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17 – Purebred PIGEON
an amazingly short time. Almost as
if my Dad did a Vulcan mind meld on
her. This was a Godsend for all the
family. Laurie continued breeding and
maintaining our Trentons and her
knowledge grew as well as the list of
people that continued a following for
our birds. She was highly effective in
corresponding with those who flew and
loved my Dad’s Trentons.
During all these happenings I was
well into my career with the Nation-
al Park Service. At the time, I was
continuing in the footsteps of my Dad
with one heck of a collection of birds.
Sions, (both Hietzmans and Fenoyers),
Gurnays, Hansennes and of course,
our Trentons. Thanks to my job I lived
in many States and in some unique
locations and always kept my pigeons
with me. I spent eleven years down in
Key Largo, Florida. It was beautiful and
tropical and an awesome place to keep
birds. There was only one other Racing
Pigeon guy that lived down there and, of course, we became good
friends. He was a truly knowledgeable pigeon guy and basically
made the World of Racing Pigeons his whole life. He had no wife,
no kids, just pigeons and was damn good at it. Add that to a hardy
appetite for beer and he had it made! Since there was no club down
there, he would breed birds and send them out to money races. But
he missed handling his own loft of birds so eventually he moved
back up to Pennsylvania and, when he did, he took some Oshaben
Trentons with him.
His first year with his young-bird
Trentons was not what he was expect-
ing. They were pretty much the last
birds home from even a thirty-mile
training toss, sometimes not showing
up till the next day. One day he called
me, and I could tell he had a few too
many beers. He proceeded to tell me my
birds were crap and not worth the feed
they ate. Well of course that immedi-
ately ended a long-time friendship.
Years passed, and my phone rang and
unknowingly I just answered. I heard
someone say, “Chuck, please do not
hang up.” Yes, it was my old buddy and
he was calling to inform me he took the
I.F. (International Federation) Old Bird
Hall of Fame and not only was calling to
apologize but to thank me because he
won the 500 and 600 with some of the
Oshaben Trenton bloodline. It was nice
My Dad started with them back
in the 1930s and acquired a good bit of
them from guys that purchased directly
from Conrad Mahr, the founder of the
strain. My Dad never lost interest or
strayed from them and relied on his
other strains for young bird and short
(100 to 300-mile) races. His love was
the 500 and 600 milers.
He joined the A.U. (American
Racing Pigeon Union) in 1938 and es-
tablished a good name up in the Cleve-
land area. Then at age 50, he decided to
move 90 miles south to a 60-acre farm
in Lisbon Ohio, complete with horses,
cattle, duck, geese, peacocks and of
course, his pigeons.
Joining a new club and not having
much to show for the first few years
of racing was hard for him. The guys
would say, “Hey Ed, this is a Racing
Club, not a fancy club,” picking on his
Velvets, Reds, Red Mottles and the oc-
casional Yellows. By the third year his
Trentons showed their true colors and the teasing came to an end!
Throughout the years my Dad continued with racing but was not
what I call a hard-core racer by any means. Minimal training, a less
than basic feeding regiment consisting mainly of shelled corn from our
fields mixed with wheat or oats and a zero-medication program. Yet he
still succeeded in what was important to him and that was flying the
distance races. All his birds would have to fly the 500 before it would
go to the breeders’ loft. Having a bird that flew 18 times from 500 miles
or higher and having 600-mile day
birds. Even towards the end, having
AU-1020-LIS-95 winning two 500’s and
a 600-mile race and then go on to win
Champion Trenton at the American
Trenton Breeders convention/show of
2000.
Hours before his debilitating
stroke, the morning of the 16
th
of Sep-
tember, he woke and wrote his story
of how he started with his Trentons.
After all the chaos and confusion of
that early morning my Mom saw my
Dad’s notebook and pen placed upon
her always immaculate kitchen table. It
was still opened to the pages that told
his story!
My Dad passed away in No-
vember of 2002. My youngest sister
Laurie stepped in to care for his Birds.
Strangely enough she became incred-
ibly knowledgeable with pigeons in