Maude Coggin

General
Maude Coggin was an elderly widow that lived on Trevalyan Road, across from the newly constructed Art Center. She was noteworthy for maintaining a functioning farmyard in the middle of downtown Pickax, living mostly off of the produce of her garden and hens. Soft-hearted, she constantly took in stray and abandoned dogs, which spent the majority of their time napping around her ramshackle farmhouse. At the time of her death, Maude was one of the few remaining speakers of the "Old Moose" dialect.

History
Maude was one of the natives of Moose County, marrying into the Coggin family and purchasing a plot of land on Trevalyan Road when they were able. This being during the Depression, money was tight, and all labor on the farm was performed by Maude and her husband. Maude herself was often hitched to the plow in place of a horse.

After her husband's death, Maude continued to live alone in their farmhouse, surrounded by the pack of stray dogs that she had adopted. Viewing electricity and plumbing as unnecessary expenditures, her house was lit by kerosene lamp and serviced by the decades-old outhouse behind it. As she grew older and finally became unable to maintain the farm herself, she sold her parcel of land to an unnamed development firm (for about a quarter of what it was worth) with two contingencies, that the land would continue to be used for agriculture and that she could continue to live there rent-free.

Not long after, Maude was killed when her house burned down; the fire blamed on the kerosene lamp, which was not an uncommon item for the older denizens of Moose County. Her cause of death was ruled as smoke inhalation, with her presumably having died while asleep in her chair.

Her funeral quickly became a spectacle for the county, with a little prodding from Qwill. It was attended by local dignitaries such as the mayor and prominent Pickax business owners, as well as a television crew from Down Below. The highlight of the event was the arrival of Maude's dogs, leashed together in a procession by Culvert McBee.