Cats
brought to Rockport, Maine on a ship from France. That line of whites, while in the same
locality, was quite distinct and unrelated to Pierce's white longhairs. Pierce wrote on a little
island well off the coast and inhabited by only three families, there were pure white blue-eyed
Persian cats, but was apparently unable to obtain one of these cats.
Another early champion longhair was Richelieu, owned by Mr. Robinson, of Bangor, Maine
in 1884. Richlieu was described as a silver or bluish tabby, very lightly marked, but rather a
coarse-grained variety - "a drug store cat" (moggy). At that time Maine, near the coast, had
many fine specimens of the longhaired cats, particularly brown tabbies. The Maine cats were
not considered valuable at the time. From the coastal towns and cities, the longhaired cats
spread inland. Around 1895/6 the "cat fad" struck the Middle West and cats from Maine were
annaabi.ee 
