Duryea Whitehackle

Breeding of Madigin Claret fowl. The foundation female of the Claret line was a straight comb wheaton colored Duryea Whitehackle presented to John H. Madigin by Col. Andrew P O'Conor. She was out of a Hail Stone Spangle Duryea hen and her son. The Foundation cock was a black red white legged lemon hackled cock that defeated Hanky Dean 6 times before he obtained him. In breeding he was out of a Mansell Pyle-Joe Gilman Grey cock and a John Beard yellow legged hen. Dean bred this " Red" son to the Duryea hen. The first 9 sons were the color of Claret Wine thoughfore their name "Clarets". In 1917 Madigin and Dean bred a cock "Black Spur" a cock of the New Hope strain from Mr. O'Conor. The New Hopes were a Mansell Pyle, Picket, Kearney- Duryea blend. The Pickets were a combination Black & Tan and John Hunter Black Brass Back. In 1918 Madigin Bred a Lawman Whitehackle ito the Black Spur Claret family. In 1928 Madigin bred a Duryea cock into the line. The Clarets have two infusions of white blood, both from Mansell Pyles which were White Cocks from England known for their cutting. As you can see numerous lines went into creating the Clarets, but mainly Whitehackle and Pyle, both yellow and white legged. So you can see that the Clarets can and will throw dark reds, light reds, spangles and whites they are all the same. People just associate Clarets with the dark red whitelegged type.


Chocolate Duryea Cock
I am breeding him to my hailstone hen.




Notes from Histories of Game strains:

The Duryea white hackles, the greatest family of gamefowl in this or any other country, that were according to O`Conor obtained by Duryea from a steamship agent in or near Boston and maintained in their purity by Duryea strictly by inbreeding for 30 years or more, during which time Duryea fought mains by the score and lost but one that one when his cocks took sick Mike Kearney was Duryea's feeder and caretaker,etc. In the past fifteen years we have at every opportunity questioned anyone we thought might have some information of this regard to either the Kearney or Duryea in the following we are going to tell you a few of the things we learned. Mike Kearney`s son Harry is still alive and while none of this information came to us directly from Harry, a considerable amount of it came from him indirectly. Several years ago in Troy, we met a Boston cocker who's name we have forgotten and who has since passed away. He was well-known on the game and was an ink salesman. Tom Kelly of Watertown knows who I mean. At any rate this man told me he visited Kearney on Long Island one time and told him he would like to see a pure Kearney white hackle, Mike reached in a peb and brought out a typical white hackle exept he had a round head and pea comb, he told mike he didn't know white hackles came pea comb. Mike said some of his did and offered no further explanation, it`s a well know fact the so-called Duryea fowl came both straight and pea comb. After Kearny`s association with Duryea when a pea comb cock was shown it was assumed by most men it was a Duryea cross, or a so-called straight Duryea. Today, Harry Kearney confirms the fact that their whitehackles came from Ireland with both pea and straight comb just as mike previously to the ink salesman. Further more and this came indirectly from Harry both him and his dad, Mike, preferred their brown reds to their white hackles, because they were gamer, stronger, and harder hitters, although the whitehackles were better cutters. They ran a saloon and had nowhere but a small back yard in which to breed and raise fowl. Until Mike hooked up with Duryea and took complete charge of the breeding and fighting of his fowl. Duryea had the fowl on his estate at Red Bank, New Jersey, and he, himself maintained a large racing and breeding stable in France. He spent considerable time there. Mike mated the yards at Red Bank and generally ran things with the fowl to suit himself. Duryea very much disliked a brown red chicken and forebode Mike to have any of then on the place. For that reason Kearny bred only a few and those few away from Duryea`s place, Duryea also had at Red Bank some fowl he got from Frank Collidge of Boston which we believe to be Boston round heads. They were oriental cross of some sort, according to Kearney they were very strong fowl good cutters and fighters but not bitter {game} enough to suit Kearney. However as Duryea liked them, they bred some and used them along with their white hackles and some crosses of the two. If the above is correct as we have every reason to believe it is, acutely there was never any such thing as a long inbred strain of Duryea fowl anywhere but in O`Conor's mind. O`Conor claimed Duryea lost but one main in thirty years while another writer in the warrior of that era contended Kearney probably lost more mains than any man that ever lived, in view of the above both men were wrong Duryea lost many mains and Kearney had a share in both the winning and the losing mains. As we stated above for a period of five or six years the warrior contained reams and reams about the Kearny and Duryea fowl. Gamest on earth, best winning family in history, etc. when probably the truth is the so-called Duryea fowl were nothing more than Kearney white hackles and some crosses of them on some jap or asil crosses from Frank Coolidge.