The Wolf of Blooming Grove
by Tim Campbell · first published 8 September 2017 · his original post
According to certain cousins and descendants of the Cumpston family, this wolf was raised by Curtis Cumpston of Blooming Grove. Curtis was the son of Fred Cumpston and my great aunt Flora Campbell. The Cumpston farm was located about 3 miles south of BG near the old Pevehouse Cemetery, but the Cumpstons eventually moved to town and their home was located in the curve of Ramsey Street, across from the present Jr High School, just north of the new gym parking lot. It was still there when I was a kid. Anyway, sometime around in the early 1920s a fellow named Lyman Davis, who must have come through Blooming Grove selling his not- yet-famous chili out of the back of a wagon, bought the wolf from Curtis, and soon thereafter named his chili Wolf Brand Chili. Davis hauled the caged wolf wherever he ventured., and soon began to draw great crowds who were fascinated by the wolf of Blooming Grove (whom Davis named Kaiser Bill), and who lined up to buy the tasty chili. Of course Curtis Cumpston, being perhaps a naive young fellow failed to obtain a royalty agreement with Davis during the sale transaction and rather than hitting the big time with his Wolf of Blooming Grove, he became a fine auto mechanic. Curtis was also somewhat of an inventor and entrepreneur and according to my father he owned what was maybe the first gas stove in Navarro County, which scared all of his neighbors out of their wits, because they were sure his house would explode at any moment.