1883: Ned, the First Cat to Cross Over the New Brooklyn Bridge

Posted: 19th January 2018 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories
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The first cat to cross over the Brooklyn Bridge was a gray cat named Ned. (This is not Ned)

The first cat to cross over the Brooklyn Bridge was a gray cat named Ned. This vintage kitty is not Ned, but isn’t he cute?

In 1866, the New York State Legislature passed legislation authorizing the construction of an East River bridge to connect Manhattan and Brooklyn. A year later, the New York Bridge Company was incorporated and John A. Roebling, who presented a design for a 1,600-foot bridge, was appointed chief engineer for the Brooklyn Bridge.

Following a series of major construction milestones and setbacks—including John Roebling’s death, son Washington Roebling’s injuries from “caisson disease” (decompression sickness), and William “Boss” Tweed’s arrest for stealing public funds—the new Brooklyn Bridge (then called the East River Bridge) opened to traffic 16 years later on May 24, 1883.

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1905: The Contentious Burial of Bo-Bo, the Blenheim Spaniel of Civil War Hero General Daniel E. Sickles

Posted: 30th December 2017 by The Hatching Cat in Dog Tails
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General Daniel E. Sickles with his Blenheim Shepard, Bo-Bo, sometime around 1904.

General Sickles with his Blenheim spaniel, Bo-Bo, sometime around 1904 in New York City.

“It is not surprising and will scarcely cause any comment if some soft-hearted or soft-brained woman goes into hysterics over the death of her pet dog or cat, and gives herself up to the most extravagant grief over his demise, but the spectacle of a veteran soldier who fought with distinction in the Civil War, doing the same thing, is rather strange.”—Arkansas Democrat, September 2, 1905

Born on October 20, 1819 (the birth year is not absolute), Daniel Edgar Sickles was the son of Susan Marsh Sickles and George Garrett Sickles, a New York City patent lawyer and politician. Much has been written about General Sickles, so for the purpose of this story, I’ll sum it up in one paragraph as follows:

General Daniel E. Sickles was a Tammany Hall politician; a murderer (in 1859 he shot and killed Philip Barton Key, the son of Francis Scott Key, but he was acquitted on the grounds of temporary insanity); a Civil War hero (he was awarded the medal of honor for his services at Gettysburg); a two-time Congressman; a good friend of the Princess Lwoff-Parlaghy (he purchased a lion cub for her in 1908 when she was living at the Plaza Hotel); and the owner of a purebred Blenheim spaniel named Bo-Bo.

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1906: Speck, the Momma Cat Who Saved Christmas for 16 Families at 27 Second Avenue on the Lower East Side

Posted: 16th December 2017 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories
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Speck was an ordinary New York City cat who led an ordinary life in Frederick Turkowsky’s plumbing shop at 27 Second Avenue. Up until December 5, 1906, very few people on the Lower East Side, save for Frederick, even knew she existed.

According to a plumbing trade journal published in April 1905, Frederick was already established in a shop at 28 Second Avenue when he opened a second basement shop and storeroom across the street in a four-story tenement at 27 Second Avenue. Speck spent much of her time in the basement shop, sleeping peacefully in the cozy box that Frederick provided for her. It was in this box that Speck gave birth to kittens during the week of Thanksgiving 1906.

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1903: Bob, the Mummified Cat of the Grand Union Tea Company in Brooklyn’s DUMBO

Posted: 11th December 2017 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Mascots, Cat Stories
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Bob the cat made his home in the Grand Union Tea Company building from about 1900 to 1900. The block-long, block-wide complex was bounded by Jay, Pearl, Front, and Water Streets, on what was once the farmland of Comfort and Joshua Sands.

Bob the cat made his home in the Grand Union Tea Company building from about 1900 to 1903. The large factory and headquarters complex at 58-68 Jay Street was bounded by Jay, Pearl, Front, and Water Streets, on what was once the waterfront property of Comfort and Joshua Sands.

In the 1904 edition of King’s Views of Brooklyn, the Grand Union Tea Company building in Brooklyn’s present-day DUMBO neighborhood was listed as the “largest warehouse and factory in the United States for teas, coffees, spices, flavoring extracts, baking-powders and soaps.” By the mid-1920s, the Grand Union warehouse had 10 acres of floor space. In addition to a yearly output of 32 million pounds of coffee and 4 million pounds of tea, the warehouse shipped 120,000 cakes of soap, 50,000 cans, 180,000 cartons, and 20,000 pounds of baking soda each day.

It was in this immense building that a black-and-white cat named Bob made his home for three short years.

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1886: Uno and Billy, the Wyoming Bear and Harlem Goat That Wreaked Havoc at the Oak Point Pleasure Grounds in the Bronx

Posted: 26th November 2017 by The Hatching Cat in Animal Attractions, Goats of New York
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"Bronco John" Harrington Sullivan was a cowboy and showman known for his tall tales.

“Bronco John” Harrington Sullivan was a cowboy and showman known for his tall tales. He performed at the Oak Point Pleasure Grounds in the Bronx in 1886.

What happens when an Indiana bear, a Harlem goat, a large crowd of people, and a Wild West cowboy with a silver-plated revolver all come together at a beer garden on the beach?

Yes, the following story is from my file called “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up.”

On January 8, 1886, two Harlem men set out to buy a goat. Not just any goat, but a goat that was tough enough to fight a large black bear in “Bronco John” Harrington Sullivan’s traveling Wild West show at the Oak Point Pleasure Grounds near Hunts Point in the Bronx.

After scouring the many vacant lots in Harlem without success, the men finally found what they were looking for on East 124th Street, in the stable of the Widow O’Toole. Mrs. O’Toole was rather reluctant to part with her goat, which was a family relic and a favorite among her children and neighbors.

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