Читать книгу History of Bridgeport and Vicinity, Volume 2: Biographical - George Curtis Waldo jr. - Страница 5

Bridgeport probably had no more distinguished citizen than Phineas Taylor Bamum, whose eventful life was closed at his home in this city on the 7th of April, 1891. He was one of the most public-spirited citizens of the community, always taking a keen and helpful interest in Bridgeport's progress. Anything, no matter how . large or small, that pertained to or involved the city in any way was of great interest to him. He was a lineal descendant in the sixth generation from Thomas Bamum, who was one of the first eight settlers of the town of Danbury, Connecticut, they purchasing the land from the Indians in 1684, and making their residence there in the spring of 1685.

Ephraim Bamum II, grandson of Thomas II, born in 1733, married in 1753, Keziah Covell, by whom he had ten children. He married (second) in 1776, Mrs. Rachel Starr Beebe, daughter of Jonathan and Rachel (Taylor) Starr, and widow of Jonathan Beebe, of Danbury. They had five children, among them being Philo, born in 1778, married Polly Fairchild, of Newtown, Connecticut, who died in 1808, leaving five children. He then married Irene Taylor, daughter of Phineas and Mollie (Sherwood) Taylor, of Bethel, and among the five children of this marriage was Phineas Taylor, born July 5, 1810, at Bethel, in Fairfield county.

The grandfather of our subject was a captain in the Revolutionary war. His father was a tailor, farmer and sometimes hotel-keeper, and Phineas drove cows to pasture, weeded garden, plowed fields, made hay, and, when possible, went to school. Later on he became clerk in a country store established by his father. The latter dying in 1825, leaving the family in comparatively indigent circumstances, young Phineas then started into the world, securing employment for a time with a mercantile firm at Grassy Plains, his remuneration being six dollars per month. In 1826 he went to the city of Brooklyn as clerk in the store of Oliver Taylor, and for a time in the following year he was in business in New York. In 1829 he had a fruit and confectionery store in his grandfather's carriage house in Bethel, and also had on hand "lottery business," and was auctioneer in the book trade. In 1831, in company with his uncle, Alanson Taylor, he opened a country store in Bethel. Several months later the nephew bought out the uncle's interest, and also the same year, on October 19th, he issued the first copy of the Herald of Freedom. Unfortunately he lacked the experience which indicates caution and was soon plunged into litigation, being finally sentenced to pay on one suit a fine of one hundred dollars and be imprisoned in the jail for sixty days. He had a good room, lived well and had continued visits from friends, edited his paper as usual, and received large accessions to the subscription lists. At the expiration of his imprisonment he received an ovation, and after a sumptuous dinner, with toasts, speeches and ode and oration, in a coach drawn by six horses, accompanied by a band of music, forty horseman, sixty carriages of citizens and the marshal of oration of the day, amid roar of cannons and cheers of a multitude Mr. Bamum rode to his home in Bethel, where the band played "Home Sweet Home," and the procession then returned to Danbury. His editor's career was one of continual contest, but he persevered in the publication of the Herald of Freedom until the spring of 1835. He then removed to New York, and after being engaged as a drummer for several firms opened a private boarding house, at the same time purchasing an interest in a grocery store.

In 1835 Mr. Bamum began the business which has made his name a household word in all civilized nations. His start as a showman began by the purchase and exhibition of Joyce Heath, a colored woman, said to have been the nurse of General George Washington, and one hundred and sixty -one years of age. His next venture was the exhibition of "Signor Antonio" and a ''Mr. Roberts." In 1836 he connected himself with Aaron Turner's traveling circus, going south. In the following year he organized a new company and went west, reaching the Missouri river, where he purchased a steamer and sailed down the river for New Orleans. There he traded the steamer for sugar and molasses and returned north, arriving at New York, June 4, 1838. In 1841 he bought the American Museum in that city and commenced a series of improvements by way of attractive exhibitions. He introduced the lecture room, a reform of the stage or theatre. He was constantly searching for and obtaining something new, amusing and wonderful, and all the exhibitions he made were instructive to the people, moral and elevating. His methods of bringing his institution constantly before the minds of the people and the success thereby secured first impressed the American mind with the advantages of advertising. In 1842 he secured General Tom Thumb lor exhibition; in 1844 he took him, in company with his parents, across the ocean. They went to London and soon to the presence of the queen at Buckingham Palace. From London the party went to Paris, where the General received great attention. He was invited to the presence of the king and queen and the royal family. For the first day's exhibition to the general public in Paris, Mr. Bamum received fifty-five hundred francs. From Paris the party traveled through France and Belgium and back to England, where the profitable exhibition continued until the return to New York in 1847. The General's father, on arriving from England with a handsome fortune, placed a portion of it at interest for the General, more for himself, and with thirty thousand dollars of it built a substantial dwelling on the corner of North avenue and Main street, Bridgeport.

After returning to America, Mr. Bamum made a tour with his little general through the United States and Cuba. It was during this tour in 1847-48 that he had his beautiful dwelling built in Bridgeport, which he called "Iranistan," the word signifying "Oriental Villa," and on November 14, 1848, nearly one thousand guests were present at an old-fashioned "house warming." It stood a little back from the northeast corner of the present Fairfield and Iranistan avenues, and some years after it accidentally took fire and was consumed. This beautiful and very remarkable structure, built in oriental style, was the first great boom for the celebrity of Bridgeport. The picture of it went over the country in the illustrated papers as "a thing of beauty," a marvel of wonder and an honor to all America.

The Jenny Lind enterprise was the next great undertaking of Mr. Bamum. It was conceived by him in October, 1849, the engagement made with the great singer January 9, 1850, by which one hundred and eighty-seven thousand, five hundred dollars was to be deposited by Mr. Bamum in advance of all proceedings, and which was done. Miss Lind arrived in New York, September 1, 1850, and the first concert occurred September 11th following, the proceeds of which amounted to seventeen thousand, eight hundred and sixty-four dollars and five cents. Ninety-three concerts were given under Mr. Bamum 's contract, terminating in May, 1851, the receipts for which amounted to one hundred and twelve thousand, one hundred and sixty-one dollars and thirty -four cents. It was the greatest project of the kind ever introduced into America up to that day and probably to the present, unless it be ''Bamum's Greatest Show on Earth." and was successfully, and even grandly, carried through. During this time the American Museum was running successfully with Tom Thumb in attendance, besides many other entertainments added every year. About this time he fitted out his "Great Asiatic Caravan, Museum and Menagerie" at an expense of upward of one hundred thousand dollars and exhibited it for four years.

In 1851 Mr. Barnum purchased of William R Noble, of Bridgeport, the undivided half of his late father's estate, consisting of fifty acres of land lying on the east side of the river, opposite the city of Bridgeport. They intended this as the nucleus of a new city, which they concluded could soon be built in consequence of the many natural advantages it possessed. In view of securing this end, a clock company, in which Mr. Barnum was a stockholder, was prevailed upon to transfer its establishment from the town of Litchfield to the new city. In addition to this it was proposed to transfer the entire business of the Jerome Clock Company of New Haven to East Bridgeport, and for this purpose Mr. Barnum lent that company money and notes to the amount of one hundred and ten thousand dollars, with the positive assurance this would be the extent of the company's call on him; but by peculiar management on the part of the company they soon had Mr. Barnum involved to the amount of over half a million dollars. Then they failed, and after absorbing all of Mr. Barnum's fortune they paid but from twelve to fifteen per cent of the company's obligations, while, in the end, they never removed to East Bridgeport. Mr. Barnum's extrication of himself from this gulf of obligation by paying such a percentage on the whole as could not be met by the sale of all his property at the time, was a financial feat of the highest genius, energy and honor.

Early in 1857 Mr. Barnum again went to Europe, taking with him General Tom Thumb and also Little Cordelia Howard and her parents, and traveled through England, Germany and Holland, experiencing with the little folks a most cordial and enthusiastic greeting all the way. It was soon after his return from this European tour that the beautiful "Iranistan" was destroyed by fire. Early in 1858 Mr. Bamum returned to England, taking Tom Thumb, and with some help to manage the exhibition through Scotland and Wales, as well as elsewhere, he devoted himself to the "lecture field," taking for his theme, "The Art of Making Money," and by it he made money, hand over hand, and sent it home to apply on the clock enterprise. In 1859 he returned to the United States and, pushing on his museum, found himself in 1860 within twenty thousand dollars of extinguishing the last claim from the old clock business. This he provided for and resumed the full control of his old museum. In 1860 he built a new house in Bridgeport, on Fairfield avenue, about one hundred rods west of the site of "Iranistan," which was named "Lindencroft", in honor of Jenny Lind, and gave his attention anew to the building of his pet city. East Bridgeport. This had already made great progress. In 1856 the Wheeler & Wilson Sewing Machine Company had purchased the old clock shop, greatly enlarged it, and were employing something like a thousand hands. Churches, dwellings and other manufactories, including that of the Howe Sewing Machine Company, had been built and the place had become quite a city. From 1860 to the time of his death Mr. Barnum, although engaged with the New York Museum for years and afterward with his great how, did not cease to give much attention and energetic effort to the building, prosperity and success of the city of Bridgeport.

In 1861 Mr. Bamum introduced into his Museum Commodore Nut, and in 1862 he secured another dwarf in the person of Lavinia Warren. In 1865 the American Museum in New York was burned with great loss, but Mr. Bamum at once built another, which was also burned with great loss in 1868. By these two catastrophes about a million dollars worth of Mr. Bamum's property in one dwelling and two museums had been destroyed by fire. In 1867 he sold his home, "Lindencroft" and removed to the locality where he resided for years, commencing the erection of that residence in 1868. This he named "Waldemere," the word meaning "Woods-by-the-Sea." When he purchased this land it lay adjoining the west end of Seaside Park, being a portion of an old farm, and extended from Atlantic street to the shore of the Sound. Believing as he did then that Seaside Park would be a very great advantage to the people of the city, he gave seven acres lying in front of his residence to the city for enlargement of the park. In 1884 he gave thirty acres more, extending the park westward toward Black Rock Harbor.

In 1870 Mr. Bamum commenced preparations for a great show and enterprise, comprising a museum, menagerie, caravan, hippodrome and circus, and to this show from that time on he devoted a great portion of his untiring energy. This he styled "The Greatest Show on Earth." This show opened for a few weeks in the spring every year in the large Madison Square Garden in New York, and during each summer it visited the principal cities in the United States and Canada, from Quebec and Montreal on the east, to Omaha, Nebraska, on the west, exhibiting under immense tents, in one of which could be seated twenty thousand persons. It consisted of a large menagerie of rare wild beasts, a museum of human phenomena and living specimens of savage and strange tribes and nations, including, without regard to cost, everything rare and marvelous which his wealth, energy and perseverance, and experience as a public manager could gather. The "Ethnological Congress" of this show contains the greatest collection of different types of strange and savage tribes gathered from the remotest corners of the earth ever seen together. The great elephant Jumbo, purchased by Mr. Bamum from the Royal Zoological Gardens, London, being the largest land animal seen for centuries, and forty other American and Indian elephants, including two baby elephants — these and scores of other trained animals transported on nearly a hundred railway cars belonging to Mr. Bamum, created an expense of five thousand to six thousand dollars each day and brought over a million dollars in a single season. In the latter years of his life Mr. Bamum took several experienced partners, the contract of co-partnership extending for years, and arrangements were made for its continuance after that time by their successors. The winter headquarters of the show, which still bears Mr. Bamum's name, is located at Bridgeport, and the buildings and grounds are annually inspected by thousands.

In 1875 Mr. Bamum was elected mayor of Bridgeport, and as he always had its best interests at heart, it is needless to say that his administration was eminently successful. The improvement in the Park City during the past decade can easily be traced back to the pioneer hand of this generous gentleman. He secured to the city the beautiful Mountain Grove cemetery. He laid out many streets and planted hundreds of trees in Bridgeport proper, built blocks of houses, many of which he sold to mechanics on the installment plan, thus providing a home for the thrifty with as little cost as would be the payment of rent. Bridgeport, with its many handsome gifts, notably the Barnum Institute of Science and History, from this generous and eminent man, will revere his name for generations to come: and in all cities, towns and hamlets of this, or any country, the people will remember P. T. Bamum and his "Greatest Show on Earth" when all else is forgotten.

Mr. Barnum also gave to Tufts College, Massachusetts, one hundred thousand dollars, with which was erected and stocked the Bamum Museum of Natural History. Politically Mr. Bamum was a democrat previous to the breaking out of the Civil war, but after that period up to the time of his death he was a republican. In 1865 he was elected a representative to the general assembly of Connecticut from the town of Fairfield, and from Bridgeport in 1877.

In 1876 Mr. Bamum wrote a book of fiction founded on fact, entitled, ''The Adventure of Lion Jack, or How Managers are Made," which was dedicated to the boys of America. In 1881 Mr. Bamum presented to Bethel, his birthplace, a bronze fountain, which was made in Germany. From an impromptu 'speech made on the occasion the following is an extract: "My friends: Among all the varied scenes of an active and eventful life, crowded with strange incidents of struggle and excitement, of joy and sorrow, taking me often through foreign lands and bringing me face to face with the king in his palace and the peasant in his turf-covered hut, I have invariably cherished — with the most affectionate remembrance of the place of my birth — the old tillage meeting house, without steeple or bell, where in the square family pew I sweltered in summer and shivered through my Sunday school lessons in winter, and the old school house, where the ferrule, the birchen rod and rattan did active duty, of which I deserved and received a liberal share."

On November 8, 1829, Mr. Barnum was married to Charity Hallett, a native of Bethel, who bore him children as follows: Caroline C, Helen M., Frances I. and Pauline T. The mother of these, who was born October 28, 1808, died November 19, 1873. On September 16, 1874, the father married Miss Nancy Fish, of Southport, Lancashire, England. In 1889 "Waldemere" was removed to make room for "Marina," the later residence of the family at Bridgeport.