In the recent past just about everyone had a chicken coop to furnish their kitchens with fresh eggs and meat. In cities, towns, and in the countryside, these coops dotted the scenery and were a common place to chat with the neighbors, find thieves, and start a romance. For these reasons alone, chicken coop adventures dominated the gossip scene and local newspapers across the world.
He Flew the Coop
Just like in modern times, people will sometimes get married in weird places. Take, for instance, the case of Mrs. Sumner of Kansas City, Missouri.
As the newspaper reported, Mrs. Sumner married her husband inside of a chicken coop back in 1914. The report said that the dare was for some sort of prize, but it definitely was not worth the hassle of the occasion.
Only two years had passed when Mrs. Sumner had to file for divorce. Apparently, her husband had “flown the coop” and ran all the way to Nebraska to get away from her. [1]
A Fine Feathered Romance
While one couple was foolish enough to get married while standing inside a chicken coop, two other couples in Maryland had a chicken coop problem of their own.
According to the Missus, Mr. Godey was in the habit of meeting up with Mrs. Mey at the chicken coop in the middle of the night. Their story was that they were just giving the chickens a late night feeding, but Mrs. Godey was too smart to fall for that old story.
The Missus discovered that the two were having a rather romantic tryst at the coop and she promptly filed for a divorce.
Sadly enough, the wayward husband refused to grant his wife a divorce and the judge agreed with him. The judge did, however, chastise Mr. Godey for careless conduct and ruled that Godey pay the costs of the case brought before him. [2]
Not the Best Hiding Spot
There were a great number of reports in the past about odd things being found inside of chicken coops. For example, in 1945 it was reported that American officers discovered an incredible fortune hidden inside a chicken coop near Tokyo, Japan. The coop contained several crates of platinum and a package containing 8000 carats of diamonds.
In 1952, agents from the French Counter-Espionage Bureau raided the home of a suspected Communist in Toulon, France. They had no luck finding any information inside the home, but a search inside the chicken coop uncovered plans to blow up power stations and paralyze France’s largest naval base.
Burglars of all sorts also thought that the chicken coop was the perfect place to hide their stolen items, but it was a hiding place so commonly used that the police had no problems searching through the chickens.
In Randwick, a suburb of Sydney, a man had stolen the contents from a safe and then hid them in the corner of his chicken coop. Under suspect, the police searched the man’s house and his chicken coop and discovered the suitcase filled with the loot. The man was arrested and charged with stealing and the victim got his belongings back. [3] [4] [5]
Not a Great Place to Live
There were a great number of heartbreaking cases reported of people found living inside of chicken coops. One report published in 1912 gave the sad story of Mrs. Annie Nelson of Minnesota whose home had burnt down. She and her ten children had to live inside their chicken coop, having only chickens to eat, until hunters discovered and rescued them.
In Bankstown, NSW, 1922, a mother and her four small children were found living in a former chicken coop. The local health inspector investigated the living conditions and decided that the place was unfit for human habitation.
Leo Spacek of West Virginia was discovered living inside of a chicken coop back in 1951. He had gotten into an argument with his wife and, in turn, his mother-in-law booted him out of her house. He stayed inside the chicken coop until health inspectors discovered him in poor condition due to starvation and exposure. When questioned by the hospital authorities, the mother-in-law forbade him from returning to her property, stating that even the chicken coop was off limits to him. [6] [7] [8]
Chicken Daycare
A case of terrible parenting skills was reported in 1910. One evening in Chicago, neighbors contacted the police about a little boy in a chicken coop. The police went to investigate and found a five-year-old boy sleeping inside the coop with the chickens.
The boy was woken up and it was learned that his father worked nights as a waiter and that his mother went to visit some friends. The neighbors had tossed an old shirt and a burlap sack over the fence so that the boy could keep warm in the chill air.
Police took the child to the station and after getting in touch with the mother, learned that she had often placed the child in the coop when she had to leave the house. She felt it was the safest place for the child.
The court must not have had a problem with the treatment and merely fined the mother $25 for their involvement. [9]
A Darwin Winner
In old cartoons we would see characters rigging shotguns to go off at the pull of a string without ever realizing that people used to do this all the time in real life. However, the stories that can be found in the newspaper archives are the tragic results of such rigging.
Back in 1916, a Pennsylvania farmer, Jerry Rhoades, was having problems with a chicken thief. Figuring that he would set the thief straight, he rigged his loaded shotgun to go off when someone would open the chicken coop door.
Unfortunately, Mr. Rhoades must have forgotten about his special setup and opened the door one day without disarming the trap. He was shot and killed by his own contraption.
Perhaps Mr. Rhoades should have tried to catch the chicken thief alive.
Two men were captured in the same state in 1938. As punishment for stealing 155 hens, they were sentenced to prison. The judge made a special request to the prison authorities that the men would not be fed any chicken or eggs while serving their time. [10] [11]
The Original Little House
When Thur Balch, a stock broker and member of the Stock Exchange, bought a plot of land in a wealthy area of Chicago, the neighbors were excited to welcome a new member to their community, but they never expected the weirdness that was to follow.
In amongst all the beautiful homes of the upper class, Mr. Balch built a chicken coop and then promptly moved into it. Eventually, his wife and daughter moved into the coop, as well. Altogether, they lived in the coop, complete with chickens.
Over time, Mr. Balch added more room to the coop, creating a total of three small rooms within its walls and a combination cellar and refrigerator. They furnished the little space and, even more surprising, lived in it during the winter months.
Meanwhile, the neighbors kept asking when Mr. Balch planned to build his mansion. His only answer was that he already had a beautiful chicken coop to look upon and apparently felt no need for anything more, in spite of being wealthy enough to build a much grander home to live in.
In response to the chicken coop, his neighbor decided to grow a hedge along his property to hide the small building from his view. After all, the neighbor had spent years improving upon his property and was frustrated by Balch’s disregard for the way things are normally done in a high end neighborhood. [12]
Thought He Was a Dog
Mr. and Mrs. W. E. McDonald’s son began to believe he was a dog. For several years the child barked and behaved in a canine manner. The parents tried everything they could back in 1911 to convince their son that he was not a dog, but the boy would become unruly by the mere suggestion.
Eventually the New Jersey parents gave in to the boy’s strange behavior and began using him as the family watch dog. They chained the boy to the chicken coop where he lived and kept watch. The boy insisted that they give him bones to gnaw on and when they wanted to dress him, they had to sew his clothing onto him because he refused to get dressed like the average person.
Eventually a neighbor complained about the barking and representatives of the board of health showed up at the couple’s home. They were astonished to see the boy playing watch dog out back, but after the parents gave their reason, it appears that nothing was done to help the child or investigate the parents. [13]
An Unexpected Discovery
Johnson, a land broker, was showing off a property in North Dakota, 1914. The land may have looked promising to the buyer, but upon inspection of an old, unused chicken coop, Johnson and company got quite a surprise. Inside was a well deceased body of a man.
Police were brought in to identify the man and investigate the scene, but it did not take long to figure out what had happened.
The deceased was John Hegberg, a Swedish man in his thirties, who moved around from farm job to farm job. After he completed a job on a local farm, he bought some alcohol, got drunk, and decided to curl up in the vacant chicken coop for the night,
Unfortunately, a cold snap took place that night and Hegberg froze to death in his sleep. His body was discovered several days later with bottles of alcohol still in his pockets. [14]
Women in Sheets
It was an unspeakable event that lit up the newspapers in 1922. Opal Ramsey of Oklahoma, eighteen-years-old, had been grabbed by a group of women wearing their husbands’ Ku Klux Klan sheets. They bound the girl’s hands and feet, stripped her down to her waist, and lashed her.
As if that was not enough, the sheeted women, all reported to be “good Christian wives,” forced Opal into a chicken coop at an abandoned farm and began dropping worms and insects on her.
The girls screamed and begged for mercy, but the women were not finished with her. A group of them went to the bushes and, after laying white sheets on the ground, began beating ticks from the branches. They collected these and dropped them over the girl.
Finally finished, they left her in the coop overnight until she was discovered the next morning suffering from shock.
The police, of course, investigated the crime and discovered that local woman were angry at the girl because she wore city clothes and had the audacity to speak to one woman’s husband over a fence.
Opal was able to identify two of the masked women who tormented her. Both women were arrested, although they denied having anything to do with Opal’s torment. [15]
