LENAWEE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, INC. 
Cat Trouble In Lenawee County By Ray Lennard (Board Member of LCHS and Curator of Thompson House Museum) Regular readers of the Daily Telegram or the Tecumseh Herald are reminded that Lenawee County, especially the Tecumseh area, are deluged with stray cats. A committee has even been formed to combat the unwanted cats. This group, using a “catch, neuter (or spay), and release” policy are slowly making headway in the unwanted cat population of the County. In the 1830’s Lenawee County had a different sort of cat trouble….not enough cats! Mr. Robert Worden of the Hudson area reported about his experience with felines in a story which was recounted in “Bean Creek Valley”, published in 1876 by James J. Hogaboam: The first settlers had an enemy in what is called the deer-mouse. They were numerous, would crawl through an incredible small hole, and were very destructive. Before we were aware of it they had got into our trunks and seriously injured our clothing. We had no place of security for anything they wanted. My wife had brought with her some starch done up in a paper. One day, wanting to use some, she found the paper that contained the starch, but no starch. It had been carried off by the mice, and it could not be replenished short of a trip of twenty miles; but some time after the occasion to use an empty bottle stowed away, and in the bottle we found our starch, put there from the mice; it was not possible for them to get into the bottle. We were in great want of a house-cat to destroy the mice, and they were very scarce in this section of the Territory. I took a bag and started for Adrian on foot to procure a cat, if possible. I could find none in Adrian, but heard of some kittens three miles south of Adrian at Col. Bradish’s. I went to Col. Bradish’s, but was a little too late—they had let the last one go the day before. I then started for home, came about two miles this side of Adrian [ed note: West] and stopped over night with a family of English people. I told the lady of the house of my unsuccessful efforts to find a cat. She sympathized with me, and said they had been similarly situated. When morning came and I was about to start for home the lady said: ‘I have been thinking of your troubles through the night; I have but one cat, a great nice one, and I have concluded to lend it to you until I shall want it.’ I took the cat in the bag and started for home—on foot, of course—and before I got home with it I thought it a very heavy cat. We kept the cat but a few weeks; it was killed by the wild-cats, which were quite plenty at the time. So when you see the neighborhood stray tomcat in your yard…remember the early settlers and their want for cats in Lenawee! Return To The Museum |
Lenawee Historical Museum Web Page by: Charles Paul Keller Crpmiz@aol.com http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~keller/museum/work/cats.html December 2, 2006
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