DELAVAN, Wis. (AP) - Many knew Juliet for her sweet disposition and hard work as an entertainer.
But the fame of the Indian elephant multiplied after her death, largely because of her burial, the Janesville Gazette (https://bit.ly/2k5Vnpo ) reported.
In 1864, while wintering with the circus in Delavan, Juliet died from a blockage in her intestine.
In the deep freeze of February, her handlers could not chisel a grave.
Instead, they sliced a huge hole in Delavan Lake, near today’s Lake Lawn Resort pier.
Then they dragged the elephant onto the ice, weighed her down and sank her to a watery grave.
More than 150 years later, Juliet still stirs emotion.
“Everyone loves the story that her final resting place is in Delavan Lake,” said Patti Marsicano, president of the Delavan Historical Society.
In part, the same fascination and concern for elephants are why a historic circus is ending.
In January, officials of the Greatest Show on Earth announced the 146-year-old Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will close in May.
Many reasons were cited, including declining attendance because of changing tastes in entertainment and long battles with concerned animal-rights groups that ended the elephant acts.
The decision resonates in Delavan, where the granddaddy of circuses began and where handlers once led elephants down Walworth Avenue.
In the last half of the 1800s, 26 different circus companies originated or quartered in the greater Delavan area, which became known as the 19th-Century Circus Capital.
During this time, two Delavan men, William Coup and Dan Costello, entered into a partnership with P.T. Barnum of New York to form the renowned P.T. Barnum Circus in the fall of 1870.
More than a decade later, James Bailey became Barnum’s sole partner, and the circus was rechristened Barnum and Bailey. Eventually, the Ringling Brothers of Baraboo bought the enterprise, making it the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
Through it all, Juliet’s legacy endured and sometimes resurfaced.
In 1931, a newspaper article documented the finding of a bone in Delavan Lake, which some thought to be from a prehistoric mastodon. Later, Chicago’s Field Museum analyzed it and said it came from an Indian elephant.
Juliet will long be remembered as the city’s nationally famous pachyderm. But she was not the only Delavan elephant with a reputation. The other was Romeo, a giant male who gained notoriety after killing five handlers during his lifetime.
A number of tragic stories explain why Romeo took so many lives, but none are verified.
The bigger-than-normal elephant wintered at property now occupied by Lake Lawn Resort. Edmund and Jeremiah Mabie bought the land in 1847 and used the site for their U.S. Olympic Circus for 20 years.
Occasionally, Romeo, weighing more than 10,000 pounds, would break out of his quarters.
“His owners knew he wouldn’t go far because he had to cross a wooden inlet bridge,” Marsicano said. “Romeo knew the bridge wouldn’t hold his weight.”
Today, the elephant is remembered with a still and silent statue in the downtown Tower Park
But back in the day, Romeo and Juliet were among the dynamic creatures that drew huge crowds to see “a congress of wonders.”
“Put yourself in the time period,” Marsicano explained. “There were no radios, TVs or moving pictures. There were no zoos. When the circus came to town with wild animals and women riding bareback, it was larger than a child’s dream.”
Even when radio and TV filled many living rooms, people still crowded under the sawdust and spangles big top. Then came the age of the internet, when the Greatest Show on Earth didn’t seem so great anymore.
In recent years, the historical society has invited the Carson & Barnes Circus of Oklahoma to perform in Delavan, but no performance is scheduled in 2017.
Marsicano does not know what the future holds for small circuses after the demise of the most recognized and well-known of them all.
“They say when you take out the biggest and the best, the others will fall,” she said. “With the loss of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, the question is will other small ones prosper or fall?”
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Information from: The Janesville Gazette, https://www.gazetteextra.com
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