All photos courtesy of Provincetown Public Library

Provincetown’s History Told Through Artifacts

by Steve Desroches

It’s one of the most only-in-Provincetown stories. It was Christmas time 2005 and Ohio the Cat had gone missing. He belonged to then Provincetown resident Ben Thornberry, who was originally from the United Kingdom and had been living in the Figurehead House with his cat, Ohio. The sweet and gentle orange and white cat had a wanderlust and became a neighborhood cat as Thornberry would let him out and Ohio would travel his small patch of the East End, visiting multiple households, sometimes staying with folks for days before moving on to another familiar home. He always, eventually went back to Thornberry, who was aware of Ohio’s location, as whoever had him would call to say so. But one day, Thornberry realized no one had seen Ohio for some time. So, he put “Missing Cat” posters up around town. And shortly thereafter he received a strange letter in the mail from cat-nappers who said they didn’t approve of Ohio being allowed to roam free and that they relocated him to somewhere they deemed more appropriate. 

People across town were outraged and started a Free Ohio Movement that was really a proxy battle over old Provincetown bohemian ways and big-money, bland suburban culture that was seeping in and trying to tell everyone what to do…even going so far as to steal pets. The saga dragged on for months and got stranger and stranger until one day in February Ohio was left alone in a crate in the parking lot of what is now Stop & Shop and returned to Thornberry and the community of people who cared for him. 

The archives of the Free Ohio Movement are now in the archives of the Provincetown Public Library for anyone who wants to do a deep dive into the story of this cat who became a local folk hero.