May 2, 1776

Jacob Hiltzheimer was a prolific diarist—although, unfortunately, his diary from 1776 does not survive. He had emigrated to Philadelphia in 1748 and established himself in the livestock trade. 

In this advertisement, Hiltzheimer notified the public that a “DARK BROWN COW” had strayed or been stolen. He offered ten shillings as a reward for her return to his stables on Seventh Street. This was not Hiltzheimer’s only newspaper advertisement for lost livestock in 1776. Earlier in February, he was looking for a “brown MARE, with Foal” who had gotten out of his yard.

The Pennsylvania Evening Post
Printed by Benjamin Towne

STRAYED or stolen from off the Commons of Philadelphia, the twenty-eighth day of April last, a DARK BROWN COW, with both ears slit, and the right one hanging down, white horns, a white spot on her left shoulder, another on her rump, and the lower end of her tail white, a long bag, and white belly. Whoever brings said Cow to Mr. Hiltzheimer, in Seventh-Street, shall have TEN SHILLINGS reward.