Legends of the Ballard: Hound Voices and Camp Fires of the Thirties Bernard Pyron

Legends of the Ballard: Hound Voices and Camp Fires of the Thirties Bernard Pyron

​Old Box School House (Benton City, Northern Atascosa county, Texas).  The one lane dirt road - in the forties - turned off to head south toward Atascosa Creek beside the School just to the east.  Down in a live oak mott John McCain often set up his camp and turned his hounds loose.
The last hunt I was on was at Christmas time in 1961 with Warren Healer, who had a few hounds, Uncle Casey Pyron, and George Pyron.  Healer's dogs didn't jump a coyote and all we heard was an occasional bark by his trail dogs. I have not heard a large pack of hounds barking on a hot trail many times. In 1946-47 when I went with Daddy to sit at the camp fires of John McCain, he  had only five or six hounds and they were not as impressive as 40 or more hounds all barking at once, as George describes for some hunts in the thirties..  And when that many were sounding on a hot trail, hound dog men like Luther James, John McCain, the Preacher, Daddy and George could still hear individual dogs and their voices.
My older brother George kept a journal of their running hounds after coyotes when he was a teenager in 1934-35. His widow Nell Kurz Pyron sent the journal to me a couple of years ago. Here is his entry concerning the hunt of November 30, 1934 in which he says they caught two coyotes in McDonald's pasture, which I think was on Senior Road.
"November 30, 1934 - Caught one wolf in south-east part of Ballard
pasture. Ran one hour and fifteen minutes. Caught two more in McDonald's pasture, first one in two hours, second one two and a half hours.About 45 dogs. S. Guynes, Ed Pakowitz, Woods, Jasper Newman, McKon brothers. Pep and three others caught in traps. Left Jack and he came home."

They caught a coyote in the south-east part of the Ballard, and that same
night they caught two more in McDonald's pasture. McDonald's pasture may
have been on Senior Road or in that area, east of Somerset. This suggests
the Ballard might not have been too far from McDonald's place, perhaps on
Senior Road.
On another hunt he mentions a Ballard place and also an upper Ballard tract of land. I have never been able to find where the Ballard place was.
Tommy McDonald worked at the old Pioneer Gas Station in Somerset and may have been the owner of the McDonald place in 1934, or a son of the owners.
Also the Ballard land could have been in northern Atascosa county, not more than a few miles from Somerset.

​The Blake Pyron Home was in the northwest corner of tract number 273 above.  Tract number 55 above it was a Republic of Texas grant to John Christopher who was at San Jacinto.  The largest tract  was originally part of a huge amount of land south of the Medina that was given to Ygnasis Perez by the Spanish authorities.  But Perez was on the side of the Spanish loyalists in the  Gutiérrez-Magee expedition of 1812–13, and was on the side of the Mexican government of Santa Anna in the successful Texas Revolution of 1835-36. This is why he .lost his Spanish land grant south of the Medina but was allowed by the Republic of Texas government to keep one league of land north of the Medina which became the Walsh Ranch. My first cousin Billy Kenney ran hounds after coyotes with Cecil Walsh on the ranch.

The Gutiérrez-Magee expedition of 1812–13 was an early attempt to overthrow Spanish rule in Texas.

Faith Ballard, wife of John D. Ballard was a teacher at Southwest and a sponsor for Oak Isaland 4H. Her children's names were John, Doug David , and Faith. Their place was right off of Highway 1604

​1879 Bexar County Landowner Map

Over at the top left is the Geo Mudd tract No 273 which was my grandfather's northern tract where his homestead tract was in the northwest corner. Tract 274 was his southern tract.
. At about the middle of the map are two A. McSnyder tracts, and above them, to the north, is the A.S. Cunningham tract. Senior road runs at the east edge of the A. McSnyder tract 272 and the C.B. Snow tract below it. But - because John D. Ballard and Faith Ballard bought their tract out of the McSnyder and Cunningham tracts and he did not inherit the land, its possible that he is not a descendant of the Ballards who owned the land that George Pyron and others ran their hounds on. The Texas General Land Office says the original land of A. McSnyder was 1067 acres. The Ballard land in George's Wolf Races 1934-35 must have been a large tract, because a coyote running before a pack of barking dogs could run through 50 acres in maybe two or three minutes. That Ballard land was likely at least 500 to 600 acres and possibly more.
But still its interesting that the John D. Ballards in the late fifties bought a tract of land within the area where the legendary Ballard was probably located. "November 30, 1934 - Caught one wolf in south-east part of Ballard pasture. Ran one hour and fifteen minutes. Caught two more in McDonald's pasture, first one in two hours, second one two and a half hours.About 45 dogs. S. Guynes, Ed Pakowitz, Woods, Jasper Newman, McKon brothers."

And George mentions Wilson's Goat-Proof fence on another hunt. "February 2, 1935 - Went to Ballard and Jack, Beulah, Queen, Pep and Smut jumped and ran for three hours and out of hearing. Finally located them in lower Ballard and turned young dogs loose. Ran back toward Wilson's goat proof fence. Left Cricket, Speck, Arp and Red in McDonald's still running. John McCain, Woods and us." Look on the 1879 Landowners Map. John Wilson owned a large tract just east of the A. McSynyder tract. And they started this hunt on the Ballard. He mentions a lower Ballard, and also McDonalds place. There was a McDonald tract of land I believe on Senior road in the thirties. This hunt took place east of Somerset, and probably also east of Senior Road.