The Tethered Chicken and Other Tales

From Time to Thyme

By Paula Dunn

OK, I have to confess — I had another subject in mind for this week’s column, but while I was working on it, I realized I was going to need more research time than I had available.

So, I shifted gears and pulled out some of the funny / weird stories I’ve run across in the old newspapers.

In this county’s early days, before television and the internet, social gatherings were the main way people entertained themselves. You can find countless picnics, dances, receptions, etc. noted in the newspapers.

Then there are the more unusual get-togethers. 

The Nov. 28, 1890 Hamilton County Ledger reported that earlier that week, several couples had gathered for a soirée at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Hutto. For entertainment, they turned off the lights and told ghost stories. There was even a competition for the “most improbable” tale. (Mrs. Sile Hare won and was presented with a set of silver nutcrackers.) The paper noted that some of the stories “fairly made the flesh creep.” I guess you could also say they were “hair-raising,” because the article ended with the observation that “Harry Austin’s hair took such an erect attitude that he is going bareheaded yet because his hat will not ballance [sic] on his head.”

One of the more unusual stories I’ve run across appears in the July 19, 1965 Noblesville Daily Ledger. It includes some pop culture references that probably made sense at the time, but are over my head now. However, the gist of the incident is pretty clear. The “miserable heat” of a steamy July day had left a man with a parched throat and a dire need to stop for “a wee drop of grog” at a bar near the Noblesville City Hall (It was on South Eighth street then.) For reasons never clearly explained, the man had a chicken with him. (“a hearty specimen, sound of limb, firm of breast.”) Obviously, he couldn’t take the chicken inside the bar and that presented quite the dilemma. In his desperation, he solved his problem by tying the chicken to a nearby parking meter and leaving it outside, like a dog on a leash.  (There’s even a photo of the “tethered hen.”)

Presumably, the man reclaimed his fowl after wetting his whistle, but that wasn’t mentioned in the story. Instead, the paper ended the article by observing that the situation had raised a thorny legal question: Could the city demand its overtime parking fee? — and, if so, where would the officer put the ticket?

According to the June 8, 1906, Enterprise, a farmer who lived near Noblesville always wore the same suit when he came into town to sell his produce and everybody was tired of seeing him in that outfit. (How the paper knew that, I have no idea.) Apparently, the farmer eventually tired of the suit as well, because on one particularly profitable visit to town, he stopped on the way home at a “closing out clothing store” and bought himself some new duds. After leaving the store, he got the brilliant idea of surprising his wife by walking into their home wearing his new purchase. It was dark by the time he reached Cicero Creek, so he slipped out of his old clothes, and pitched them into the creek. When he reached for his new suit, however, he discovered it had fallen out of the wagon somewhere along the line.

The paper concluded the story with “ . . . so he did go home and surprise the whole family.” Did the farmer manage to retrieve his wet clothes? Or, did he REALLY surprise the family? We’ll never know.

Notable Nineties Update: Diane Nevitt has added Sue Musselman Haines, a lifelong member of the Clarksville Christian Church, to the list. Congratulations, Sue!

Paula Dunn’s From Time to Thyme column appears on Wednesdays in The Times. Contact her at [email protected]