President Rutherford B. Hayes and his family moved into the White House in 1877. Like many Presidential families before them, they had several pets. Lucy, Rutherford Hayes wife, was an animal lover and one of her particular pets was an unnamed mockingbird.
Little can be found on the mockingbird, although according to the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums’ webpage, the mockingbird was a gift from a man named A.B. Sloanaker and it was given on July 15th, 1876.
Unlike some of his more unruly companions in the White House, this little bird appears to have been well-behaved enough not to make headlines – although according to Bill Harris’ The First Ladies’ Fact Book: Revised and Updated, the bird was “noisy.”
Even at that, a household containing the President, the First Lady, their children, the staff, and all their other pets likely didn’t even notice the noise of one little mockingbird!
