JULIA HILLMAN STRITTMATTER:
A LIFETIME IN ENGLISH SHEPHERDS
©2006 by Vivian Flynt
It didn’t take long to remove the rose-colored glasses. Twelve-year-old Julia Hillman’s first English Shepherd litter was just a few days old when disaster struck. The dam was dead, as were most of her whelp. A couple of puppies still clung precariously to life. “I moved her two remaining pups into my bedroom. I fed them warm milk from a spoon and nursed them around the clock”, reminisces Julia. Thankfully, the orphans lived, grew, and thrived.
After such an experience, most children would have vowed never again. But Julia’s initiation into the responsibilities of being a breeder only made her vow to do better the next time. The year was 1938, and for the next twenty years Julia Hillman Strittmatter would raise purebred, United Kennel Club-registered English Shepherds.
The Hillman family farm was located in Tabernacle, New Jersey. Tabernacle was so tiny, though, that their mail went to the post office in neighboring Vincentown. The Hillmans had milch cows, Poland China pigs, chickens, ducks, guineas, and a couple of working English Shepherds. Julia wanted their sheppies to have puppies, but her parents didn’t want to be bothered. Finally, after much pleading, they agreed to breed the pair, but only if Julia shouldered the responsibility for raising and selling the pups.
Neither parent foresaw how quickly their daughter’s dream would turn into a nightmare when a nest of hornets attacked the dam and her helpless babies. But Julia dug deep and did right by the surviving puppies. The glowing reports she received from the pups’ new owners taught this young girl a valuable lesson: For a responsible breeder success is measured in the praise and compliments her charges garner. Julia was hooked.
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•Julia Hillman, Vincentown, N.J. a litter of five, sired by Louck’s Ponto (224-817-L) ex Hillman’s Lassie (264-899).
Julia Hillman, Vincentown, N.J. a litter of five, sired by Louck’s Ponto (224-817-L) ex Hillman’s Lassie (264-899).Both Ponto and Lassie were bred by H. G. Loucks of Vermilion, Ohio. Mr. Loucks was a foundation English Shepherd breeder who bred the first sheppies ever registered (single registered and litter registered). Some of the Loucks-owned English Shepherds carried the kennel prefix “Ohio”, while others had the prefix “Vermilion”.
In addition to UKC’s Bloodlines, Julia advertised in agrarian magazines such as Rural New Yorker and American Agriculture. She sold her UKC-registered puppies all over the eastern United States. Julia shipped her pups by train, in orange crates her dad built for her.
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•Julia Hillman, Vincentown, N.J. a litter of six, sired by Louck’s Ponto (224-817-L) ex Hillman’s Lassie (264-899).
Julia Hillman, Vincentown, N.J. a litter of six, sired by Louck’s Ponto (224-817-L) ex Hillman’s Lassie (264-899). Lassie saved the life of Julia’s little sister, Verna, after she fell into the hog pen. Because Lassie was in heat, she was locked in the shed. Realizing that Verna was in trouble, Lassie jumped through a glass window to come to Verna’s aid. Fortunately, neither Lassie nor Verna was injured.
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•AT STUD, Ozark Mountain Rex (270-639), fee $10.00. Perfect black and tan
AT STUD, Ozark Mountain Rex (270-639), fee $10.00. Perfect black and tan markings, natural heeler, and proven breeder of large litters. Rex is from the
Semy Kennel, Willow Springs, Mo. Would sell him. Walter Whetsel, Route 2,
Anderson, Ind.
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•REGISTERED English Shepherd pups from heel-driving parents. Sire, Ozark
REGISTERED English Shepherd pups from heel-driving parents. Sire, Ozark Mountain Rex. Four months old and ready to start now. Healthy and
beautiful.
Farm raised. Miss Julia Hillman, Vincentown, N.J.
Ozark Mountain Rex was bred by O.O. Grant of Willow Springs, Missouri, the most influential person in the English Shepherd breed. It was O.O. Grant whose efforts resulted in the breed’s recognition by the UKC in 1927. Dedicated to preserving the natural qualities of these remarkable dogs, he also contributed greatly to the first English Shepherd breed standard. If anyone deserves the title patriarch of the breed, it is O.O. Grant.
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•‘PR’ REGISTERED English Shepherds, four months old puppies, also some eight
‘PR’ REGISTERED English Shepherds, four months old puppies, also some eight weeks old. Partly trained, make excellent ratters, cow companion dogs. Julia
Hillman Strittmatter, Sewell, N.J.
By now Julia was married to Francis (Bud) Strittmatter. She and Bud bought a farm in Sewell, New Jersey. Julia’s English Shepherds were now Purple Ribbon registered. For a UKC-registered dog to obtain the ‘PR’ designation in those days it had to have six generations of known ancestors and all of the fourteen ancestors within the last three generations had to have been registered with UKC.
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•PURPLE RIBBON REGISTERED – English Shepherd pups from real working
PURPLE RIBBON REGISTERED – English Shepherd pups from real working parents that drive cows, kill rats, take care of the children and even help put the
baby chicks to bed. Wonderful watch dogs, lots of common sense and grit. Born
heelers. Julia Hillman Strittmatter, Sewell, N.J.
From the get-go farmers have always put a big emphasis on English Shepherds being gritty. As the saying went, “They’ve got so much grit, sand runs in their blood.” Grittiness was synonymous with strong working instinct. That grittiness, however, had to be tempered. Thus sheppies were also said to have abundant common sense, meaning they were calm and easily trained.
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•PURPLE RIBBON Registered English Shepherd puppies. These puppies come
PURPLE RIBBON Registered English Shepherd puppies. These puppies come from parents that really bring home the cows. They have lots of common sense
and are born with that heel-driving instinct. These dogs are wonderful with the
children and fine watch dogs and ratters. Julia Strittmatter, Sewell, N.J.
As Julia’s Bloodlines ad shows, her English Shepherds were all-purpose chore dogs. Julia said the most sheppies she ever had at one time was four.
By the late-1950s, as Julia and Bud’s family grew to include four girls, increasing family duties dictated Julia get out of breeding dogs. The girls begged their mother not to quit raising puppies, but Julia felt it was time to retire Tippy, Princess and Pal.
But Julia found she couldn’t get English Shepherds out of her blood. After the girls were grown and on their own, Julia and Bud decided to once again add a sheppy to the Strittmatter household.
In 1992 the Strittmatters drove to Kaschak Farm in Waterford, Pennsylvania. Theresa Kaschak and David Kaschak’s Anderson-bred female Kaschak’s Mitzi had whelped a litter of sixteen puppies sired by their Shininger-bred male Kaschak’s Brandy. Julia picked out a tricolor female pup, who she and Bud named Lady. Their daughter, Michelle, picked out a male and named him Buddy.
Buddy passed on last winter, but Lady is nearing her fifteenth birthday and still going strong. Eighty-year-old Julia is pleased her children and grand children got to grow up with English Shepherds. With any luck her first great grandchild – due in February 2007 – will also know the joy of an English Shepherd.
