This is what I found, thank you all very much for your help, I will now go
on through the rest of the information there, very interesting information I
only copied and pasted in part. If you would like to read more the link
below will take you there.
Thanks again
Ellie
http://circushof.com/
The first circus building in the United States opened in 1793 in
Philadelphia with a performance by John Bill Ricketts. George Washington
attended a performance there later that season. In the Americas of the first
two decades of the 19th century, The Circus of Pepin and Breschard toured
from Montreal to Havana, building circus theatres in many of the cities they
visited. Later the establishments of Purdy, Welch & Co., and of van Amburgh
gave a wider popularity to the circus in the United States. In 1825 Joshua
Purdy Brown was the first circus owner to use a large canvas tent for the
circus performance. Circus pioneer Dan Rice was probably the most famous
circus and clown pre-Civil War, popularizing such expressions as "The
One-Horse Show" and "Hey, Rube!". The American circus was revolutionized
by
P. T. Barnum and William Cameron Coup, who launched P. T. Barnum's Museum,
Menagerie & Circus, a traveling combination animal and human oddities, the
exhibition of humans as a freak show or sideshow was thus an American
invention. Coup was also the first circus entrepreneur to use circus trains
to transport the circus from town to town; a practice that continues today
and introduced the first multiple ringed circuses.
as "high-class" shows, his circus was known for its exquisite horses,
excellent performers and beautifully carved wagons, which were still
constructed by the Sullivan & Eagle company. Wallace maintained his circus
winter quarters in Peru, which encouraged other local industrial and
business enterprises. He had purchased hundreds of acres of land southeast
of Peru, between the Mississinewa and Wabash rivers, which became the famous
winterquarters. The land was once owned by Miami Indians.
In 1907 Wallace purchased the Carl Hagenbeck Circus and renamed it
Hagenbeck-Wallace. It was advertised as the "world's highest class circus,"
and was one of the top two or three circuses in the world. The only other
shows equal in magnitude were Ringling Bros. And Barnum & Bailey.
According to a Peru newspaper article on Nov. 29, 1907, the
Hagenbeck-Wallace shows were owned by Ben Wallace and John Talbot, with
Wallace buying out the interests of three other owners a total of $125,000
for their holdings. The paper reported, "Their show belongs to the class of
the greatest tent enterprises in the world and now since Mr. Wallace owns
most of the stock his holdings are greater than those of any other showman
in the country and probably the world."
Tragedy struck the circus in 1913, when Peru was a victim of the great
flood. Wallace suffered tremendous losses. In July of that same year,
Wallace sold out to a corporation which included some area men.
With the Great Depression came the demise of many, many circuses. During
the 1930s, Ringling used the Peru winterquarters for two of his shows and
also raised grain for shipment to the main circus quarters in Sarasota, Fla.
The winterquarters began to be phased out in the late 1930s. Some
properties, including wagons, were sold. Others were shipped to Florida.
Those left were burned.
In November 1941 more than 150 wagons of all types, in all conditions, were
burned. The scrap metal was picked out of the ashes and sold to benefit the
war effort.
The evacuation was complete in 1944 and the 500-acre farm sold. Today, a few
of the original winterquarter buildings still stand.