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Phineas T Barnum
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Phineas T Barnum is not related by blood, but by marriage - Maria Barnum, the daughter of Phineas's first cousin, married Isaac Rollason. Isaac had been born in Dudley, Worcestershire, in 1841. Isaac's uncle, William, is the ancestor of the author. Isaac served in the American Civil War, for The Union, as did his brother Jacob, and their father Benjamin, who had been born in Dudley in 1803. Their descendants settled in Everson, Fayette County, PA.
Early in 1842, P. T. Barnum opened the American Museum on Broadway in New York. A modern cabinet of wonders, it displayed real minerals, fossils, and stuffed animals alongside ingenious hoaxes such as the Feejee Mermaid (a mummified monkey joined to the body of a fish). Barnum had a bold talent for publicity, and he happily profited from the public's taste for what he called "Humbug." The American Museum included a stage (called a Lecture Hall to welcome virtuous Sunday visitors, families, and children) where Barnum launched the career of a charming midget, Charles S. Stratton, who became "General Tom Thumb." Tom Thumb dressed in costume (imitating Napoleon and Hercules among others), sang, danced, and told jokes. A few years after Barnum toured with Tom Thumb to Europe, he brought Swedish soprano Jenny Lind to America for a two-year concert tour. Barnum generated such extraordinary excitement over her visit that some critics complained about "Lindomania."
Pearson/Rowley/Parrish/Batham/Gauden
Steve Pearson
PO Box 2483, Dudley, West Midlands, England, DY2 0YH
Tel: +44 (0)1384 571244 E-mail: Steve Pearson
©S Pearson 2002
