Mrs. Olive Hartwell, Milwaukee County, WI Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by William Tagatz (pennybill@azlink.com) USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free genealogy information on the Internet, data may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations." Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than as stated above, must contact the submitter or the listed USGenWeb archivist. You might like this, it is a true story. This article appeared in the Milwaukee Journal on Wednesday, February 22, 1939 Wisconsin Tops All Crow Yarns with Buddy - He’s Been to School Princeton Farm Woman Fed Bird by Spoon; Now Talks, Plays With Toys Princeton, (Wis) has something to crow about. The community can listen to all the stories about talking crows, mischievous crows and thieving crows - and then go the yarns one better. It has a crow that not only talks, gets into mischief and steals, but goes to school! The bird is owned by Mrs. Olive Hartwell, who lives on a farm in the village of Germania, just outside Princeton. The story of the crow - Buddy - is told by E.H. Mevis, cashier at the Farmers-Merchants National bank at Princeton. Buddy was captured on the Fred Phillips farm in May, 1937, says Mevis. Phillips shot the mother bird and, knowing that she had a nest of young ones, he decided to find it and destroy the baby crows. He located it and shot into the nest, killing all the birds except one, Buddy. Buddy escaped with no injuries other than a missing toe nail, according to Mevis. Apparently Phillips didn’t have the heart to shoot again - or he lacked another shell. At any rate, he took the terror stricken baby crow to his farm house and gave it to his wife - for a pet. Fed with spoon The pet idea appealed to Mrs. Phillips and she remembered that her neighbor, Mrs. Hartwell, once had a pet crow. And so, says Mevis, she took Buddy over to Mrs. Hartwell one evening, saying that if she wanted the bird she might have him. Mrs. Hartwell accepted. She fed him bread and milk and cereals with a spoon and it was a long time before he would eat alone. He still loves to be fed from the hand. He eats almost everything the family serves for itself, and he must have been reading about Gov. Heil admonishing us to eat cheese, because he sure has taken a liking to cheese. He also relishes meat, potatoes with butter, and bread and milk. he doesn’t seem to care for worms, but loves to catch them just for the joy of digging and killing them. He even goes after the large cabbage and tobacco worms and mice. He has been seen to take mice to the water tank and drown them. And here is the proof of Buddy’s education. Mevis says a year ago he started to go to school with the children. He often gets to the school house before the teacher arrives and he goes every day when the weather isn’t too cold. At first, he’d come home after school was called and go back at recess time, when the children were playing on the school ground again. Football Star, Too When the youngsters are playing football and basketball, he seem to have a good a time as they do. He flies back and forth with the ball, and screams and yells just as the children do. Very often, during the fall, he accompanied Rev. Mueller’s children home and one morning he went into their bedroom and awakened them. He is a very mischievous bird, and often takes the pins from the clothes line and hides them. He will go into the garden and just for the joy of doing it, will pull out plants. One day, while Mrs. Hartwell was paring potatoes, he took a slice and laid it on the corner of a rug. Then he picked up the rug corner and covered the piece of potato. Returning, he picked up another slice, uncovered the first piece and laid the second beside it and again put the rug in place. He loves to shake hands and will catch a small ball in his beak. Buddy has talked ever since he was a small bird, and his vocabulary seem to be increasing. First he said hello to people coming into the yard and when he began going to school with the children, he repeated many of the sentences they used while at play. Mimics Voices Last fall, the children stopped to pick apples from a tree near the Hartwell home. Mrs. Hartwell asked the youngsters if they were sour, and shortly after, Buddy began screaming, Hello, Al - apples are sour - why sure!. He also says Olive (Mrs. Hartwell’s name) where are you? . . . Hello, Buddy boy! . . . it’s cold . . .What’s the matter? . . . Play ball . . . Come on, what do you want? . . . and, when he is fed from the hand, he says Good. He doesn’t speak much when strangers are near, but if they hide from his sight, he will talk right along. After he becomes acquainted, he talks to anyone. Neighbors have heard him imitating dogs barking, roosters crowing and hens cackling, so that it was hard to distinguish his call from that of the animal imitated. He eats out of the same dish with the cats and often takes food from their mouths. Plays With Toys On numerous occasions, crows have come to the house and tried to coax him away, but he pays very little attention to them. Kingbirds are mean to him. If he perches on the windmill, they often swoop down and peck at him. He tries to dodge their attack and screams a loudly as he can - apparently calling for help. Then, when the kingbirds are frightened away or tire of bothering him, Buddy laughs at them. He has a hearty laugh and it is very amusing to hear him laughing they leave. He has a box of toys which he plays with just as a child does. The box contains spools, tin cans, covers, nails, large buttons, a screw driver, clothes pins, balls and a small stove poker. He loves to toss some of these things in the air and catch them as they come down. Buddy loves water and enjoys taking a bath. When he has gone to the neighbors and Mrs. Hartwell calls him by name, he comes flying home. But she notices that he doesn’t mind as well since he started going to school and she is considering reporting the matter to the school board or she’ll have to keep her bird home.