GameFowlBreeders.info

Part 1

I started my roundhead in 1915 by breeding a Hope roundhead cock (loaned me by Judge E. W. Long of Jasper, Ala) on a roundhead hen bought from Burnell Shelton of Mississippi. In 1917, to avoid too close breeding, I bred a 1/2 Shelton 1/2 Harvey roundhead cock on one yard of my hens, and for the same purpose, in 1921, I bred on one of my yards a cock which Ira Kimbrell secured from Mr. Hugh Buckingham of Memphis. About this time I let Mr. Thos. J. Judge, an attorney living at Birmingham, Ala. have some of my games and since then we have often made exchanges of brood stock. I put no new blood in my stock until 1927, when through Tom Judge, I secured from a party named Ledbetter, who lived near Birmingham a cock called "two-toe" which was placed at the head of one of my yards of roundhead hens. I got some fine cocks and stags from that mating - the best I had ever had up to that time, - I now have two of the hens that I raised from the "two-toe" cock in 1927. While I only got to breed the "two-toe" cock one season, yet every cock, hen, stag and pullet that I have or have had for five years carries more or less of that "two-toe" blood. The old "two-toe" cock was not a very impressive looking bird, and just who raised him is uncertain - His "get" ( sp? I can't make this out) have made such a good record that quite a number of parties claim he was raised by them - Ledbetter bought him at a fight new B'ham for $5.00 from a party named King. He was a small cock weighing about 4.14 was red-eyed, pea-combed, had yellow legs & almost white ear lobes, was light red in color and medium stationed.

Part 2

In the spring of 1916, I bought from Shelton of Miss. a pea combed, yellow legged, red eyed RH hen - medium station, had white feathers all over body, but not enough to call a spangle color - To this hen I bred a 5.14 white legged, pea comb, black-breasted red, above medium stationed cock that Judge E.W. Long, loaned me. As I then understood it, this E.W. Long Cock was out of a Hope of Aberdeen Miss. From this mating I raised about 12 stags & pullets. They were all rather large & high stationed. I selected 5 pullets from this mating and bred them in 1917 to a stag I raised in 1916 out of eggs that Will Gunter & I got from Shelton. Only two stags were raised from that setting of eggs, Gunter got one of the stags and I got the other. Gunter wrote Shelton for that setting of eggs & Shelton wrote Gunter, when the eggs were shipped that there was a small "dash" of blood in the yard that the eggs came from, that he was not "yet ready to divulge". I never knew exactly what that "dash" of non-roundhead blood was, but got the impression from what I later heard (not from Shelton) & the general confirmation of the 2 stags Gunter & I raised that, that "dash" of blood was red-quill. The 2 stags referred to were pea combed black breasted reds, with red eyes and white legs. As above stated I bred the white legged stag which I got to the five pullets above referred to. From that mating I got some high class fighting, desperately game stags and pullets. This 1917 yard was in the handle of John Barton who then lived at the Dullin place about 4 miles southwest of Jasper.

In 1918 I got from Will Gunter his white legged cock, which he raised in 1916, and bred this cock on pullets raised in 1917 from my white legged stag above referred to from this I raised five stags & pullets (Bob Burton raised them for me) (the stags won several fights after reaching two years of age.) In 1920 or 1921 I let James G. Oakley take all of the pullets from this 1918 mating.

The following is a copy of a letter to Mr. Lloyd Tomlinson sharing more information about the make up of the Lacy strain of fowl.
Ernest Lacy
Judge of the 14th Judicial Circuit
Jasper, Alabama



July 16, 1925
Mr. Lloyd Tomlinson,
Yuba City, California.

Dear Sir:
I trust you will pardon my apparent neglect in not sooner answering your letter of June 28th. I took a three week vacation and only returned last week and since then have been up to my ears with work.
I am always glad to hear from one who has good Roundheads and who knows how to breed them, there are many breeders but few good ones according to my observation. I have been breeding games since 1911 and have tried out several different strains, but reached the conclusion some 7 or 8 years ago that the Roundheads are the best. I have what you might term two strains of Roundhead, most of one of these come with white legs, though some come with yellow legs. I really think this so called white legged strain has a slight infusion of Redquill blood in it -- I say this because quite a few come a pumpkin or ginger red color, and when they are right young some of them come with moccasin colored feet and legs through later on they turn white. They were originated in this --. Eight years ago I got a very fine R.H. hen with yellow legs and slightly spangled, from Miss B. Shelton of Miss. The hen was old when I got her and I paid $7.50 for her, on this hen I bred a white legged R. H. cock that Judge E. W. Long of this place had raised. This Judge Long cock was raised from some R. H. hens that Judge Long got from Griffin Bros. , of Aberdeen, Mississippi, and from a white legged cock that Chas. Hope of Louisiana loaned to Judge Long. This cock that Hope sent Judge Long, had a small amount of Redquill blood so Judge Long told me though he showed no signs of it. From the mating of the Long cock (being of son of the Hope cock and the Griffin hen) with the old Shelton Hen, (referred to above). I raised about 9 or 10 pullets which I culled down to 5, and I took these 5 pullets and mated them with a white legged R. H. cock, which was raised out of eggs that Will Gunter of this place bought from Shelton. The get from this mating proved extra good and I took some hens raised from this mating and bred them to a brother of their sire; to keep from too close inbreeding I bred on some of these chickens a white legged cock belonging to Mr. Geo H. Davis of this place, and Mr. Davis tells me that way back his R. H's had a slight infusion of Grists' blood coming through the strain of Hervey R. H.'s . These white legged R.H.'s of mine do not have as much of the cautious side stepping qualities as the old original pure Allen and Shelton, R.H's had, but they are great bucklers, very sturdy and are the most desperately game cocks I have ever known of. I have never had one of them to quit or sulk and I think a great deal of them for that reason.
My other strain of R.H's is of the pure Shelton stock with the exception of a slight infusion of Boone blood in them. The Boone blood came from a black hen that Fred Bair (who died about 4 years ago) got from Campbell of Ky. about 11 years ago. These chickens are rather small but are scientific fighters and have really won a larger percentage of their fights than the white legged strain has, but they are not as strong, nor are they as desperately game nor as classy looking in appearance as the white legged strain. They only have about 1/8th or 1/16th of the black Boone blood in them yet 3/4ths of them especially when young, come dark or brown red in color.
This coming season I am going to have a party make as experiment with a cross of the white legged strain on the other (you might call it a brown red strain) in order that I may increase the size, stamina, gameness and general appearance of the last named strain. Just what the outcome will be I cannot tell of course. I have no stock to sell. Mr. George Goodrich of this place might let you have some young stock of the white legged strain as I let him have a yard of as good as I ever had to breed.
Mr. H.H. Cowan of Riverton of this state has some of the best R.H's I know of, but to be perfectly frank about it, I think mine equally as good, and some of those who have seen my cocks in action claim there are none as good, however I find that in this day you will often be surprised when you run up against the other fellow. Please pardon this long letter, it is hard for me to stop writing when it comes to the subject of R.H's.

Yours truly,
Ernest Lacy