| Hachaliah Bailey |
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Information AboutHachaliah Bailey |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT HACHALIAH BAILEY | |
| 1790 births | |
| 1870 deaths | |
| circus proprietors | |
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In 1808 , while residing in Somers, New York , Bailey purchased an African Elephant for $1,000 and named it " Old Bet ." Old Bet appears to be one of the first elephants brought to the United States; she had previously been on exhibit in Boston in 1804 , but Bailey found her for sale four years later in a New York City cattle market. (An alternate version of the story relates that Bailey purchased Old Bet from a sea captain, possibly his brother, who had acquired the elephant for $20 in London prior to the War Of 1812 .) Bailey originally planned to use Old Bet as a draught animal on his farm, but she attracted so much attention that he decided to found a travelling Menagerie instead. He started out to show Old Bet with a wagon of hay, a horse to draw it, and an assistant. The admission fee for an entire family was either a coin or a 2- Gallon jug of Rum . In 1808 , Hachaliah Bailey rented two-thirds of Old Bet to Benjamin Lent and Andrew Brown, who also had a right to display her. On July 24 , 1816 , Old Bet was killed while on tour near Alfred, Maine by a farmer who thought it sinful for poor people to waste money on a travelling Circus , and Bailey memoralized her in 1825 with a statue and the Elephant Hotel in Somers, New York. |
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