Pauline Wayne was a

Holstein cow Holstein Friesians (often shortened to Holsteins in North America, while the term Friesians is often used in the UK and Ireland) are a breed of dairy cattle that originated in the Dutch provinces of North Holland and Friesland, and Schleswig-Ho ...

that belonged to

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...

, the 27th

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

. Also known as "Miss Wayne", Pauline was not Taft's first presidential cow: she replaced the lesser-known "Mooly Wooly", which provided milk for the First Family for a year and a half before suddenly dying in 1910, reportedly after eating too many oats. Taft and his wife,

Helen Herron Taft Helen Louise Taft (née Herron; June 2, 1861 – May 22, 1943), known as Nellie, was the wife of President William Howard Taft and the first lady of the United States from 1909 to 1913. Born to a politically well-connected Ohio family, Nel ...

, had growing children, and Taft was a notoriously large eater; accordingly, Mooly Wooly was replaced by Pauline Wayne.

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

senator

Isaac Stephenson Isaac Stephenson (June 18, 1829March 15, 1918) was an American politician of the Republican Party who represented Wisconsin as both a United States representative and a United States senator. He was born in the community of Yorkton, near Fred ...

bought Pauline Wayne for Mrs. Taft. The four-year-old cow was pregnant and gave birth to a male calf named "Big Bill" (after the President), which was later sent to a

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

farm. Pauline Wayne became a popular showpiece at the International Dairymen’s Exposition in

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

in 1911. Pauline Wayne was being shipped to the show in a private train car that was attached to a whole train of cattle cars bound for the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

stock yards. The cow went missing for two days because a train switch crew had mistakenly switched Pauline’s car. The attendants who found Pauline Wayne convinced the stock yard that this was indeed the President’s cow, and she was saved "from the bludgeon of the slaughterer." From 1910 to 1913, Miss Wayne freely grazed the White House lawn. She was the last presidential cow to live at the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

and was considered as much a Taft family pet as she was livestock. When Taft left office, she was shipped to Wisconsin. Her Bovine Blue Book number was 115,580. The origin of the name "Pauline Wayne" is unknown; however, the ''New York Times'' noted that she was "a member of the great Wayne family of Holsteins."

References

External links

Pauline Wayne, Presidential Cow
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wayne, Pauline Individual cows Taft family United States presidential pets History of Wisconsin

See also

References

External links