Bethel in Connecticut, is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut. While there are cities in the southern part of that county, the area around Bethel is almost rural, with, of course, a number of mansions. At the time of the Civil War there was a developing hat industry there, as well as the manufacture of combs. In 1860, right before the start of the Civil War, there were 1,700 people living in Bethel. Now the population is over 20,000.
In the center of town is the Bethel Public Library in a building built in 1842 as a home for Seth Sealy. Sealy had at one time sued P.T. Barnum for libel and had had him thrown in jail for two months. In the early 1900s, the home was given to the library as its permanent location. There are two Civil War related statues on the grounds of the library, a statue of P.T. Barnum, and Lincoln on horseback.
Barnum was one of the most famous entertainers by the 1860s. He was born in Bethel in 1810. His father was an inn keeper and kept a store. He recalled that his grandfather helped his parents raise him. As an infant and toddler Barnum said that he spent half of his waking hours in his grandfathers arms. His grandfather helped teach him how to keep people entertained with his love of humor.
P.T. Barnum stayed in Bethel during the first few decades of his life and in 1831 he started a local newspaper, The Herald of Freedom. He used his paper to criticize the leaders of local churches, which led to his jailing
In 1835, he leased a slave woman, Joice Heth, who was said to have been George Washington’s nurse. When she died, Barnum charged an admission fee to watch her autopsy. Barnum put together a variety show that he toured with. In 1841 he started Barnum’s American Museum. This was a profit-making museum filled with oddities that by 1846 was attracting 400,000 visitors per year.
In 1844, Barnum took his show, including the now-famous General Tom Thumb, to Europe where he was seen by Queen Victoria. By this time, his show was based in New York City and his mansion was in Bridgeport. When he returned to the United States, he presented the Swedish singer Jenny Lind at a series of concerts throughout the United States.
Throughout his career, Barnum presented lectures, staged plays, organized concerts, held baby contests and hundreds of other money-making presentations.
What we have not mentioned is Barnum’s involvement with the circus. Today most people associate P.T. Barnum with the Barnum and Bailey Circus, but Barnum only developed the circus-side of his career when he was in his sixties. It was in 1870 that he launched his own circus, which he soon dubbed The Greatest Show on Earth. He created the Three Ring Circus to keep attendees entertained the whole time they were at his shows.
The Seth Sealy Mansion, now more than 180 years old, is still the centerpiece of the library. It is odd that it now honors P.T. Barnum, a man Sealy sent to jail.
The side of the monument shows Barnum’s Greatest Show on Earth.
Before the Civil War, president-elect Abraham Lincoln had visited Barnum’s museum on February 19, 1861. In 1862, Barnum visited Lincoln at the White House. During the war, Barnum added pro-Union speakers and exhibits to his museum which increased in popularity.
On November 25, 1864 eight secret Confederate agents started fires at Barnum’s museum, a theater, and nineteen hotels. The fires were quickly contained.
The statue, which looks like it was created in the 19th Century, shows Barnum as a showman with his arms extended holding his hat. However, this is a relatively new statue, only having been unveiled in 2010 to honor Bethel’s most well-known progeny.
Next to Barnum is a statue that I had seen before from another location. It was Lincoln as a young lawyer, reading a book while on his skinny horse that is grazing. I thought it was a reproduction of a mass market sculpture, but I soon discovered I was wrong. Named “Lincoln The Itinerant Lawyer,” the statue was designed by one of the most famous American female sculptors of the 20th Century, Anna Hyatt Huntington. She made several of these sculptures, one of which was displayed at the New York World’s Fair in 1964. The Bethel equestrian statue has the date “1961” on it.
The statue shows Lincoln reading intently from his book while his horse carries out the prosaic grazing activity. An appropriate library activity!
Anna Huntington was well-known for her depiction of animals, particularly horses. Many of her horses are large and muscular with a hero on them. Her statue of Joan of Arc in New York City is in keeping with this design. However, here the horse shows its bones under its skin. Lincoln is depicted as a young lawyer in his twenties, not with a sword in his hand, but with a book.
The horse has to graze to keep alive because Lincoln, poor as he was, could not buy grain to feed him. Lincoln was a circuit riding lawyer in his early years. This means that as the court moved from one town to another to hold hearings, Lincoln followed the court on its circuit. So, for much of the year, Lincoln was essentially homeless, sleeping in rented beds or outside.
Anna Huntington was the daughter of a naturist who was a Harvard professor of zoology. He encouraged his daughter to study the science of animals. She went to zoos and circuses to observe horses and other animals to help her depict them in her sculptures.
The other versions of this sculpture are at Columbia University, at Syracuse University, New Salem in Illinois and in Salzburg, Austria.
Note: All color photos of buildings in this post were taken by Patrick Young except as noted.
Sources:
Autobiography of P.T. Barnum by P.T. Barnum
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