The Beatty Hog

The Beatty Hog 

This is Henry Beatty of L-3 and William Miller is the father of Ann
Miller Beatty, wife of Elijah of L-3. This is not for the squeamish. 
Submitted by Donna Van Zandt [[email protected]] L-003

From the Farmer's Chronicle:
Circleville, Ohio-March 1868
The Beatty Hog 

I think it was in the year 1811, that my father, being in Baltimore, purchased three pair of pigs, the produce of a sow that had then quite recently been imported from China. He gave Mr. Henry Vanmeter, of Mad River, in the state, one pair for bringing the others home, and before their arrival Mr. William Miller, of this county, had coaxed him out of another pair, leaving himself but one pair. These he gave in charge to me, to feed and care for, which I did until the hogs had attained considerable size. These hogs all did well, and perhaps no county ever had a greater acquisition to their stock, or one that resulted in greater benefit to the country at large for the amount of money laid out. Yet, paradoxical as it may seem, the full bloods of themselves were not at all suited to the wants of the country at that time, because they could not travel; and as the great bulk of our hogs had to be sent to Baltimore on foot, they were, of course, unfit for that purpose; but their great value lay in crossing with the common stock of the country-and in that respect they were invaluable-a single cross nearly doubling the value of the old stock, which was, previous to that time, very indifferent. These hogs had very short legs and great bulk of body, and, doubtless, had more weight to their height than any other breed ever in Ohio. The remark was often made that, when very fat, they were highest when laying down-a remark not very far wrong. They were remarkable for their easy keep and for their great increase for amount of food consumed. 

Some years previous to the introduction of the China there had been another breed, called the old English, brought into this country. These were the most uncouth looking, and when feed was dear, the most unprofitable hogs that any country ever possessed. The Chinas and English were the very extremes of all hogs, I presume, ever in the state. The perfect antiposies of each other in every point and particular. The English, when full grown, were nearly the height of a common yearling steer, and perfect corn cribs. No amount of corn would make them fat in any reasonable time. In color white, the China black-though often peculiarly marked with a white list around their bodies, and sometimes the fore part of the hog white and the hind part black, with no intermingling of colors, but black always predominating. And from these two almost incongruous breeds Mr. Henry Beatty, who at the time was a tenant on the land of Mr. Miller, who still had the original boar brought from Baltimore, and Mr. Beatty having a full blood English sow, conceived the idea of founding a new breed, which he did in so skillful and judicious a manner as to crown his efforts with complete success; for undoubtedly, his new breed were the best hogs ever in the Scioto valley, and held their reputation twice or thrice as long as any other breed ever in the country. These hogs had not, in any very marked degree, a single characteristic of either of their progenitors, though in general appearance and character they approached the China much nearer than the English. They were in color beautifully marked with large spots of black and white, with almost lithographic exactness, and there were no false forms, no running back to either ancestor, and such was their uniformity in color and general form, that in seeing one hog you could not mistake another.

I have never seen any person who was fully acquainted with the Beatty hog that hesitated to say that they were the most beautiful and the best hogs for profit, in our "common way" of keeping, they ever knew. They were hardy and prolific, and sows good nurses, and could bear average handling better than any other good breed I have ever seen, and there was no deterioration in them while Mr. Beatty lived, which was for some fifteen years after he perfected his breed. We have often had the best breeds that could be heard of in other sections introduced into this country-from the Miami-numerous times; from Kentucky and the East, often-but none of them have been of any marked permanent utility; they were generally too tender, requiring too much care, and sows bad nurses. The second best breed, I think, we ever had here was what was called the Caldwell hogs, but I always thought they had the same origin as the Beatty hogs, only they were less skillfully bred, not having the uniformness of form or color of the Beatty hogs, but on the contrary, somewhat irregular, both in form and color-often showing in some degree the form of the old English, and strongly the color of the China. After Mr. Beatty had perfected his breed of hogs he bought a small farm in the immediate neighborhood of where I afterwards resided, and I had frequent opportunities of seeing his hogs, and conversing with him about them. He gave me his manner of procedure in detail, more than once, but I have too far forgotten it to attempt a citation with any confidence. Mr. Beatty also greatly excelled in raising corn; indeed, though almost illiterate, he was a man of no ordinary character. I would give a few examples of the great improvements and weights of these hogs, but fearing they might be considered savoring a little of the fabulous, I will refrain; but, in conclusion I will venture to give an account of the death of father's Baltimore Boar, inasmuch as it occurred in a rather singular manner. Father kept his boar until he was four or five years old; that is, he suffered him to live; he could not keep him anywhere, except in a post and rail enclosure. He would throw down any ordinary worm fence and go where he pleased. He grew to be of immense size. Good judges supposed, if made very fat, he would weigh 750 or 800 pounds net. He would go to town when he pleased, and not give the road for anybody or anything. There was a slaughter-house and tan-yard on his road to town, and the owners of each had complained to father that his hog had killed all their dogs but one, six in number, five of them large bull dogs. But these were a small comparative number of the dogs he had killed or maimed. At last a plan was laid to get clear of him and have some fun, too. From the first settlement of Chillicothe there had been a sporting club which, every year up to the time of the following transaction, had a bear trained to have a bear and dog fight. But this year they had failed in getting a bear, but was determined not to be cut out of the fight, so they had it planned before hand for some of them to keep a watch, and the first time Renick's boar came to town the watcher's must notify the club, and as all was ready, they could commence their sport without delay. So. Agreeable to arrangement, the fight came off-the boar and 30 dogs. But in a very short time the boar had laid out six dogs, besides quite a number badly wounded, and one of the principals of the party, Harry McAllister, told me afterwards, that if the men had not turned in and helped the dogs, the boar would have killed every d-d dog. I told him I thought the more dogs they put on him at once the faster he would kill. He said, "that is a fact, they were in each other's way." He then went on to tell me how expert the hog was in killing dogs, and said, "they never had a bear half so well trained." This hogs tusks were of enormous size and length, and his hide the next thing to that of the rhinoceros. W.R.


Last update: November 24, 2000