By Danny Crownover
Even when it was a tiny village, Gadsden had a few citizens who protested against the idea of allowing stock, particularly hogs and cows, to roam the streets at will, but they became vociferous enough to attract the attention of the authorities.
As far back as anybody can remember, there was no serious attempt to remedy the situation until about 1895, when the local newspaper began agitation for a hog law.
In the 1870s and 1880s, when farmers parked their wagons and carts in the middle of Broad Street, unhitched their horses, mules, and oxen, and fed them on the spot, or attempted to feed them, they were greatly annoyed by roaming cows and hogs.
There were cows that could snatch a bundle of fodder from the back end of a wagon and be a block away before the farmer was aware of their presence.
There were some citizens who recalled those cows hightailing it up and down Broad Street with stolen fodder or oats and angry men and boys giving chase.
There were hogs that could snatch an ear of corn from a box and be half a block away in a minute’s time.
Mules, horses and goats occasionally joined them in such forays and all such animals running at large constituted a menace to health as well as a nuisance to everybody.
There were literally droves of hogs owned in the city. Some families had as many as 50 within a stone’s throw of Broad Street.
When anybody wanted to do anything about such a nuisance they were met with the plea or the threat that both Blacks and poor whites had to raise hogs and keep cows in order to make a living. Politicians steered clear of the matter.
They knew that these would vote solidly against any man that wanted a stock law. Nevertheless, the campaign for such a law continued.
The Gadsden and Attalla Union Railway Company rans a dummy through Broad Street hourly and on account of so many hogs being on the street a steam contrivance was attached to the engines to get the hogs off the track. There were enough hogs on the street to stop a locomotive.
This is a very bad on the city, but it was almost a first-class stock farm.
The local newspaper wrote that the city ought to pass some sort of stock law. “Notwithstanding the fact that dummy engines pulling street cars through the city had to squirt hot steam from special devices in order to get hogs off the track right on Broad Street.”
The politicians did not care to tackle the problem. They did get up enough courage a year or so later to call an election on the subject and the hogs won by a good majority. It was not until the state legislature passed a law requiring cities of 5,000 population and over to pass and enforce stock laws that Gadsden acted.
