Dominiques were well known in the US prior to 1750 and provided eggs, meat,
and chicks while foraging for their food in the farm yards of the newly settled colonies. By the 1850s the Dominique (or "Dominiker"
as they were sometimes called) was the most popular of US chicken breeds but that was soon to change. The importation of Asiatic
breeds soon pushed the Dominique out of the farmyards as the new "fancy" breeds became more available. Used to develop the
Barred Plymouth Rock, the confusion in appearance between the two contributed to the Dominiques disappearance from the show
ring and by the 1950s some thought they may have been extinct. - excerpt from Dominique Club of America
