The Pound: Malone's Early Years

Poor Pig in Malone's Pound

Do you know anything about Malone's first pounds?

Malone's first pound had nothing to do with stray dogs or cats, rather it confined stray cows, pigs and sheep. Certain barnyards were designated as pounds. The first official pound was established at the northeast corner of Academy Green, and the final one was built on the corner of Rockland and Main Streets. The latter pound closed somewhere around 1866.

If citizens found a barnyard animal roaming the streets or eating a garden, they could drive it to the pound, and according to Fredrick Seaver, the owners had to  pay a quarter to retrieve it. In our early years, a quarter would have been a substantial sum.

The pound keeper had to be elected--and he became the butt of jokes. In the fifties, the editors of Malone's two papers, The Palladium and The Gazette were named as opponents for the office of "hog reeve" (pg. 413 Historical Sketches).

Sounds like a cartoon Thomas Nast would have loved. What do you know of Malone's early history?