The Great Seattle Cow Menace of 1877
Before the city was paved, Seattle’s early residents struggled with 'educated' cows that dismantled fences and destroyed gardens under the cover of night.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Cattle roaming about our streets at night are becoming a growing nuisance. Our produce dealers on the wharves find it almost impossible to guard their hay and vegetables from them; two cows are now confined in the corral on Yesler’s wharf because of their repeated attacks on the merchandise. The owners of fine lawns and shrubbery find it almost impossible to guard against the midnight attacks of cattle roaming our streets, and it is no uncommon sight of a morning to see the beautiful shrubbery of some of our lot owners torn and trampled by these rangers. A number of vegetable gardens have been destroyed during the past week. An ordinary gate, well secured, is no hindrance to the average city cow who once determines to nip the tender grass or crisp cabbage beyond. Ever so substantial fences sometimes fail to protect the enclosed premises, and yield to the pressure brought to bear by these experienced foragers. What a cow, educated to the business, does not know about finding the weakest point of attack on an enclosure, can be told in a very small space. The only remedy is for people who have cattle running at large in our city to have them secured at night. Let them run on the commons in the day time, when they can be watched, but do keep them at home nights.
“What a cow, educated to the business, does not know about finding the weakest point of attack on an enclosure, can be told in a very small space.”
Long before Seattle grappled with urban density and modern zoning, residents were already fighting over the shared use of public versus private space. The image of 'educated' cows outsmarting fences serves as a colorful historical reminder that the city’s struggle to balance private property rights against public nuisance is as old as the streets themselves.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.