While working on our houses and buildings index (coming soon!), volunteer Lee Ehman came across this curious article published June 9, 1910 in an unspecified local newspaper:
“A large Plymouth Rock hen escaped from a coop in a local grocery yesterday, mounted to the third story of the court house and laid an egg at the entrance to the dome, defying the recent ordinance of the city council prohibiting fowls from running at large.
The hen entered the east door of the building chased by a boy from the store, saying that he could not find her. Late in the afternoon as Sandy Cardwell, custodian, was sweeping out the court room, he heard the cackle and going back in the direction of the noise, found the hen and a nice big egg. The hen did not want to leave the building, and only after the repeated ‘shooing’ of Mr. Cardwell assisted by Deputy Sheriff Routte would she descend the marble stairs to the first floor again. Sandy says the hen was honest and took that means of paying her share of the taxes.”
Post Submitted by Emily Noffke (Research Library Manager)