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| Menageries Also see article by Town Curator Terry Ariano, Beasts and Ballyhoo, The Menagerie Men of Somers. |
| SOMERS, NY, THE MENAGERIES AND THE EARLY AMERICAN CIRCUS
In 1804 Hachaliah Bailey, an enterprising farmer and cattle merchant from Somers, acquired an Asian elephant he named Old Bet, which he exhibited throughout the northeast. His success in this venture attracted numerous partners and rivals from local families, who joined in the occupation of importing and exhibiting exotic animals. The resulting thriving menagerie business paralleled the development of the circus in America, which in its earliest incarnations consisted of trick equestrian riders, clowns and rope walkers. By the 1830’s the two forms of popular entertainment merged to become the uniquely American circus. The majority of early 19th century circus proprietors as well as many performers came from Somers and neighboring towns in northern Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess Counties. Among the noted Somers residents are: - Benjamin Brown, an early partner of Hachliah’s, imported the first giraffes to America, and later married the daughter of the Royal Keeper of the Menagerie and lived in the Tower of London; - Charles Wright, believed to be the first performer to enter a lion’s cage; - Benjamin Lent, an early partner of Hachaliah Bailey’s in ownership of exotic animals; - Lewis Lent, son of Benjamin, became the proprietor of the New York Circus, based in New York City on 14th Street. - J. Purdy Brown, the first man to erect a canvas structure in which to perform, which revolutionized the circus tradition. Somers’ current Town Hall, The Elephant Hotel, built by Hachaliah Bailey in 1825, and the statue of an elephant in front, serve as the symbolic center of early menagerie and circus in America. In 1835, the Elephant Hotel hosted the first meeting of the Zoological Institute, an organization of over 100 menagerie and circus proprietors, which maintained a building at 37 Bowery in New York City. [For more information click on 1, 2 or 3.] Hachaliah Bailey served as a role model to young P.T. Barnum, who tells a tale of their meeting in his 1855 autobiography “The Life of P.T. Barnum.” Over 40 years later, Mr. Barnum would team up with James Bailey, an adopted son of a distant relative of Hachaliah’s, to form the circus which continues to bear his name. Today Somers is recognized as “the Cradle of the American Circus.” The Somers Historical Society and the Museum of the Early American Circus occupy the third floor of the Elephant Hotel. March 2002 |
| Timeline - Elephant Hotel - Hachaliah Bailey - Menageries - Wright-Reis Homestead - Historic Properties |