A TRIBUTE TO A TRUE SPORTSMAN AND HUNTER

A TRIBUTE TO A TRUE HUNTER, SPORTSMAN AND PIONEER.

Doyle Thomas Wolford was born April 28, 1913 near Sigel, Barnett Township, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania and died July 27, 2002 near Shippenville, PA.

His parents were John Henry and Rebecca Jane Asel Wolford.

Tom's ancestors came from Ireland and Germany.

"Tom" as he was always known by his friends and family left Jefferson County as a young boy with his family moving to McKean County and settling in the village of Walkertown, in the "oil patch" of Pennsylvania.

Tom worked and played in the woods all his life. From a young age he always owned fox hounds, bobcat dogs, squirrel dogs, "coon" hounds and dogs as family pets. He was also a deer hunter.

Tom worked on the oil leases of South Penn Oil Company which became Pennzoil Company. During WWII he worked the "Victory Shift" at Dresser Manufacturing plant in Bradford, PA.

It was in the thick woods and on the steep hills of McKean County, Pennsylvania where Tom hunted with his many hounds for fox, raccoon, bobcat and squirrel. And many hounds there were. I have pictured only a few of these great animals.

I enjoyed many of his wonderful hunting stories and wish I would have written them all down.

As with all houndsmen and hounds some were happy stories and some were not so happy. Losing a hound to whatever is always a sad story. Stories of successful hunts are the happy stories.

As they say, "One picture is worth a thousand words."

Below are many thousands of unspoken words in picture.

Some of these pictures we know the year and some we do not.

(Below) Tom with red fox 1939.

(Above) A young Tom and "Joe". Look at Tom in his Sunday Suit.

(Above) "Lizzy Lee" 1937.


(Above) "Butts"

Note the outhouse or privy to the left and the push type reel mower on the right. This was the only type of lawn mower we had before gasoline self propelled mowers.

Tom Wolford with bobcat. (circa 1943)

Above: Tom and Simon Young with red fox and bobcat around 1943. Simon reports the cat was treed by the hounds while hunting for fox in the Farmer's Valley region of McKean County. He also remembers the bobcat was old with worn out teeth.



(Below) Tom with "Hi Noon".

(Below)
"Tommy"

(Below) "Rattler"

"Rattler" was a squirrel dog. Tom used a ".218B" hunting rifle for everything from deer to squirrel including deer, turkey, fox and bobcat.

(Left) Tom and "Rattler". Rattler was a Rat Terrier, hence the name, Rattler, apparently.
(Note: The modern day name for this beautiful dog is "Jack Russell Terrier".
















(Left) Tom, Noon and Joe.























(Below) A young looking Tom and a beautiful hound named "Speed".

Left: Great old fox hound Buff.

Left: Tom, far right, Jack Bishop, second from left. The other two are unidentified.

Jack Bishop was a good hunting buddy of Tom's as they hunted fox night and day. Jack and Tom traveled to North Carolina to hunt fox.