Benjamin H. Hardaway, III, MFH died peacefully at his home on Thursday, October 19, 2017 at the age of ninety-eight. Funeral services were held Tuesday, October 24th. Interment at Linwood Cemetery was private. A memorial service was held at 2:00 pm, followed by a reception at Hardaway Hall in Midland, Georgia.
Ben was arguably the most widely-known American foxhunter throughout the foxhunting world and the most influential American breeder of foxhounds of the twentieth century. He had a passion for hunting all manner of wild game from his childhood days until his last. He hunted small game and birds with a gun, rabbits and coon with hounds, foxes with foxhounds and deer with lurchers.
He established the Midland Fox Hounds (GA) in 1950 and served as Master for sixty-seven years and huntsman for much of that period. He adored the July foxhound for its activity and aggressive hunting style, traits to which he could well relate. Ben’s favorite description of a successful foxhunt was “short, sharp, and decisive.”
July was the name of a foxhound directly descended from the famous, hard-driving Irish hounds, Mountain and Muse, imported to Maryland in 1814. Late in the nineteenth century, July was crossed with Birdsong hounds and other well-bred Georgia hounds, producing a strain of American foxhound known as July.
Ben Hardaway with a July foxhound.Ben would have happily hunted his pure Julys forever, but when the white-tailed deer migrated to his hunting country he realized he needed a more biddable outcross to deer-proof his pack. Ben traveled the hunting world seeking the perfect cross that would hunt aggressively like the July, yet be steady on deer. Fortunately, Ben was able to support many hounds in kennels, and he experimented for years with all manner of crosses. Finally, with the help of Ikey Bell, father of the modern English foxhound, and Elsie Morgan, MFH of the West Waterford Foxhounds (IR), Ben found what he was looking for in the fell hound blood from the English-Scottish Border country. It took many more years of experimental matings to narrow down those bloodlines to pre-potent hounds that could breed to type. The result, the type now known and used in every hunting country in the world, is the Midland Crossbred.
With his now deer-proof pack, Ben began traveling to Virginia and elsewhere with his hounds. Deer had become a serious problem for many other foxhunting packs, and Ben soon earned the respect of other Masters and huntsmen, impressed with his Midland Crossbred pack of hard-hunting hounds that didn’t riot.
Two of Ben’s historic road trips in 1989 and 1991 received a lot of attention. Ben and his foxhounds came to Virginia for a friendly replay of the Great Hound Match of 1905 in which A. Henry Higginson pitted his English hounds against the American hounds of Harry Worcester Smith in the Piedmont Fox Hounds country. The Higginson-Smith match was a serious grudge.
In 1989, the Piedmont Fox Hounds were celebrating their 150th anniversary. Randy Waterman, MFH and huntsman at Piedmont, suggested that Ben bring his Midland hounds for a friendly competition in the manner of that earlier match. The meets were highly publicized, and sporting journalists from England and the U.S. came to cover the competition. Judges for the first meet were Dr. Joe Rogers, MFH and huntsman of the Loudoun Hunt (VA); Farnham Collins, MFH, Millbrook Hunt (NY); and Bobby Joe Pillion, first whipper-in at the Blue Ridge Hunt (VA).
Everyone had such a good time that Randy and Ben decided to do it again in 1991. Once again, Farnham and Bobbie Joe were able to judge, and this time Duck Martin, MFH, Green Spring Valley Hounds (MD) was the third judge. Bobbie Joe gave me a ticket for one of the hunting days, a pass rarer than World Series tickets behind the first base dugout. Ben’s hounds were hunting that day, giving me my first introduction to the Midland pack.
“I first met the Ambassador of Foxhunting, Ben Hardaway, MFH, of the Midland Fox Hounds in 1973,” wrote Oliver Brown, MFH of the Rappahannock Hunt in 2012. “It was Ben’s first trip to Virginia, and I was in awe of this traveling foxhunting circus. His members were so excited as were his hounds to show their adaptation to a different territory. Many more times did he come to hunt with us, and I also had the pleasure of being invited to hunt with him in his country.”
Oliver’s story is one example of so many similar stories that can be told by so many Masters and huntsmen. With his large breeding program, Ben always had puppies to draft. Today, the Midland Crossbred is found in hunt kennels all over the United States, as well as in England, Ireland, and Australia. As Epp Wilson, MFH, Belle Meade Hunt (GA), is fond of saying, “The sun never sets on the Midland Crossbred.
Ben Hardaway was a 2009 inductee into the Huntsmen’s Room at the Museum of Hounds and Hunting in Leesburg, Virginia. He was President of the Masters of Foxhounds Association of America from 1981 to 1984. He served as Director of the American Foxhound Club; Vice President of the Georgia Wildlife Federation; Race Committee Member, Atlanta Hunt Meeting & Steeplechase, Inc.; member of the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance; and Past President of the Georgia-Florida Field Trial Club. He was made an Honorary Member of the Masters of Foxhounds Association of England for his expertise in the breeding of foxhounds, and received the Julian Marshall Award from Mrs. Marshall and Terry Griffin in June 2003 from the Bryn Mawr Hound Show Association.
Ben wrote, and in 1997 published a limited edition book about his life. It’s a fascinating account of a boy obsessed with hunting, hounds, and dogs from his earliest childhood. He was a man who never lost that obsession, yet found the time to lead the engineering and construction company his grandfather founded. And he never forgot the people in his life who helped make him the man he became.
“Mattie Attica was my first and best friend,” Ben wrote, “my mentor, my teacher, and I respected her incredible instincts. Mattie was half-Negro and half native-American Indian. Her body was lean and muscled and she was as lithe as a cougar. She moved with all the grace and agility reminiscent of her ancient Native American ancestors, and like them she had remarkable hunting skills and uncanny wisdom in the woods.
“Mattie was hired as a nursemaid for me. I was notoriously hyperactive and always into one thing or another until [my mother] was driven to distraction. Mattie’s way of dealing with [me] was to take me into the woods and keep me there all day until I was worn out. It was during that time in the woods with Mattie that my instinct as a hunter was awakened.”
Mattie knew a lot about hunting and game, probably from growing up poor and hunting to put food on the table. She could pick up a stick with a knot on the end, sneak up on a rabbit in its bed, and throw the stick in a way that would kill it instantly. During those days in the woods, she started Ben on the road to becoming a huntsman.
Ben was born September 28, 1919 in Columbus, Georgia and grew up there and in Hardaway, Florida. He graduated from the Virginia Military Institute with a B.S. in Civil Engineering in 1940. Ben served during World War II in the Armored Cavalry as aide to General Manton S. Eddy, achieving the rank of Major. He was awarded the Bronze Star and the Silver Star.
Ben was active in business, sports, and the civic life of Columbus. He was Chairman of the Board of the Hardaway Company, which built major bridges, dams and roads across the country. He was a member of the St. Paul United Methodist Church and served on the Columbus, Georgia School Board. He was a member of the Board of Directors of Saint Francis Hospital. He was a long-time supporter of Brookstone School and donated a new track to Hardaway High School. He also served as a member of the Board of Directors of Royal Crown Cola. In 2010 he was inducted into the Chattahoochee Valley Sports Hall of Fame.
His family and friends will remember him as a fun-loving man with a sharp sense of humor and a vivid, hilarious way of telling a story. He took his responsibilities to his family, business, and community seriously while being a generous host and the life of many a party. Ben lived life boisterously, confidently, and recklessly and never lost his enthusiasm.
Survivors include his daughters Page Hardaway Flournoy, Mary Lu Hardaway Lampton, Susannah Meade Hardaway, and Ann Hardaway Taylor; his sister Sarah Hardaway Hughston, seven grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren.
The family is grateful to Beverly Miller, Curt Elver, Adell Hicks, Mark Reisinger, Marie Kogut, Curtis Johnson, Thressa Slaughter, Margie Coleman, Kay Gantt, Sandra Tuggle, Raymond Leonard and Rhonda Robinson for the excellent care they gave Mr. Hardaway.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the U.S. Sportsman’s Alliance or St. Paul United Methodist Church.
Posted October 27, 2017
Benjamin H. Hardaway, MFH, Midland Foxhounds and Major Charles Kindersley, MFH, Eglinton and Caledon Hunt (ON) at the 1975 Virginia foxhound Show at Oatlands. / Douglas Lees photo