Polly Langston was a Cuban immigrant to the United States

Polly Langston was a Cuban immigrant to the United States, who came to New Orleans soon after the Civil War. When she arrived, she spoke only Spanish, but she quickly learned English, and by the time of her death at 53 years old, her “gift of gab” was noted in newspapers across the country. Polly also happened to be a parrot.

Dr. Thomas Bradford bought Polly in 1868 and began teaching her the English language. A couple years later, Polly joined the Bradford family in their move to Marshfield, Missouri, where Dr. Bradford served as a town physician.

Polly was considered the most gifted bird in Missouri. She could pray and sing stanzas of old hymns, including “How Firm a Foundation” and “Jesus, Lover of My Soul,”. Polly could also swear fluently in both English and Spanish.

The celebrated showman P.T. Barnum wanted to purchase Polly, but Mrs. Bradford politely declined, asking simply, “Do you think we’d sell one of our children?”

P. T. Barnum

Polly was so beloved by her family that upon her death she was laid to rest in a little casket in the Langston burial grounds at Oak Lawn Cemetery, the resting place for the town’s most prominent early citizens, and her grave beside Mrs. Langston is marked with an inscribed granite tombstone, the only non-human buried in Oak Lawn.

1867-1920