Faithful Horse Honored

I enjoy going through old newspapers when doing research.  They were very different then, chatty and newsy.  I've started collecting stories that I find interesting for one reason or another.  Sometimes it's not very related to genealogy.  The article below is transcribed as accurately as possible.

Maud Is Dead;

Faithful Horse

Finishes Career

The faithful old horse which powered the express wagon over Cuba’s streets for 18 years for “Jim” Wilcox and his successor, “Charlie” Wilcox, is no more.  Infirmities incident to its advanced age of 23 years made Maud’s retirement from service imperative and brought about the animal’s death last week.

Sorrowing for the loss will not be confined merely to its owner.  Hundreds of “kids” for several generations back remember their first ride, behind a horse or the feet or reins, on the old express wagon on which the Wilcoxes not only drew express but half the youngsters of the village.

The appearance of the wagon on the street without three or four youngsters perched on the high seat was an event to be noted, and regardless of the inexperience and anxiety of the youthful drivers, Maud patiently went about its duties—never rapidly but with a stride which it had adopted after 18 years’ experience in filling the requirements of the route.

Maud’s reins were there mostly for the youngsters’ pleasure.  It knew every brick in the pavements of Cuba’s streets—knew the habits of its owner, so that when the whistle on Phelps & Sibley Company’s mill blew Maud started for the barn from whatever place it happened to be.

No picture of Maud ever will grace the Hall of Fame, but in the hearts of hundreds of “kids” and men and women of today who were the “kids” of yesterday, there will always be a mental portrait of old Maud.

The Patriot and Free Press, Cuba, NY, 15 March 1934, p. 4.