The Pit Bull in America — Part 1
A series of articles presenting information, documents and stories about the development of the breed and its relation with the Old Family dogs.
According to my research, there were some breeders who were the basis for all bloodlines that existed in the APBT breed, starting with Charlie Lloyd in 1845 and in a short period Con Feeley and John P. Colby, importing dogs from all over the world, such as Ireland and England to the United States becoming the forerunners of the American Pit Bull Terrier breed.
In this article we will learn a little about the history of Colby’s bloodline, alive and preserved from its founding in 1890 to the present day.
Have you heard of Hutton’s bloodline? Probably not, when existed the breed had not yet been originated.
Hutton’s dogs born around 1900 in Ireland and was one of the bloodlines that gave birth to Colby’s bloodline which a few years later along with Lightner’s dogs would become the Old Family Red Nose strain named and preserved by Dan McCoy, Bob Hemphill and Jake Wilder.
A man called Mr. Edward who worked in construction building bridges in South America for the firm of New York Financiers back in 1900, was presented with “Galtie” and “Gass”, puppies that his colleague acquired from the Hutton’s while in Ireland.
In 1910, Colby’s acquired a puppy from a litter by “Edward’s Gass” and “Edward’s Galtie” and named him “Colby’s Galtie”, one of the foundations of the breed and Colby’s bloodline.
Colby’s Galtie also known as “The Irish Dog” was a Red/White dog but he did NOT have a red nose, this was confirmed by John Colby himself.
In Colby’s Galtie APBT page says:
Colby’s Galtie was not fought extensively but he was severely tested against 3 of J.P. Colby’s better dogs at the same weight,one after the other and Galtie not only proved to be deeply game but an extremely severe punisher as well.
The oldest dogs found in the APBT online database
There were two occasions in the research that I found a “spike” with dogs being imported more frequently to United States, first by the breeders Charlie Lloyd, Con Feeley along with a few others, between the years of 1840 and 1910, and the second starting approximately in 1870 with Con Feeley and another strand of unknown origin.
I decided to split into two lists to further understanding and research. It’s possible to trace all bloodlines of the breed through these dogs I suggest you try.
- First
Imported Rye
Imported Rock
Imported Rowdy
Jenning’s Imported Bowler
Jenning’s White Billy
Lane Billy
Darby’s Kit
Ward’s Crib
Middleton Dog (Imported)
Lloyd’s Jack
Lloyd’s Turk
Gallaway’s Jack
Rose’s Old English Rose
Old Mollie
Old Terry
Connor’s White Bitch
Megrogan’s Bitch
Sheridan’s Bitch
Evan’s Bitch
Mendehall’s Bitch
Cooper’s Captain (Wolverhampton, England)
Cooper’s Lady (Wolverhampton, England)
Dailey’s Nettle
Pifer’s Domino
Machin’s Rose
- Second
Mitchell’s Pincher
Mitchell’s Rose
Mitchell’s Monkey
Burke’s Rafferty (Imported)
Baker’s Rowdy
Baker’s Bell
Birmingham Jack
New York Lady
Fox Imported New York Bitch
Jessie
Mc Caffrey’s Mouldy
Vose’s Leo
Vose’s Princess
Poindexter’s Gladstone
Poindexter’s Baby
Redican’s Tanner
Redican’s Crib
Reddin’s Bitch
Mc Collough’s Red Bitch
Jenning’s Old Brindle Bitch (Imported)
Edgecote Al
Colligan’s Queen
Racine’s Ginger
Racine’s Sam
Fagan’s Prince
Fagan’s Flora
Noonan’s Bob
Noonan’s Fly
Conroy’s Nell
Buckenberger’s Bob
Buckenberger’s Fanny
Fitzsimmons
Peg
Merville Maid
Maguire’s Nell
Parson’s Star
Cosgrove’s Lady
Dunable’s Dandy
Dunable’s Babe
Kennedy’s Blaze
Harris’ Tom
Lentz’s Whitie
Denning’s Beauty
Waller’s Bridie
- Special mention
Hutton’s Billy
Hutton’s Kit
Hutton’s Prince
Hutton’s Speck
Edward’s Galtie (Billy x Kit)
Edward’s Gass (Prince x Speck)
Colby’s Galtie (Galtie x Gass) - Confirmed birth date: 1910
(great-grandson of Burke’s Tanner).
A great dog and the beginning of Feeley’s bloodline in US.
I hope you have enjoyed this journey through the history of the foundation of the breed, my goal with this article is to promote the study and research of the American Pitbull Terrier, feel free to contact me, we can both learn and discover new pieces of history together.
All images and information used on this article are from my research through the archives of:
http://www.apbt.online-pedigrees.com/ | https://pedigree.gamedogs.cz/
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