January 13, 2012
Ward Brothers Were True Waterfowl Artisans
Lem Ward, the younger brother of the most famous duo of duck decoys carvers in North America, wasn't supposed to lead a productive life. In fact, doctors advised his parents that their sickly infant might not even live very long. Born in 1896 with a deformed left arm and a crippled hand with only three fingers, Lem was plagued by chronic bronchitis and fevers.
Remarkably, Lem's health improved as he grew, although it was apparent he would never possess the physical strength necessary be a waterman on Chesapeake Bay like his father, Travis Ward. At that time, most of the men born in Crisfield, Md., became watermen, a term for the hearty crab and oyster fishermen who lived off the bounty of the Bay. Many watermen were also market gunners, shooting train carloads of ducks destined for fine restaurants in large cities along the Atlantic seaboard.
As a relatively young man, Travis Ward gave up his life on the water, returning to town to start a barber business. He would mentor his sons, Steve and Lem, so they could learn a trade and be able to provide for themselves.
Although the brothers dutifully cut hair for pay, they found far more satisfaction in whittling wood, according to Lem's daughter, Ida Ward Linton in "The Story of Lem Ward."
Between customers, Steve would rough out bodies using a hatchet and finish the heads with a pocketknife. Depending on the day, wood shavings would outnumber locks of hair on the barbershop's floor. When Steve had finished shaping the bird, Lem would take over, carefully painting each decoy to match the colors and feather patterns of real ducks. That attention to details set a Ward Brothers decoy apart from the other blocks of the day, many of which could only be described as crude imposters.
Despite the craftsmanship the Ward Brothers exhibited, the decoys they produced were intended as gunning birds, not decorations. Eventually however, the artistry of Steve's carving and elegance of Lem's paint schemes caught the attention of collectors, especially after the Wards were profiled in National Geographic in 1950.
Doctors and businessmen ordered birds, and the brothers eventually quit barbering, expanded the shop, and hung a sign that read, "L.T. Ward & Bro. Wildfowl Counterfeiters In Wood."
Remarkably, the brothers handcrafted an estimated 20,000 wildfowl decoys from the small building on the Eastern Shore of Chesapeake Bay. Steve, robbed of his vision late in life, took to writing sporting poetry, much of it contained an anthology titled, "Closed for Business: The Complete Collection of Steve Ward's Poetry." Lem, who recovered from a stroke at age 76, pencil sketched and painted birds on canvas, and continued to carve and paint brilliant renderings of ducks and other birds until his death in 1984.
Today, the achievements of the Ward brothers, who rather fittingly also sang in a local barbershop quartet, are celebrated at the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art in Salisbury, Md. The museum chronicles the brothers, and hosts an extensive collection of stunning bird carvings and historically important waterfowl hunting artifacts. More information about the museum can be found online at wardmuseum.org.
If you visit — and it's worth the trip just to see the priceless decoys — you'll discover much more about the unlikely brothers who made blocks of wood truly come to life as an American art form.
— Paul Wait, pwait@deltawaterfowl.org