In the summer of 1886, Campbellton found itself caught up in a noisy little controversy. It wasn’t politics, religion, or war causing all the fuss. It was cowbells.
At the time, Campbellton was booming. Known as “The Gateway of the North,” it had shipyards, a salmon hatchery, a new rail connection, and plenty of visitors arriving for fishing, scenery, and a bit of rest. One American magazine praised the town’s warm hospitality, while visitor Miss Barnes described it as a place where tired merchants, artists, lawyers, and clergymen all came in search of “rest, happiness and fishing.”
What she didn’t mention was that Campbellton also seemed to be a favourite destination for cows.
The town’s cattle roamed freely, grazing where they liked, each one wearing a jangling bell. Some people found the sound charming. Others thought it was enough to drive a person straight to bad language. One resident, Isaac Crawford, complained the bells ruined his sleep and suggested banning them might also improve public manners.
The trouble was, Campbellton wasn’t yet incorporated, so there were no bylaws to tell either cows or owners what to do.
Miss Barnes, for her part, defended the bells, calling them the cow’s only ornament and saying she enjoyed the gentle tinkling by the roadside. Still, even she admitted the charm faded quickly when an annoyed gardener chased a cow out of his bean patch and the racket “upset our nerves!”
Some locals suggested a compromise: let the cows wander by day, but send them home by 9 p.m. That seemed only fair. Even cows, apparently, needed a curfew.
And cows weren’t the town’s only source of debate. Campbellton also had dogs attending church, which raised just as many eyebrows. One essayist declared that if cows with bells should be locked up, dogs should certainly be kept out of worship services.
As for the cows themselves, they were usually harmless — though not always graceful. One local favourite involved a missing cow named Bossy, later discovered stuck in a haystack. A neighbour, hearing strange moans coming from inside, became convinced he was dealing with a ghost cow.
At last, in 1889, Campbellton was incorporated, elected its first mayor, and gained the power to do something about the bell-ringing bovines. Civilization, at least for the anti-cowbell crowd, had finally arrived.
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