York's Continental Square is shown in this undated photo from Jim Hubley's "Off the Record." This was the site that a World War II era cow toured early in World War II. Background posts: Perrydale's bovine: 'She's a wonderful, laid-back cow' and 'Boys, she's a Confederate cow' and When did York's square change from Centre to Continental?.
I've written about York's headline-grabbing cow before.
But the meat of the story is worth repeating.
Early in World War II, a runaway cow - termed a steer by a newspaper - rumbled around York's Continental Square, two men in a truck in tow.
"The steer," Police Chief C. P. Gerber told The York Dispatch, "obeyed the traffic rules."
It circled the square in the proper traffic lanes.
In that post, I drew this short conclusion to this short story: "That was post-Depression York County. Its people did their work simply, ably and followed the rules."
But there's more to the story. Where did the cow come from? ... .
Scott Shewell called the other day with the answer in the form of a question.
The ad exec at York's Barry Group related a family story in which a bull escaped from the 49 N. Penn St. butcher shop operated by his grandfather Roy Shewell.
Had I heard of a story about such a runaway animal in the 1930s and 1940s? Scott wondered.
I referred him to the story on the traffic-obeying bovine, which originally appeared in my "In the thick of the fight."
Now, maybe someone will emerge with details about whether the cow was ever caught.
- For posts on other animals and pets who have made headlines in history, click here.
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