Contract for Use of an Elephant,
Aug. 13, 1808

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In 1808 Hachaliah Bailey, a Somers farmer and drover who had formed the original traveling menagerie a year earlier, signed this contract with Andrew Brunn and Benjamin Lent. It leased two-thirds of the use of the menagerie’s star attraction, the elephant Old Bet, to Brunn and Lent for $2,400. Somers is generally considered to be the birthplace of the American traveling circus.

This record is associated with:

• Somers