called a strain? Starting off the Treeing Walker breed had very few dogs. What became the foundation were dogs that had a desire to tree when the game climbed. The first registered Treeing Walker was White River King owned by Lester Nance. He had watched closely the Walker Foxhounds in his area that would tree game, not just run track, and in October of 1932 gave $13 cash and two bags of pig supplement for a 7 month old black & white male he named White River King. White River King became well respected among all coonhunters of the area, and generated a whole new level for those that enjoyed the sport. Nance had the first Treeing Walker to be called a World Champion in White River Boone, which he had purchased from Bernard Hole, and the Reserve World Champion was White River Rowdy, a daugther of White River King. Looking back far enough in the Treeing Walker Pedigrees you will see the names White River King, White River Boone, White River Rowdy. These dogs would be the foundation for the strain called NANCE or WHITE RIVER.
In the early 50's the first Treeing Walker to win two ACHA World Championships was call Incredible Rock. As with the foundation dogs of the breed early in the beginning a lot were Single Registered dogs. One strain of dog you found in a lot of pedigrees in the early years was INCREDIBLE ROCK.
The next walker hound to win the ACHA World Hunt and have an impact on the Treeing Walker Breed was Nite Ch. Merchant's Bawlie. Bawlie won the World Championshipe three times. The only hound to have done that. The first hound of many owned by James Merchant that had an impact on the Treeing Walker breed. Merchant sold Bawlie to Red Dolan who owned him till his death. Going back researching old pedigrees you will find MANY crosses between Incredible Rock daugthers and Merchant's Bawlie. So another strain could be called MERCHANT'S BAWLIE. Some dogs are strains didn't produce as good of results as others. Merchant's Bawlie was used a lot as a stud dog mainly because of his hunt record. He wasn't considered a top producer of tree hounds.
Another dog's name you will see a lot in an extended pedigree is Ch. Nite Ch. Motley's Mo. Major owned by Raymond Motley . Mr. Motley's name and dog's name are scattered through out extended pedigrees. There was a time back in that era that people talked about the MOTLEY strain. One reason Joe House sold Bawlie was that he had a replacement coming up out of House's Queen and Ch. Nite Ch. Johnson's Banjo called Ch. Grand Nite Ch. House's Chief. John Monroe not only owned Spot and Chief, but also other Finley River dogs that helped promote the breed and strain. He offered Grand Nite Ch. Monroe's Finley River Joe, Grand Ch. Nite Ch. Monroe's Little Chief, Grand Nite Ch. Blue River Bill, Grand Nite Ch. Finley River Pete.
Also around this time another single registered Treeing Walker that was from Foxhounds that loved to tree and was track driving, cold nose very hard tree dogs was introduced to the public. Mack Twain was one of the top dogs of his day. Still if you go back far enough you will find Mack Twain in some of the better hounds. The strain was introduced to the public a great deal by John Cason who also owned Nite Ch. California Mack. California Mack and a son of Calif. Mack, Nite Ch. California Mack Twain Jr. were responsible for producing many track driving, cold nose, very hard tree dogs that are what the MACK TWAIN strain is known for. Dick Herberger's best female Nite Ch. Hershberger's Texas Babe was a grand daugther of Mack Twain.
In 1961 a dog won the ACHA world hunt that introduced another strain to the treeing walker world. Nite Ch. Stan's Sailor Boy was 1961 ACHA World Champion. Then in 1964 a son of Sailor Boy, Nite Ch. Stan's Sailor Jr. won the 1964 ACHA World Championship. Sailor Boy was sired by Hershberger's Spot Jr. and his dam was Hershberger's Kansas Rose who was out of Hershberger's Little Butch. As we search a lot of these great hounds one of the common threads we find in many of them is Hershberger's Spot Jr. or his son Ch. Nite Ch. Hershberger's Okla. Spot. Maybe in fairness instead of calling it the SAILOR strain or SAILOR BOY strain it should be called HERSHBERGER. Doing that could take away from identifying what strain you are talking about correctly. Dick Hershberger had a number of hounds in his day that weren't related to Spot Jr. So to correctly indentify the strain we will continue calling it the SAILOR or SAILOR BOY Line.
In 1963 another strain was introduced to the Treeing Walker world. In 1963 House's Bawlie won the 1963 ACHA World Hunt and the 1963 ACHA World Show. 1963 ACHA Dual World Champion House's Bawlie was owned by Joe House. Bawlie's mother was House's Queen upon who the HOUSE strain was created. If the UKC Data on Producing Males and Females had been in effect back then House's Queen would be listed as the top reproducing female of all time. Based on the amount of pups she had and how many became Nite Ch. or Grand Nite Ch. Shortly after winning the world hunt Joe House sold House's Bawlie to a Doctor in Tennessee for $5000.00, which at the time was a very large amount and the highest amount ever paid for a coonhound at the time.
Ch. Nite Ch. Johnson's Banjo was bought by James Merchant. Banjo was known for being a very hard tree dog and for producing the same. James Merchant didn't breed a lot of the dogs he offered to the public so I don't know if you could say there was a MERCHANT strain, but he deserves the credit for recognizing some of these very nice hounds and introducing them to the public. Johnson's Banjo was another of the foundation hounds that was single registered. The BANJO strain was noted for very hard tree dogs. Two of Banjo's more famous sons were Ch. Grand Nite Ch. House's Chief and Grand Nite Ch. Merchant's Banjo II. In their day, they were two of the elite.
Some of the other hounds that James Merchant owned were ACHA World Ch. Grand Nite Ch. Katie's Rowdy, ACHA World Ch. Grand Nite Ch. Deep River Mike, Dual Grand Ch. Merchant's Bawling Barney.
In 1965 John Monroe won the 1965 ACHA World Championship with Grand Nite Ch. Claxton's Finely River Spot who was a son of Nite Ch. Finley River Chief. Chief was bought as a puppy by Herb Carsten of Springfield, Missouri. Chief was from the cross of Ch. Nite Ch. Shetler's Sonny Boy and Ch. Nite Ch. Bixler's Supreme Sally. Shortly after winning the World Hunt with Spot, John Monroe bought Finley River Chief for I believe $3000.00 which was a great deal of money for that time especially considering Chief's age. John Monroe deserves much credit for bringing the FINLEY RIVER CHIEF strain to the attention of the public.
The next year in 1966 a grandson of Finley River Chief won the 1966 ACHA World Championship. His name was Grand Nite Ch. Spring Creek Smoky owned by Duane Clark who also owned Dual Ch. Spring Creek CB. CB was another son of Finley River Chief and the sire of Dual Grand Ch. Spring Creek Rock, one of the top producers of the day. In 1970 Grand Nite Ch. Gann's Finnisher won the 1970 ACHA World Championship. Finn was a son of Finley River Chief. In 1973 Grand Nite Ch. Beanblossom Buck won the 1973 ACHA World Championship. Buck was our of Grand Nite Ch. Carsten's Finley River Buck who was a grandson of Finley River Chief. In 1981 Dual Grand Ch. Hern's Red Eagle Dick won the 1981 ACHA World Championship. Dick was a grandson of Finley River Chief being out of Grand Nite Ch. Mear's Finley River Dan owned by Lonnie Mears. Finley River Dan was one of the best producers in his day and many consider him the best reproducing son of Finley River Chief. Lonnie Mear's deserves a lot of credit for helping to promote and better the treeing walker Finley River strain. Another ACHA World Champion was Grand Nite Ch. Easy Goin Eileen. Eileen was out of Mear's Finley River Dan which makes her a grand daughter of Finley River Chief. But she also has Chief on her mother's side, being a grandaughter of Grand Nite Ch. Finley River Pete who was a son of Finley River Chief.
