 |
| Beasts and Ballyhoo, The Menagerie Men of Somers presented by Terry Ariano at the Circus Historical Society Annual Meeting Nyack, New York, July 15, 2004 Terry Ariano is curator for the Somers Historical Society, located on the third floor of the Elephant Hotel, and for the Town of Somers, specifically their Wright-Reis Homestead. This article is based on a presentation to the Circus Historical Society convention in 2004, and appeared in the Jan-Feb 2005, vol. 49(1) issue of their publication, Bandwagon. |
| Town of Somers History |
| Timeline - Elephant Hotel - Hachaliah Bailey - Menageries - Wright-Reis Homestead - Historic Properties Somers Historical Society Home Page - Somers History Page |
| Somers, NY is nationally significant for its association with the development of the early menageries in America. These menageries later joined with the early circus troupes to form the uniquely American circus. The Elephant Hotel in Somers is the oldest existing symbol of this chapter of American circus history. It was built by Hachaliah Bailey, one of the first Americans to tour exotic animals for public entertainment. Following in his footsteps, many local individuals prospered in the earliest forays into this enterprise. Somers became a central meeting place for these itinerant companies. Coming from a background as cattle drovers and animal handlers, these menagerie proprietors were resourceful and hardy entrepreneurs whose innovations directed the course of this form of popular entertainment in America. (1) |
|
Hachaliah Bailey (1774-1845) was raised on a farm just south of the hamlet of Somers and the site of the Elephant Hotel that his father had purchased in the year he was born. Hachaliah married Mary Purdy, and they had eight children. He was a farmer and, like many local men, also raised cattle, driving them south to stockyards in New York City. Bailey became one of the directors of the Croton Turnpike Company, which completed a toll road through the town in 1807 that became a major drovers route to the Hudson River. He was also part-owner of a sloop that he used to transport cattle by water from the southern terminus of the turnpike in Ossining to the city.
The New York City stockyards were located at the Bowery, and drovers frequented an establishment there known as the Bull’s Head Tavern. In one account, Hachaliah Bailey was the proprietor of the Tavern. (2) It was most likely here that Bailey was enticed to purchase an African elephant. The creature was the second brought to America, arriving into Boston harbor in 1804 and |
 |
| Hachaliah Bailey ( 1775-1845), Artist unknown, oil on canvas SHS75.8.1 The William & Nancy Bailey Collection |
| exhibited by artist Edward Savage in New England and the Northeast. (3) The first elephant had been imported to America in 1796 by sea captain Jacob Crowninshield, and was still being exhibited along the eastern seaboard. Hachaliah purchased this second elephant for a reputed sum of $1000. She was exhibited in the Hudson Valley in 1805 and in New York City in 1806, which was possibly when Hachaliah acquired her.(4) She came to be called Old Bet, perhaps in contrast to “young” Bet, his daughter Elizabeth, born in 1805.(5) It has been said that Bailey intended to use the elephant as a draft animal, like P.T. Barnum later did at his Bridgeport, Connecticut estate, Iranistan, as a publicity stunt. However, subsequent history suggests that he developed grander ambitions for the elephant. The story goes that he was shipped upriver on a sloop, then walked to Somers, where “Hach” kept her in the family barn. Bailey took Old Bet on the road and quickly profited from her as a public attraction. They traveled by night, stopping in barnyards and tavern courtyards to show by day, charging twenty-five cents admission.(6) From his frequent trips to the cattle markets of New York City, Bailey was familiar with the tavern yard exhibition of animals. Realizing the public fascination in viewing exotic animals, he cashed in on their willingness to pay for the experience. By 1808 his coffers were expanded to a point that he took on two partners, Benjamin Lent and Andrew Brunn, each paying $1200 for a one/third interest in “The Elephant.” This document in the collections of the historical society reads “Articles of agreement between Hachaliah Bailey of the first part, and Andrew Brunn & Benjamin Lent of the second part. The aforesaid Brunn & Lent agree to pay the aforesaid Baily twelve hundred dollars for the equal two thirds of the earnings of the Elephant for one year from the first day of this month. Baily on his part furnishes one third of the expenses and Brunn & Lent the other two thirds, August 13th 1808. |
 |
| A Living Elephant, Lexington KY Reporter, Dec. 17 1808
Notice for display of the elephant Old Bet Reproduction, SHS collections |
 |
| Agreement, August 13, 1808
Only a few years after acquiring her for the (speculated) sum of $1000, Hachaliah Bailey leased two-thirds of the use of “The Elephant” for one year to Andrew Brunn and Benjamin Lent, for $1200 each. SHS 74.3.1 The William & Nancy Bailey Collection |
| _______________________________________________________________________________________________ (1) J. Thomas Scharf, ed. History of Westchester County, New York Vol. II (1886), 331. (2) Murray, 126. (3) Historical accounts claim her to be an African elephant; however this fact is disputed by Richard Reynolds, who has studied shipping patterns of the period and asserts that no trade patterns with Africa existed during this time. (4) Stuart Thayer, “The Elephant in America before 1840,” Bandwagon, Vol. 31 No. 1 (Jan-Feb. 1987), 20. (5) Genealogy records, Somers Historical Society. (6) Gil Robinson, Old Wagon Show Days (Cincinnati OH: Brockwell Co., 1925) 33. |