Harris has second thoughts about cow ban

By the summer of 1887, editor Frank Harris of the Ocala Banner was beginning to feel the heated reaction to his determined campaign to get cows off the streets of Ocala, and the tone of his published comments began to shift somewhat under peer pressure. It was during his regime as mayor that the city council adopted an ordinance that would have banned cows from the streets during the day and night. These were mostly milk cows that furnished milk and butter for families and, as such, had staunch defenders to their right to wander where they pleased. Cows found on the streets were to be impounded by the town marshal, and once the ordinance was on the books, it appeared that virtually nobody wanted it. Or so it seems from published comments by Editor Harris, as he started edging backward. Confronted by an irate public, the city council backed down somewhat and amended the ordinance to ban cows only during the daylight hours. It was all right to turn them out at night, after they had been milked. After all, there was plenty of grass along the streets to feed them adequately. One of the greatest irritants, however, was the congregating of cows on the courthouse square in the center of town. Harris reserved his strongest language against that and, as a result, a fence was built around the square. Even the fence became contentious...more