A Message from Martha by Mark Avery & Mark Avery

Author:Mark Avery & Mark Avery
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472906267
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2014-05-30T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

How the Wild was lost when the West was won

Alas, the pigeons and the frosty morning hunts and the delectable pigeon-pie are gone, no more to return. They are numbered with those recollections which help to convince me that the boys of today don’t have as good times we youngsters did in the prime of our busy out-door world.

W. B. Mershon (My Boyhood Among the Pigeons, 1907)

On the day that Martha the Passenger Pigeon died in Cincinnati, Ohio, another Martha died in the town of Bridgeport, in the east of the state. Martha Grier was the only woman named Martha to die in Ohio on that day, and according to her death certificate she passed away at 9:45 am, aged 76 years, seven months and 24 days. Approximately three hours later, between midday and 1 pm, the last Passenger Pigeon expired at an age of somewhere between 17 and 29 years.

Both Marthas died of old age, both had spent most of their lives in Ohio, and in neither case was the death unexpected. The Cincinnati Enquirer wrote on 18 August that ‘the days of the last Passenger Pigeon … are numbered’, as Martha had been listless and almost motionless for some time. Martha Grier had been attended by her doctor since 15 August; she died from paralysis and senile decay.

The two old Marthas faded away on the same day, in the same state, and each from her own separate version of old age. They shared one further link – they were both widows whose partners were named George. The pigeons had been named in honour of George Washington and his wife Martha, and George, the last male Passenger Pigeon, had died in July 1910. His companion was thus left as the last surviving member of her species, named after the USA’s first First Lady but now, ironically, the Passenger Pigeon’s Last Lady. Martha Grier had married George Ross Grier some time in the early 1860s; he died in January 1904, 10 years before Martha herself.

The long-expected death of the last Passenger Pigeon attracted some newspaper headlines. The Cincinnati Enquirer noted that there would be no funeral for Martha but that her body would be shipped to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington to be put on display, and that is indeed what happened. The last Passenger Pigeon was shipped east in ice, as had been many of her predecessors, but this time not packed in a barrel or crate with scores of others but alone in a 140-kilogram block of ice, and not to be feasted on in a restaurant or dining room, but to be viewed in a glass case.

The Daybook of Chicago, Illinois, on 2 September also mentioned the passing of Martha and that there had been millions of wild Passenger Pigeons still in existence when she had hatched. A reward of several thousand dollars was offered for any information leading to the capture of a pair. In New York, The Evening World of 7 September covered the

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