ELLA B. MOFFIT
1889 – 1945

In 1925, Mrs. Ella B. Moffit, who is often described as “a sportswoman from Poughkeepsie, New York,” made two major contributions to our sport. First she organized the first field trial club for Cocker Spaniels in the United States — the Hunting Cocker Spaniel Club of America — which is our oldest field trial club and continues to operate today as the Cocker Spaniel Field Trial Club of America . Second, as President of the Club, she organized the very first field trial for Cocker Spaniels. A highly regarded breeder, participant and author of two books, Mrs. Moffit’s contributions to our sport would continue over her lifetime. Therefore, it gives us great pleasure in this inaugural year of our space within the Hall of Fame, to recognize someone who energized participants and contributed so much in the first 20 years of cocker field trials.

The story of the first field trial is an interesting one. The trial had three stakes — Puppy, Novice and Open All-Age — with eighteen entries and 65 attendees. Many of the dogs ran in more than one stake. Mrs. Moffit handled a seven month old bitch in the Puppy Stake. According to Mrs. Moffit, this puppy was so small that she provoked merriment from the gallery and Mrs. Moffit came in for her share of teasing until the little bitch was sent on a retrieve. The masterful way in which she delivered a full grown cock pheasant almost as big as herself quickly turned ridicule to respect. The end result was that breeders at the trial, which was combined with a bench show, finally became excited about producing Cocker Spaniels for hunting purposes as well as good looks.

Mrs. Moffit was the owner of Rowcliffe Kennels. The name Rowcliffe comes from her husband, Albert Rowcliffe Moffit, who was the Chief Surgeon at Vassar Hospital in Poughkeepsie. As a breeder during the period when field trial participants continued to be involved in bench shows, Mrs. Moffit maintained that her goal was to breed a good looking dog that could hunt. Her kennel produced one Dual Champion — both a field trial and bench champion — and four Field Trial Champions in the early days of field trials. Her best dog, however, Rowcliffe War Dance, never completed his field trial championship as she took him out of competition so that others could win.

Mrs. Moffit wrote two books: The Cocker Spaniel – Companion, Shooting Dog and Show Dog – Complete Information on History, Development, Characteristics, Standards for Field Trial And Bench With Some Practical Advice on Training, Raising and Handling which she dedicated to Rowcliffe War Dance and Elias Vail Trains Gun Dogs – Covering the Pointing Breeds, The Spaniels and Non-Slip Retrievers, written with Mr.Vail who, along with Luke Medlin, trained her dogs.

She was tireless in her work to encourage and educated others and, later in her life, established a game farm where people could come to train their dogs. Interestingly, Mrs. Moffit would ultimately become known for the breeding of American Cocker Spaniels. Born in 1889, she died in 1945, one year before the American Kennel Club declared the English Cocker Spaniel a separate breed from the American Cocker Spaniel which we simply call Cocker Spaniel in this country. During her lifetime, there were relatively few English Cocker Spaniels competing in Cocker field trials.