Bulldog Club of Indiana
The distinguished history of
the Bulldog Club of Indiana Inc., begins in October 1935, at the Antlers Hotel
in Indianapolis where officers were elected, and a decision was made to hold
meetings on the last Sunday of each month.
A document in the archives prepared by
Mrs. Claud A. Crum of Indianapolis, who served as the first treasurer and later
secretary, indicates that the idea to form a club in Indiana was conceived in
1935 following the Hoosier Kennel Club all-breed show at Indianapolis.
Lamenting the fact that only four
Bulldogs were entered, three of the eventual founders of the club – Mr.
A.K.Mayer, Miss Marguerite Vance, and Mrs. Minnie Crum – noted that there were
several good Bulldogs in Indiana. So they decided to prepare a list of owners
and met at the Crum’s residence at 1220 Sturm Ave. to consolidate them.
A preliminary meeting was held Oct.
18, 1935, to determine whether the other Bulldog owners felt it worthwhile to
organize a club in Indiana. The answer was affirmative, and the date for an
organizational meeting was set. Twenty-one bulldog fanciers met formally on
Oct. 27th to elect officers. Elected were:
Frank Hatfield, president.
Harold Brady, 1st vice
president
A.K.Mayer, secretary
Mrs. Claud Crum, treasurer
No club meeting was held in November
because of a scheduling conflict involving the Chicago Bulldog Club’s fall
specialty show on Nov. 24. However,
four directors were elected at a meeting on Dec 1, 1935: They were:
W.T. Morgan
Noble W. Hiatt
Paul Maddux
Marguerite Vance
Club membership was “limited to those
really interested in the betterment of the breed,” according to the archives.
There were 20 original members. Ten associate members were added to the roster,
including Miss Alice Rosenthal, publisher of Dog News magazine, and Mr. Will
Judy, publisher of Dog World magazine.
An initiation fee of $1 and annual
dues of $1.50 were established. At least one benched show and sometimes two
specialties were held in the spring and fall. $75.00 was budgeted for
silver-plated trophies at each show.
The club’s first undertaking was to
support the entry in the spring of 1936 at the all-breed Anderson Kennel Club
show at Anderson, Indiana.
The following September of 1936 Miss
Vance served as show chairman for the club’s first fall specialty show.
“This
show was a 3-day affair held in conjunction with the Indiana State Fair in the
leaky Poultry Building,” according to the archives.
The specialty show was judged by Anton
Rost, a highly regarded all-breed judge who drew an entry of 28 bulldogs,
validating the founders' decision to form a new club here.
In 1937, the Club refused to return to
the Poultry Building and the show’s location was changed to the Manufacturer’s
Building at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Dr. Glen Adams judged an entry of 29
bulldogs.
The Bulldog Club of Indiana also
received its charter in 1937 from the Bulldog Club of America, which was based
in New York.
The B.C.I.’s first puppy match was
held March 7, 1937, in conjunction with the Cocker Spaniel Club of Indiana and
Scottish Terrier Club of Indiana in the show rooms of the Frank Hatfield Co.,
downtown Indianapolis The entry fee was
$1 and admission was 25 cents for adults, 15 cents for children.
Several July puppy matches and pitch-in
dinners during the 1940s were held on the lawn at Paul and Dorothy Maddux’s
Maple Lodge Kennels near Frankfort, Indiana.
A total of 47 puppies were entered there in 1947. Frankfort’s Clinton County 4-H Building was the site of BCI’s annual puppy match for many years. Members and exhibitors were often hosted afterwards at the nearby home of Beyrl and Edith Gould, owners of Kelly Road Bulldogs kennels at Frankfort, Indiana..
Despite World War II gas rationing,
the new club was determined to sponsor an annual specialty show. In 1942 the
Hoosier Kennel Club was forced to cancel its May 31st all-breed show
because the entire fairgrounds had been leased to the U.S. Army. So the show
was held in conjunction with the Anderson Kennel.Club's all-breed show in September
1942. Defense stamps were offered in every class and silver-plated trophies
were awarded for Best of Breed, Best of Opposite Sex and Best of Winners.
After the war, the 1947 fall specialty
show at the state fairgrounds drew a record entry of 100 Bulldogs for judge
Frank Carolin, president of the Bulldog Club of America. Dr. and Mrs. George W.
Andree’s “Choo-Choo of White Hub” finished her championship, going WB and BOS.
Her breeder-owners Dr. Andree, a Rensselaer veterinarian, and his wife Marie, an
honorary Life Member of the B.C.I., were elected to club membership in November
of 1941.
The B.C.I., by far the oldest of the
three BCA member clubs in the state of Indiana, has had the distinction of hosting the National Specialty show at
Indianapolis several times since the BCA's reorganization. The first one was in
late 1949, followed by the BCA National specialties of 1954, 1962, 1994 and
2001.
The club's largest specialty show held
independently was in 1985, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the club's
founding. There were 199 dogs entered, including 45 champions. Dean Anderson of
California was the judge.
Submitted
by G. William Andree, former club historian.