Anna Kaiser was a crazy cat women. Her husband, Hans, was not crazy about cats. Magistrate Ommen of the Yorkville Police Court had to take one side or the other, whether he liked cats or not. Before the couple married, Anna (née Ammann) had about 50 cats. She agreed to get rid of 20 of […]
Archive for the ‘Cat Stories’ Category
1905: The Crazy Cat Lady Who Had Her Day in Yorkville Police Court
Posted: 24th March 2019 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories, Crazy Cat LadiesTags: Hans Kaiser, Hugh Gaine, Hunters Key, New York City History, Pauline Von Mauderoth, Yorkville Police Court
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1901: Richard II and Richard III, the Swimming and Vegetarian Cats of the U.S. Barge Office at NYC’s Battery Park
Posted: 10th March 2019 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Mascots, Cat StoriesTags: Battery Park, Castle Garden, cats in history, Ellis Island, New York History, Richard Ganley
How far would your cats be willing to go to catch a rat? Would they be willing to jump in a river like this barge office cat Old New York once did? My two cats live indoors, and I’ve yet to see any type of rodent in my house, but I’d make a pretty high […]
1940: Strato Lizzie, the Mascot Cat of the TWA Pilots at NYC’s LaGuardia Airport
Posted: 12th February 2019 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Mascots, Cat StoriesTags: Daniel Rapelye, Glenn H. Curtiss, New York City History, North Beach, Strato Lizzie
Once upon a time–around 1638–a farmer named Hendrick Harmensen took his cows from New Amsterdam and re-settled on a point of land along the Bowery Bay, where the East River and Flushing Bay meet on the northern tip of what we now call East Elmhurst, Queens. For several years, Harmensen–also known as Henrick the Boor […]
1912: Captain, the New York City Feline Mascot of the RMS Carpathia
Posted: 3rd February 2019 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Mascots, Cat StoriesTags: Captain Rostron, Carpathia, cats in history, Chelsea Piers, New York City History, Pier 54, Titanic
On April 11, 1912, the RMS Carpathia departed from Chelsea Piers in New York City for Fiume (present-day Rijeka, Croatia), carrying about 740 passengers. The ship never reached its destination on this particular departure. Just after midnight on April 15, 1912, Carpathia‘s wireless operator, Harold Cottam, received some messages from Cape Cod stating they had private traffic for the Titanic. […]
1910: Nellie, the Beloved Class Cat of Brooklyn’s Van Pelt Manor Grammar School
Posted: 20th January 2019 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Mascots, Cat StoriesTags: Bensonhurst, Brooklyn History, J. Lott Nostrand, New Utrecht, New York History, Van Pelt Manor
As I often explain, not all of the cat stories of Old New York that I share with my readers have fairy-tale endings. Of course I prefer to tell happy stories. But I also believe that the kitties that met tragic ends also deserve some attention. This story of Nellie, the classroom mouser of the […]
