For our April #ChronAmParty, we are celebrating National Pet Day a little late by looking at our furry friends in historic Nebraska newspapers.
When I think of pet news, my mind immediately goes to Hollywood’s famous heroic dogs like Rin Tin Tin and Lassie, as seen in this coverage of Rin Tin Tin III during World War II, these Omaha kids trying to win a Rin Tin Tin toy, and this MGM advertisement for the movie Lassie Come Home.
Not as famous, but still very much a hero is Shep of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who saved a boy from drowning. Closer to home, we find the story of Nickerson, Nebraska’s “Pet” – a fox terrier who saved Neal Johnson from a bull. For good measure this same page features two more dog stories.
What about cats? you may ask. Cat coverage in Nebraska’s newspapers is not as widespread, but our feline friends were not forgotten. The Nebraska advertiser from 1907 published a poem entitled “THE CAT” featuring the line “I’m known as that Great Fighting Tom, So, I will say, take care And do not come too close to me– Or beware! beware! beware!” This is not to be mistaken for the poem “My Cat.” from the Falls City Tribune. The Omaha Bee in 1905 featured this story about Mrs. E. M. Gardner of Pitman Grove, New Jersey a “Woman Who Has Painted 850 Cat Pictures“.
In honor of all pets, we find these two illustrated pages from the Omaha Bee: This Was A Real Pet Stock Exhibition: Some Snapshots Made at Spring Lake Park When Youngsters Had Their Playfellows on Parade and Pet Stock Finds Much Vogue in Omaha.
Lastly, we turn to our literary syndicated columns where pets played a leading role in many stories. Arthur Scott Bailey’s series of Sleepy-Time Tales featured bears, rabbits, chipmunks, moles, weasels, and more, including The Tale of Miss Kitty Cat, which began in the Omaha Bee on November 26, 1921. Bailey was the author of more than forty children’s books.
In an August 1922 Teenie Weenies story, The Twins Receive a Pet, I’m going to pretend that I didn’t see that illustration of their pet bug as big as people – or I guess technically them as small as that bug! The Teenie Weenies was a comic strip created and illustrated by William Donahey and first published by the Chicago Tribune in 1914. Learn more about the Teenie Weenies at the Wisconsin Historical Society. (Fun fact for CDRH nerds, Donahey and his wife Mary Dickerson Donahey were friends of Charles W. Chesnutt).
I leave you with a photo of Topsy, who, according to the O’Neill Frontier, would not be famous had he lived in Bassett or Plainview, but because of residence in O’Neill deserved a two-column photo on the front page.