Back to Local History Page

Local History - Part 6

      The following text is taken from Patrick M. Canfield's book, Growing Up With Bootleggers, Gamblers & Pigeons , pages 14-16 as an explanation of pigeon shooting matches.  This type of event is currently protested in many areas that still carry on the traditional sport.  The town of Hegins has received national media coverage during recent years for their annual shoot due to several animal rights activist groups.

     "Pigeon matches are conducted under the strictest of rules. a contract, or agreement, is drawn up for each match.  Included in the agreement are the following: the site, date and time of the match, number of birds, type of match (straight match or trap and handle), purse, time of arrival of the shooters, elbow down and gun below the elbow until the bird takes flight, and boundaries.

     A coin toss decides who will shoot first.  Loser of the toss has the option of changing the setting of the trap at the halfway mark of the match or leaving it in its original position for the remainder of the match.  The procedure to be followed if the match ends in a tie is spelled out.  The agreement is as holy as the Bible.  The reference is chosen the day of the match and his decisions are absolute and final.

     The trap is located twenty-one yards from the shooter and out of bounds is forty yards from the center of the trap.  If a hit bird lands beyond the forty-yard boundary, it is considered a missed bird.

     Once the agreement is signed, the contestants prepare for the event at least a week, and in some cases as much as a month.  They practice four or five days a week, shooting between thirty and fifty birds a day.

     There are two types of matches, a "straight match" and "trap and handle."  In a straight match, the trapper cannot tamper with the bird in any way when he puts it in the trap.  He is observed by a judge at all times to see that he abides by this rule.

     During my active days as a shooter, all matches held in the central section of the county, which included the towns of Minersville, Port Carbon, St. Clair, New Philadelphia and Tamaqua, in addition to towns north of the Frackville Mountain (Frackville, Ashland, Mahanoy City, Shenandoah, Gordon and Girardville), were straight matches.

     In a trap and handle match, the trapper can manipulate or tamper with the birds in any way he deems necessary as long as he does not mistreat or abuse them.  Since World War II, all matches have been trap and handle.

     The practice of "brushing" the birds, another way of saying the training of the birds, is a highly skilled operation and plays a decisive part in the outcome of many important matches.

     Individuals who handle and place the birds in the trap during a match are know as "trappers."  Most trappers have, in their home pens, as many as three or four hundred birds at all times.  For each match they select twenty or thirty pigeons and brush them.

     Many devices are used in this procedure.  Typical of these is a "rig" tied to the bird.  A rig is a small wire five inches long with a small bell attached to the end.  A bright piece of crepe paper sticks out of the bell.  The rig is tied to the middle feathers of the bird's tail with string and extends to either side of the head or above the head of the bird.  The sound of the bell and the fluttering of the crepe paper cause the pigeon to perform many spectacular and unpredictable maneuvers.

     If the trappers want the bird to fly to the right, the rig is placed on the left side of the bird's head, and vice versa.  If the bird is to fly low and straight, the rig is placed directly above the head.  However, the birds do not always adhere to the predicted flight pattern, and some matches are won and lost because the pigeon does not perform as programmed.

     In the early stages of brushing, firecrackers were often used to frighten the birds so they would take flight as soon as the trap was opened.  This practice is now outlawed.  During the middle thirties, Rocky Petrole [no relation], of Tresckow, had the unflattering distinction of burning his neighbor's garage to the ground as a result of using firecrackers during the brushing of his birds."

  On page 229 of the book we find out that these pigeons were used for more than just sport.

     "To supplement his income, in 1940 he [a contract miner] opened a bar in Tresckow, a bar still in operation today.  Being close to the pigeon scene, he took advantage of his access to the pigeons killed during the matches, buying them at the prevailing price of six birds for twenty-five cents.  His wife made chicken broth or hor d'oeuvres which were served at the bar.

    " The preparation of the birds for consumption was a tedious task.  After the feathers were plucked off, the birds were placed in a dish and saturated with alcohol and burned.  This procedure singed the fuzz from their bodies.  They were then cut into small pieces, soaked in salt water and vinegar over night, and the next day later they were cooked and packed in jars to be used as hor d'oeuvres at the bar.  They were also added to spaghetti sauce and eaten by the family."

THE HOMING PIGEON

      Funk & Wagnall's Encyclopedia states that pigeon is a common name applied to large columbiform birds in family columbidae, smaller birds in the same family being commonly known as "doves".  Pigeons have small heads with short necks, stout bodies with short legs and sleek plumage.  They are characterized by a fleshy protuberance at the base of the bill.  The birds, which are almost worldwide in distribution and which are most abundant in tropical and warm-temperature countries, dwell in trees or on the ground and feed on seeds, fruit and occasionally, insects.  They fly rapidly and are noted for their cooing call.  They build loose, almost flat nests of twigs, bark, straw and weeds; the female lays one or two tan or white eggs in a clutch.

     Perhaps the best-known species of pigeon is the rock pigeon, Columbia livia, which is a native of Europe and Asia.  The many domestic and fancy breeds of pigeons are derived from this species.  The rock pigeon, which is about thirteen inches long, is bluish gray above with black markings on the wings and with white hindquarters; below, it is purplish on the breast and bluish on the abdomen.  The "homing pigeon," which can be trained to return to a home site from a distance of one thousand miles, is a famous domestic breed of rock pigeon.  Birds of this breed were often matched in races; in World War II, World War I and in previous wars, "homing pigeons" were used to carry messages across battlefields.

     In the late 1930's, shooting pigeons was a very popular sport in the anthracite region, especially in Schuylkill and Luzerne counties.  Avid hunters began shooting pigeons to sharpen their eye for the upcoming hunting season.  However, shooting pigeons became a very competitive sport and large amounts of money were gambled at popular "shooting matches" which were held in Ashland, Frackville, Girardville, Gordon, Mahanoy City, Minersville, Port Carbon, St. Clair, Shenandoah, New Philadelphia and Tamaqua.  Pigeons used for "shooting matches" were frequently gathered from the rafters in farm barns where they built nests and gathered at night.  Selling pigeons for "shooting matches" earned the farmer a few dollars but more importantly, removed these pesky pigeons from creating dirt in the barns.  Farm pigeons used for "shooting matches" were usually small in size and very scrawny.  In addition, some men raised and trained pigeons especially for "shooting matches" and it became great sport to have pigeons react in special ways to confuse the shooter when they were released from the trap during a "trap and handle shooting match."  Large amounts of money were bet on these "bird men" or "trappers" because some pigeon trainers were very good at confusing the shooter and more frequently, had pigeons that could not be shot.

     The "homing pigeon" was a special breed of pigeon and less wild than those gathered in the farm barns.  Raising "homing pigeons" became a popular sport in the late 1930s and was usually looked upon as a more gentlemanly sport than shooting pigeons.

     "Homing pigeons" were always raised in a pigeon fancier's  loft, more frequently referred to as a "pigeon coop" or a "pigeon pen," with special care and special feeding.  They were usually trained to fly from specifically designated locations and return to the fancier's loft.  In the early 1940s, the Anthracite Racing Pigeon Concourse was established and included pigeon fanciers from Tremont and Williamstown, on the southern end, to Ashland, Centralia, Cressona, Frackville, Girardville, Mt. Carmel, New Philadelphia, Pottsville, St. Clair, in the center, to Hazleton and Nesquehoning, on the northern end.

     One of the very active gentleman "homing pigeon" fanciers during the competitive 1939 through 1964 era was Alfred A. Fritz Sr. (1906-1990) .  Al raised pigeons and raced them competitively from distances of 75 miles to 600 miles.  As with all competitive sports, in most races his pigeons did very well but in other races they were a little slow or in some cases, may not have made it home again.

     Al was introduced to the "homing pigeon" sport by Robert Klementovicz in 1931.  At age eleven, Robert became very interested in "homing pigeons" and had been raising pigeons for about a year when his mother, Bertha, passed away.  After his mother passed away and his father, Henry, married Nellie Fritz's mother, Magdalene Kareiva, Robert needed a new location for raising his pigeons.  Al agreed to raise Robert's pigeons in his yard even though his wife, Nellie, was not too pleased with the idea.  This early agreement introduced Al to thirty years of involvement with competitive "homing pigeons" racing.

     "Homing pigeons" were of a variety of special breeds (Bastien, Bricoux, Gits, Grooter, Gurney, Hansenne, Havenite, Logan, Miller, Osman, Sauffel, Sion, Stassart, Trenton, Vander Linten, Vandevelde and Vanbruaene).  These breed names were probably derived from the last name of "homing pigeon" fanciers who mated special varieties of birds and were very successful racing pigeon competitors.

     In addition, "homing pigeons" came in a variety of colors.  The most prevalent colors were blue, blue checker, black, dark checker and red checker.  Other less prevalent colors were cream, splash, grizzle, smokey blue and slate checker.  Some "homing pigeons" had several white wing feathers and were commonly referred to as having white flights, such as, blue white flight or blue checker white flight.