P.T. Barnum

Phineas Taylor Barnum was born in July of 1810, he was only the third generation of the Barnum family born in America. Thomas Barnum was the first Barnum to come to America as an indentured servant in the late 1600's. He was to be related to Sir. Francis Bacon. P.T.'s father was Philo Barnum. He was a hard working man who did not have many extras, what he had he worked hard for. Philo married a woman named Irene Taylor. Her family was well to do. Barnum's name came from Irene's father, Phineas Taylor. As a child Barnum was most influenced by his grandfather. He is the first person that Barnum could remember from his childhood. P.T. said this about his grandfather. "Strong willed and crafty, he would go farther, wait longer, work harder, and dig deeper to play a practical joke than anyone I had ever seen."

Since P.T.'s father was a laborer, he would not get rich off his fathers money. It was his grandfather who would help him find wealth. As a kid he went to school and worked on a farm, he disliked both of these things. He believed that school taught more discipline than academics. However he did excel in math, specially in areas like profit margins and things of a business nature. He hated working on the farm because he saw his father work hard all his life and still had little to show for it. At age fifteen his father dies and he begins work in a country store as a clerk. He learned lots of the nature of business here. This is were he first became interested in the lottery. Only after a year he moved to New York to practice business on a larger scale. In 1828 he moved home to open his own fruit stand and confectionary store with the help of his grandfathers money. After his store was running good for a while he traveled the east to learn more about the lottery and how it works on a larger scale. He eventually opened up his own lottery offices in Connecticut that made up to 30 percent in profits. The state soon abolished the lottery for fear of scamming, but nothing was brought against Barnum.

At age 25 after marring Charrity Hallet, he began the expedition that would make him famous. In 1835 he would charge people to see the 161 year old nurse maid of George Washington. He even made more money when he wrote anonymous letters to the paper saying that she was a fake made of leather, whale bone, and springs. The people of New York paid to see her a second time to see if she really was a hoax. Barnum has been credited for saying "There is a fool born every minute". He did not say this , but he did say "The bigger the humbug, the more people like it." and "People like being fool as long as they feel that there in on the joke". Some of his mor famous oddities were General Tom Thumb, Jo-Jo the dog faced boy, living skeletons, and frog swallowers to name a few. Barnum teamed up with business man J. Baily in 1870 to create the Barnum and Baily circus, which is still on tour today.

It wasn't until his later years that Barnum got interested in politics. In 1861 Barnum and some of his followers went to a peace meeting in Stony Depot. He told reporters that his only intention in going was to listen to the harangues and if they were in opposition of the government, to deter enlistments. Thongs didn't turn out this way. Barnum and his friends were joined by some soldiers and then moved about the crowd. They tore down the peace flag and carried Barnum to the stage were he was pushed to the front by his followers and gave a emotional speech ,full of patriotism and spiced with the humor of the occasion. Barnum was very non tolerant to any anti-government behavior. In 1865 he was elected to the Connecticut legislature. He felt he could honor the construction by abolishing slavery from the land. He gave a very passionate speech on removing the word "white" from qualification of suffrage. Here is an important quote from his speech, "Ignorance is incapable with the genius of our free instruction." This is a piece from one of his last speeches on slavery. "Knock off your manacles and let the man go free. Take down the blinds from his intellect, let in the light of education and Christian culture. When this is done you have developed a man."

Barnum died a very well liked man in 1891 at the age of 81. At the high of his fame, General Grant believed Barnum to be more famous than himself.

Jason Hall,jth5523@uncwil.edu