Old Tennessee Feist

L to R: Barto Davis, A. Littlejohn and Ruby

Roger Littlejohn sent this picture of an

Old Feist his father owned in the 1930s. I

will copy his email below the photo. Sounds

like the way we grew up in the Mts.

Back during that time my dad and others just had working/hunting dogs and didn't keep up with breedings like people do now. They just bred the best with the best without regard to thoughts of line breeding, out crossing etc. My dad has this bloodline for 20 plus years and had another dog he called Ella, however, I only have the picture of him and Ruby. I was born in 1950 and by that time he had lost his Feist line, but we had other shepard type dogs that would hunt up a storm. I remember when I was real little, especially in the spring, summer & fall, at night my dad always sat on the front porch until bedtime (he wasn't one to stay in the house much) I'd crawl up un his lap and tell him "Papa, tell me a hunt'n story". Needless to say the hunting stories of him and Ruby & Ella, I heard 100's of times but never tired of them. People need to remember that d! uring t he depresion (30's) family's depended on their hunting dogs to put mean on the table. Even though I was born in 1950, I've eaten a wagon load of fried squirrels and squirrel & dumplins :-) I remember specifically in the mid 50's we lived in Haywood County (Brownsville) on the Thomas MacKnight farm (share croppers) and my mother would take the 22 to the field in the morning and around 10 am she would head to the house to make dinner... she would make a swing thru the woods. We could hear the crack of that 22 and know that mama had found a squirrel. She was as good'a shot with a 22 as papa :-)

My father was A. H. Littlejohn, (b.1910/d.1998) and during the time he had his Feist dogs the family (I being the last of 5 siblings I was not around during the 30's & 40's) lived in and around McNairy County (Selmer) in West Tennessee. In fact the old Littlejohn homeplace was near the community of Gravel Hill which is close to Hwy 45 & Hwy 57 junction. Most people know McNairy County, Tennessee as the site of "Buford Pusser & Walk'n Tall" :-) ...like I said in the SDC post, this photo is circa early 1930's. I know this because papa has hair and he lost his hair in his early 20's :-) ...In the original photo, he is sitting next to a neighbor I've heard him speak of by the name of Barto Davis. I cropped the original photo to get a better shot of dad and Ruby but can send a copy of the entire picture. In addition, my mother had written information on the back of the original picture.



Roger