1913, Arizona. Green/Black. Stock certificate for 100 shares. Ornate border. 13” x 9”. Unusual vignette of the ostrich farm. Signed by William H. Hile as president.

William Hile hatched what he thought was a great idea in 1909: ”The African Ostrich Farm and Feather Company.” After a trip to Africa, he was convinced ostrich would be the source of wealth for all who joined his cooperative. With capitalization of $1,000,000, the company bought 150 acres in Columbia county Pennsylvania.

He had every reason to believe it would work: beautiful ostrich plumes were in great demand for fashionable ladies’ hats, selling for $20 a pound; hens laid 8”eggs. One egg was equivalent to 12 to 20 or more chicken eggs - even the shell, if broken carefully in half, sold as fancy home decoration pieces. Ostrich meat was tender and delicious and from chick to maturity was 6 months. One ostrich yielded two hundred pounds of meat or more. With such grand plans for success, how could he lose? With the farm all set, visitors railing in to see the spectacle, ostriches ready to go…one problem: The proprietors were unable to hatch a single chick in this cold climate.

Only after months of experimenting, a secretive barber who had considerable success in hatching turkey, goose, and duck eggs tried his hand at the ostrich eggs. After much trial and error, he eventually hatched 42 chicks.  The proprietors were delighted, but the barber would not divulge his secret! An attempt to break into the barber's basement to learn his techniques brought an end to the ostrich egg hatching and produced an angry barber who went to his grave with his secret. 

All this and now, as fashion would change - things became even worse: ladies’ long plumed ostrich hats were no longer in vogue. Just everything seemed to go wrong, and the bills began to pile up. An apathetic public no longer bought the stock, and the profitable train excursion to view the unusual farm dwindled. The flock of 30 to 40 mature birds dropped to two. At the end, a restaurant owner brought the last two birds for $25. The couple grew fond of the smaller hen and named her “Babe.” She became quite a pet and laid eggs at regular intervals. The restaurant served them as omelets.