The Ward Brothers

Masters of Decoy and Decorative Bird Carving

For over 50 years the carving partnership of L. T. Ward & Bro. of Crisfield, Maryland, created waterfowl decoys and decorative bird carvings that established and maintained a unique standard of realism and artistic expression. Stephen Ward (1895-1976) and Lemuel T. Ward, Jr. (1896-1984) were makers of hunting decoys until the early 1950’s when the introduction of plastic factory made hunting decoys and a growing collector demand for their realistic carvings prompted them to switch to production of miniature and life-sized decorative birds.

Crisfield on the "Eastern Shore" of the Chesapeake Bay was literally created by the seafood industry. Located on a marshy peninsula, the town was built on a base of discarded oyster shells, and prospered when the railroad and steamship lines became available to carry the town’s rich harvest of seafood to eastern cities.

Market hunting of waterfowl was not as widely practices around Crisfield as it was in the upper Chesapeake Bay, and those Crisfielders that hunted for the market used methods that relied less on large spreads of decoys than did the elaborate gunning rigs of the upper bay. Thus the typical round-bottomed upper bay decoy never became established in the Crisfield area.

With the outlawing of market hunting and the increasing numbers of sport hunters in the early 1900’s, a distinctive school of decoy carving evolved in the Crisfield area. These decoys were flat bottomed, often oversize, with a nicely carved head that somewhat exaggerated the bird’s characteristics. The overall effect was a very lifelike decoy that was highly visible and rode the water like a duck; quite different from the upper bay decoys that rolled and danced to the movement of the waves. One of the pioneer carvers of this Crisfield school was L. Travis Ward, Sr., (1865-1926) father of Lem and Steve.

Both Ward brothers were barbers by trade, as was their father. Neither Lem nor Steve worked as a waterman or hunted commercially, but both were avid fishermen and hunters. Their close observations of the wild birds is reflected in the realistic form and painting of their decoys. Other hunters of the time could not understand why the Wards would allow ducks and geese to alight in their decoys and swim around while they studied their shapes and color patterns. Decoy making for the Ward brothers started about 1920 between customers in the old barbershop near Asbury Church, and gradually moved to their home workshop as their decoy business increased. The Depression years of the 1930’s brought an increase in the demand for their decoys as more people hunted simply to feed their families. When better economic times returned, a growing interest in sport hunting, especially at the gunning clubs that flourished on the waterfowl rich marshes and islands of the Bay, provided a demand for their decoys from hunters who could afford the best. Many clubs sent their decoys back to the Ward’s shop annually for repair and repainting.

Lem Ward was the innovator, always experimenting with new styles and paint patterns, perhaps to confound those who would copy his work, but mostly to satisfy his desire to create a more lifelike bird. Lem made a few decorative carvings as far back as 1918, but the change from working decoys to decoratives did not come until the 1950’s.

Steve Ward is credited with doing most of the decoy carving, and Lem with most of the painting, but this tends to oversimplify the close working relationship between the two brothers who formed a unique carving partnership. Lem and Steve Ward had no training in art; their almost insular life in Crisfield isolated them from other artists and wildfowl reference materials. Neither of them owned an automobile, preferring to bicycle into town to shop and socialize. The inspiration for the carved and painted waterfowl that they created came from their keen observation of the birds that they knew so well in the surrounding marshes and waterways.

The Early Period

Ward Brother decoys can be generally placed in four carving periods. The early period, from 1916 to about 1932, includes a wide range of styles that seem to defy the chronology of the dates that are often written on the decoy bottoms, if one tries to assemble them in order of the degree of refinement in their carving and painting. Obviously, this period was a time of experimentation and development.

2nd Carving Period

The second carving period from the early 1930’s to 1945 saw the creation of the Classic or 1936 style that became their standard, probably in response to large orders from sport hunters and gunning clubs. These decoys achieved a level of realism that was never equaled by any other carver of the period.

The Third Period

The third period from 1945 to 1950 saw production of the classic style of cedar decoys replaced by a simpler, service decoy with a balsa body and pine or cedar head. The end of World War II brought a renewed interest in waterfowl hunting and the surplus balsa life rafts provided an abundance of easily worked material which enabled the Wards to meet the growing demand for their decoys. Although the softer balsa bodies did not permit the freedom of artistic expression that is evident in the cedar birds, the decoys still carry the Wards’ distinctive style of carefully proportioned and carved heads, slightly turned to the left or right. Paint patterns on the balsa birds tended to be simpler, because of the increased rate of production.

The Transition Period

The 1950’s was a transition period between working and decorative decoys for the Wards. Good carving wood was scarce, factory-made decoys supplied the needs of most hunters, and their customers were looking for decoys to grace the mantle instead of the marsh. Steve Ward started to make miniature pairs in the gunning decoy style. He also carved a "collector grade" of full-sized decoys which Lem painted.

The 1960’s found Lem creating highly decorative carvings, beginning with wall-mounted pairs of flying ducks, often on a painted sky background. Lem’s decoratives were mainly pairs of ducks in a swimming position, usually with raised wing tips and often with one or both birds in elaborate displays of preening or wing-stretching. He also carved many geese and a few brant in the same style. Although he specialized in floating waterfowl, Lem did a number of standing ducks and other birds on natural bases. These carvings included geese, shorebirds, gulls, grouse, quail, and a peregrine falcon.

Steve’s failing eyesight in the late 1960’s ended his carving days; a stroke and other medical problems in the early 1970’s forced Lem’s retirement, thus ending five decades of carving that produced an estimated 25,000 decoys and decoratives.

Most Ward decoys in collections and practically all of their decorative carvings have been signed by one or both of the brothers. These signatures vary in form from a simple printed "L.T. Ward-Bro." and the year carved, to presentation messages and occasionally poems.

The excellence of the Ward Brothers hunting decoys brought orders from a New York City advertising agency, a Chicago sporting goods store, gunning clubs from California and Venezuela, and other places far away from Crisfield, Maryland. This recognition is perhaps the most sincere tribute to the talents of "two dumb county boys" as Lem Liked to say, who transformed the craft of decoy making to an art form.