Circus Day used to be a major event in area towns
When William Larwill arrived in what was to become Wayne County in 1806, he gazed upon a forest of seeming unending density.
Larwill knew many of the trees would have to be cleared to make way for farms, towns and villages and the roads to support all of that. With the help of his brothers, John and Joseph, as well as John Bever, a United States surveyor, they platted the entire county and laid out the town of Wooster, Wayne County’s first settlement.
Wayne County’s population began to grow almost immediately, and by the 1830s, it was approaching 25,000. In those days before telephones, radio, television and video games, entertainment options were very limited. Daily life was full of tedium and hard, sweaty work. Everyone looked forward to the daily newspaper to keep them connected to the outside world. Once, and sometimes twice per year, something special appeared in that newspaper — an ad for a circus to be performed within the coming weeks.
Circus Day was special in Wooster, Wayne County and across the country. It was very much like a holiday, one that couldn’t be planned, for no one knew if or when it would happen. Shops would close early or shut down completely for the day. If school was in session, classes were often canceled on Circus Day.
One of the earliest circus companies to visit was Ira Cole’s Eagle Circus, which appeared in Wooster on June 6, 1837. It featured equestrians performing daring feats of expert horsemanship. Later that year Brown & Company presented their circus to a Wooster crowd. The following year there were two circus companies that showed in Wooster, three days apart — Fogg & Stickney on June 8, 1938, and A. Hunt & Company on June 11. The Fogg & Stickney Circus featured clowns and Mr. W. Mulligan, a leaper and vaulter using double trampolines. The A. Hunt Circus included a menagerie of wild, exotic animals such as elephants, lions and tigers.
All of these shows came to Wayne County on early, unimproved roads that at times were mere paths cut through the abundant forests of the day. Many days, especially in the rainy season, it was slow going. That all changed in the early 1850s when the railroad came.
In 1852 The Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad reached Wooster. Around 1854 The Cleveland, Zanesville and Cincinnati Railroad connected Fredericksburg, Apple Creek, Orrville and Marshallville. By the early 1860s, nearly all Wayne County towns and villages had railroad service. This opened the county to much larger and more diverse circuses.
Many times there was a grand parade that marched through town where the menagerie, clowns and lavishly costumed performers would be displayed to the festive sound of a steam calliope. Area resident Carol Grosenbaugh-Cox remembered the grand circus parades through Wooster and recalls that it was a very special day in the 1950s. She said kids including her brother Richard would help them raise the Big Top.
Orrville had several circuses show there, but not nearly as many as Wooster. In October of 1870, the Yankee Robinson Circus showed in Orrville. In May 1880 the Robert Stickney Circus performed there.
Circuses were so popular and in demand that when one did not materialize in any given year, it seemed like a local insult. In the July 4, 1882 Orrville Crescent, a reporter wrote, “Well, if we are not to have a circus, there will be no boys licked for crawling under the canvas. It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good.”
Perhaps one of the shining moments in Wayne County circus history occurred on July 3, 1907, when the infamous Ringling Brothers Circus presented its massive show at the Wayne County Fairgrounds. It arrived by train, offloading at the depot on the east side of town. The arrival and offloading was witnessed by hundreds of people. The subsequent parade through town was viewed by thousands. This was an event to behold. To be sure, the circus lived up to expectations.
One enduring mystery surrounding the circus in Wayne County is that of the Elephant Road. It seems elephants were not fond of mechanized travel and often arrived at the venue too traumatized to perform. Some remember circus elephants being walked from Wooster to Ashland to avoid the trauma.
Barb Slabaugh, who works at the Wayne County Community Foundation in Wooster, remembers her grandparents, Herman and Vera Hileman, telling her about it.
“It would be Myers Road in Wayne County and then Township Road 1300 in Ashland County, which used to continue on to County Road 1302,” Slabaugh said. “Part of it near County Road 1302 was on my grandparents’ farm, and it was little more than a dirt path in the pasture when I was little, but we always called it the Elephant Road.”
Coincidentally, the Lewis and Clark Circus visited the area for multiple shows in Wooster and Millersburg July 1-5, so the circus survives. It’s a smaller, more focused version of its progenitor.
Still, circus performances are more rare than they used to be, and it’s fun to reminisce about the excitement of Circus Day.
Looking Back is a feature on area history from local historian Mike Franks, who was raised in Apple Creek and has lived in Wooster most of his life. He can be emailed at bh_looking_back@aol.com.