22 July 2013

Police Pups For Sale-Mother A Good Driver-Owner My Great-Grandfather

Discovers of all sorts await on Google Books, including this item from the May 1928 issue of the Hancock County [Illinois] Farm Bureau Bulletin.

The article wasn't one of those "major finds," but dovetailed nicely with a picture of my grandfather and two of his younger brothers that included the family dog Scamper. Apparently in 1928, great-grandfather Ufkes had a few pups to sell as evidenced by his advertisement shown below.

 "Police pups, color wolf gray, 7 weeks old, can be registered. Mother dog is a good cattle driver and watch dog. Price reasonable. Fred ufkes, Carthage, R. 2"

Hancock County [Illinois] Farm Bureau Bulletin,  Volume VIII, Number 10, May 1928, p 7; digital image GoogleBooks (http://books.google.com)--made from copy at the University of Illinois Library.
Of course, "police pups" would be an old style reference to a German Shepherd. The picture in which the dog (Scamper) appears is undated, but based upon the apparent ages of the brothers in the picture it would have been in the mid to late 1930s.

The Hancock County Farm Bureau Bulletin contains several other references to my great-grandfather Ufkes--enough to generate at least one additional blog post.

Great-granddad Ufkes is the only one of my direct line relatives to appear in the pages of the Hancock County Farm Bureau Bulletin. I  looked for Great-grandpa Habben, but family tradition told me his name would not be in the pages of the Bulletin. The reason why has been lost to history, but the fact that he was not a fan of the Farm Bureau is a story that's been passed down.