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Isaiah Kidd - Foundation Breeder
 Plott people attending the annual NPHA Plott Days events recognize Isaiah Kidd as the namesake of the annual award for the high-scoring dog of the three-night event. But just who was this man for whom the award was named and why did he deserve that kind of recognition? (PHOTO: Isaiah Kidd, left, and his longtime friend Matt Radford, prepare a coon for supper at bear camp in Brandywine, West Virginia in December of 1964.)
Isaiah Kidd was born December 11, 1882 in Beckley, West Virginia (my hometown). He was born the son of Lafayette and Mary Ann Evans Kidd. Isaiah was a building contractor, was a Republican politically, and became sheriff of Raleigh County, West Virginia, serving from 1925 to 1929. After retirement he became a farmer at Sinks Grove, near Union, in Monroe County, West Virginia. Isaiah Kidd died on June 21, 1967 and is buried at Mount Tabor Cemetery in Beckley.
When I was a youngster, Isaiah Kidd was noted to be the oldest living breeder of the Plott hound. He ran classified ads in Full Cry that always ended with the quote, “the latch string hangs on the outside.”
In December of 1971, while in Misawa, Japan, I wrote an article for Full Cry magazine titled “Visitin’ With Mr. Kidd." I share that article with you here.
VISITIN’ WITH MR. KIDD
As I remember it, I was about twelve years old when I made my first trip to Sinks Grove, West Virginia to visit the folks and hounds that inhabited the sprawling mountain farm that belonged to the “Plott Man,” Mr. Isaiah Kidd. Dad had been telling me of the elderly gentleman that once held the office of sheriff of our county but was now more popular for those gray brindle Plott bear hounds that he had bred and hunted for fifty years. Dad and I had some Plotts, but they were all dark brindles and I was anxious to see those hounds that were “striped like zebras.”
As we went through the gate and started up the lane to the big, white farmhouse, a chorus of hound voices that told even a lad that these were no pets greeted us. Those powerful mouths had to belong to some for real tree dogs. Countless hunts later confirmed that first impression. Before we could get out of the car the door opened and out stepped a gentleman whose snow white hair, sparkling eyes, and rosy cheeks reminded then of old “Santa” himself. Even later on, when the years began to take their toll, those eyes never lost that sparkle, especially when there was a Plott story to tell.
After a hearty welcome and all the proper introductions we accepted an invitation to sit on the porch and “talk a spell.” The afternoon turned to evening and the tales of the brindle hounds kept me wide-eyed and on the edge of my seat. These were tales of a man that lived an adventurous life filled with love and admiration for the Plott dogs. Those tales are still vivid and I remember how those eyes would sparkle as the days of following Old Bell, Crying Sam, and Brindle Boy were relived in the colorful and humorous way that was Mr. Kidd’s when he was talking Plotts.
The tale I remember best was about the great Bell, who stuck with the mean walking bear to the kill after three days of fighting which left five top bear dogs dead, including the great Crying Sam. That chase had taken in quite a few country miles and was no small feat in anyone’s book. The visit wasn’t all talk however and later that night those Kidd-bred Plotts showed us they could back up the talk anytime.
Dad and I made several such visits in the next few years and each one was a valuable experience. Mr. Kidd’s first love, with the exception of family and friends (he is shown in the thumbnail photo in the Plott History index with his beloved wife Frenchie) was his Plotts. In his fifty or so years of dedicated breeding, he produced a strain of coon and big game hounds second to none.
(PHOTO: A letter from Isaiah Kidd to Homon Fielder dated December 15, 1965.) 
The mountain streams adjacent to the Kidd farm are full of native brook trout and Dad and I would fish for them often during the spring and summer. Once we stopped by to see if we could get Mr. Kidd to go fishing with us. When we asked him, he gave us a grin and asked, “Will a Plott tree those brook trout?” After telling him we didn’t think so, he said in that case he wouldn’t be interested. All his spare time and energy was devoted to breeding the best Plott Hounds he could.
Although in his eighties, he was still quite a hunter. I remember one winter he got his deer the same as the rest of the “boys” and I believe it was the following summer he killed three foxes with a .22 and open sights. He still went on the bear hunts and his advice was always invited and respected by all.
I was in Florida in college when I received the word of his passing. As I read the letter I was deeply saddened by the passing of this great man that became a legend in the Plott Hound world. Mr. Kidd was a great inspiration to me and his enthusiasm and dedication in breeding his Plotts had instilled within me a desire to follow in his footsteps.
Since his death, the Plott fraternity has suffered the loss of others that gave their all for our breed. Joe Lucas, Rev. Frank Snyder, and Ricky RedEagle have also passed on but the effects of the dedication of these men will continue to surge through the veins of these great Plott hounds for years to come. The foundation has been laid and what a foundation it is. The task of building tomorrow’s Plott is up to we youngsters and I feel with the proper amount of dedication and effort we can be as successful as these great men have been.
Although Mr. Kidd is best remembered by Plott fanciers, it is my hope that anyone that was privileged to meet him will remember and be thankful for such a dedicated gentleman that has made our world a better place to live. (End.)
THE KIDD BRED PLOTT
Isaiah Kidd, like so many Plott breeders of his day and there weren’t that many of them, got his stock of Plotts from the Plott family in North Carolina. He had brindle cur-type dogs as a young man and spoke of them often. He loved bear hunting and from the best of my memory, moved to the farm at Sinks Grove after retiring from his contracting business. He loved to stand on the front porch of the white farmhouse and point toward the massive Peters Mountain range and relive the days when he was a younger man, hunting bears there.
 (PHOTO: Another letter from Mr. Kidd to Homon Fielder dated October 5, 1965.)
At what point I’m not sure I know, he began to breed light brindle-colored Plotts. I’m not sure if he crossed other breeds into them to get the effect but he did a great deal of inbreeding. Bear Pen Sam, a pup that was a gift to my dad at 6 months of age, was out of Kidd’s Geep. Geep was a gray-brindle product of the father/daughter cross of Kidd’s Rock to Kidd’s Goldie. Goldie was sired by Rock. It should be noted that we became involved with the Kidd-bred dogs when Isaiah was in the winter of his years. He, like so many breeders continued to breed dogs after he was too old to prove the stock. Jess Leatherman, a hired hand at the Kidd farm, hunted two of the last remaining of Mr. Kidd's hounds, Kidd’s Jeff and Kidd’s Gold Dust with good success, proving that the stock could still produce. Jeff was sold to Paul Doyle of Barton, Vermont and is in the NPHA Hall of Fame.
So intense was the desire to breed light brindle Plotts, many with the “gray” factor in their coats, that Isaiah produced a hound named Ghost that was buttermilk-colored with black stripes.
Summer before last, when Dad and I were in Monroe County trout fishing on Potts Creek, we stopped by the Kidd farm and I shot some video of a very special place in my youth and in the history of the Plott dog as well.
 (PHOTO: Steve Fielder with Kidd's Gold Dust, bred and owned by Isaiah Kidd at the time of his death. Gold Dust is shown with trophies she won at the IPHHA Plott Days in Richmond, Ohio. She was handled in the hunt by Jess Leatherman.)
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Last Updated by: Steve Fielder
1/18/2009 12:15:28 PM
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