Well before the Civil War, circus troupes had made their way to Texas. The earliest mention of a circus in our local newspaper was on Jan. 7, 1859. My interest in the NB circus scene began with an early 1900s photograph featuring a circus parade of camels on Seguin Street. A quick search led to three other photos of camels and elephants marching around Main Plaza in 1932. My curiosity was piqued.

I clearly remember going to the circus as a child. It was magical, scary, exciting and wild. I had seen “lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” on trips to the San Antonio Zoo. We even got to ride the elephants back then. But at the circus, the animals were not all in cages and they were interacting with people. The color, glitter and lights of “The Big Show” mesmerized me.

I cannot imagine what Circus Day was like for a child in the 1860s. Back in an age when travel consisted of going in to town or to the county seat, the circus would be so much more than entertainment. It would have been a travelling world of wonders and marvel — a magical world populated by creatures and people from storybooks. The newspaper advertisements alone conjured up images of exotic places and animals. They were filled with detailed descriptions and woodcuts of the most amazing acts and performers.

Those advertisements still illicit a reaction today. When I had two Sophienburg volunteers, Dennis Schwab and Rose Emich, translate the NB Zeitung German print, we still reacted with, “What!” “Oh my goodness!” “Really?” and “Can you imagine?” These outbursts were followed by laughter as the flowery prose of the early circus “advance men” was turned into English.

The first circus to make the Zeitung was Maybie’s Menagerie & Circus in 1859. The troupe—which included 30 people, 80 horses, two elephants, one camel, five lions, and numerous smaller animals and birds—paraded through town in brightly painted wagons and costumes of rainbow-colored satins. The sight, smell and sound alone would have been spectacular. It gets better. The elephants drank water from the Comal River!

After 1865, more and more circuses found their way to New Braunfels. The Stone, Roston & Murray Circus had organized and traveled for 5 years in England, Germany, France and Spain before coming to the United States. Their full one-column advertisement featured woodcuts of circus wagons, daring trick-riders and amazing performing dogs. (We get the phrase, “dog and pony show” from these early circuses.) The advert goes on to say that special seating — secured by delegated men — would be available to women accompanied by a gentleman. Personally, I don’t get the need for such an upgrade, but apparently the 1860s women did.

A small, but well-attended Mexican circus was reported in July 1869. It featured balancing acts and feats of strength. What was interesting was the breakdown of performer ethnicity: Mexicans, Spaniards, Americans, one German and one Chinese juggler. Apparently, this circus was politically correct way before its time.

Several circuses came through around Christmas time. The Hight & Chambers Circus & Menagerie was in town for Weihnachts Feiertag (Dec 26^th or Boxing Day). Woodcuts of lions and elephants accompany the list of performers: 10 trick riders, 11 acrobats and wire walkers and 20 musicians and minstrels. The menagerie had a 500 lb. baby elephant, polar bear, Bengal tiger, monkeys, meerkats and baboons.

In the 1870s, the shows got bigger — the word “mammoth” was often used in the descriptions. The Crescent City Texas Circus was first owned by H. M. Smith and then NOLA-born Charles Noyes. Each, in turn, set the Big Top up in NB. Smith brought 33 performers, 24 trained horses, two American and one German clown, and a band so good that “they didn’t want to sound like they were bragging, but.” They not only gave a discount to large families, but they also advertised positions for two new brass musicians. There is no report of any young New Braunfelsers running away to the circus…but who knows?

The Noyes-owned version came with Jenny Lind the Elephant, white 2-humped camels, dromedaries, lions, leopards, tigers, hyenas, kangaroos, Japanese pigs, llamas, African deer, Nile zebras, bears, sacred cows, Dutch ostriches, white peacocks, Brazilian parrots, silver pheasants, cockatiels, African grey parrots, anteaters, badgers, monkeys, baboons and over 100 “colored and feathered” birds. The menagerie part of the circus had become a veritable traveling zoo.

There were many, many more “big shows” mentioned in the Zeitung throughout the end of the 19^th Century and into the 20^th Century. But the advertisement of the Cole Circus in December 1872 blew us all away. It promised a mile-long parade of 300 men and horses, 350 wild and trained animals, birds, snakes, and other curiosities that cost $1,600 a day to maintain. There would be 20 decorated golden cages full of animals “worth seeing,” the only genuine hippopotamus in the country, a herd of camels, Bengal tigers, leopards, lions, hyenas, capybaras, a horned horse (A UNICORN!), tapirs and monkeys. And if that didn’t whet the appetite of even the most jaded circus attendee, there was also a 20 ton, 26-foot long, 18-foot diameter black whale on an enormous horse-drawn wagon! I looked it up. Circuses actually embalmed whales and took them on the road. It doesn’t end here. This two tent, gas-lit show could accommodate 5,000 people, and included a wax museum with notables such as Sleeping Beauty, Prince Alexis of Russia and Col. James Fish. One ticket bought it all.

Truly, this was pretty close to being “The Greatest Show on Earth.”

Sources:

• Sophienburg photo collection
• Neu Braunfelser Zeitung
• History of New Braunfels and Comal County, Haas, Oscar
• www.circushistory.org

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Are you confused about which historical anniversary to celebrate or that you have celebrated? Is it for New Braunfels? Is it for Texas? Is it for the United States? Did we celebrate one year, 25 years, 50 years, 75 years, 100 years (centennial), 150 years (sesquicentennial) or 200 years? We have celebrated so many historical events that it’s starting to really get confusing. And now plans are underway to celebrate the 175^th year of New Braunfels’ founding.

The founding fathers (and mothers) celebrated the first American Fourth of July in 1846, a little over a year after arriving in New Braunfels. Then they celebrated the New Braunfels 25^th etc., etc., etc. In the early 1990s, about 50 New Braunfelsers even traveled to Braunfels, Germany, to help our sister city celebrate its 750^th birthday. I was fortunate enough to be able to go to that big bash. We were treated to a happy time. The Germans love “Texas Charlie” as they called Prince Carl. The long parade featured every era you can imagine. The entry that stuck out in my mind was the era of the Black Plague. Why? They had carts filled with bandaged plague victims and it was gruesome. I suppose we had a similar situation here (cholera, not plague), but as far as I know, this era has never been a parade entry.

The Texas Centennial of the Declaration of Independence From Mexico

Now clear your mind of all confusing past celebrations and concentrate on one celebration – the 1936 Texas Centennial of the Declaration of Independence from Mexico. Texas will recognize on March 2^nd, the date of Texas independence and becoming a Republic. Although the Centennial was officially celebrated statewide in 1936, the celebration began in 1935 and continued in 1937 and 1938 in New Braunfels.

The state did this 100-year celebration in a big way. The Texas Legislature and the U.S. Congress contributed $3,000,000 toward the project. Dallas was chosen as the center of the celebration. Every county in Texas received a granite marker with the date of the county’s establishment and the source of its name. Our county marker is on US 81 in front of Canyon Middle School.

Houston, San Antonio, Ft. Worth and Galveston put on large pageants. The Ft. Worth pageant called “The Winning of the West,” was by far the most visited, even more than the Dallas Exposition dedicated to the Centennial. In addition, museums like the Panhandle Museum at Canyon, the Texas Museum in Austin, the Big Bend Museum in Alpine, the Corpus Christi Centennial Museum, the West Texas Museum at Lubbock, the Alamo Museum and the Gonzales Museum, were established.

The celebration in Dallas occupying 50 buildings, was advertised as the first world’s fair held in the southwest. Throughout the state there were programs of significant historic events, battle scenes and pioneer re-enactments being performed a century after Texas won its freedom from Mexican rule and established the Republic of Texas. In 1846, Texas became the 28^th state of the United States. Texas is the only state that existed as an independent republic and one that was recognized by foreign countries.

Six Flags Over Texas is more than an amusement park. The six flags on Texas soil were France, Spain, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederate States and finally, the United States.

Centennial Celebration in New Braunfels

New Braunfels historical markers for the Centennial, besides the county granite marker, include the Mission Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe on SH 46 in front of HEB, that commemorates the Franciscan Mission from 1757, that was established to bring religion to the local Native Tribes. Another marker is dedicated to John Torrey for the establishment of mills on the Comal River. It is at the foot of Mill Street where the tube chute is located. Two markers are dedicated to Ferdinand Lindheimer. One is at his home on Comal Avenue and the other is at his gravesite in the Comal Cemetery. He is recognized as the Father of Texas Botany. One of the exhibits at the Centennial in Dallas was of the 500 plus wildflowers in Texas. Another marker is located at the home of George Wilkins Kendall, located on Waco Springs Loop Road near SH 46. He was a well-respected journalist, founder of the New Orleans Picayune, correspondent on the Santa Fe Expedition and Mexican war correspondent. Located on Landa Park Drive is a pink granite New Braunfels marker dedicated to the city’s founding. It has a bronze relief of the Sophienburg log cabin and tells the story of Prince Carl. It was erected by the State of Texas with federal funds to commemorate one hundred years of Texas Independence. By far the most well-known monument in Landa Park is dedicated to the German pioneers of Texas. The New Braunfels Herald announced: “New Braunfels has been selected as the site of the proposed monument (to Germans) for which the State Centennial Committee has appropriated the sum of $2,999. The rest of the funds were through contributions locally and collections had been reported in other parts of the state by the San Antonio committee of the Federation of German-American Societies, which is sponsoring the movement.” Refer to Sophienburg.com, May 15, 2007, for further information.

Besides markers, what else was being planned? The newspaper was full of activities to put New Braunfels “on the map.” The opening of Landa Park was a highlight of the time and the Cole Circus with Clyde Beatty. Beatty was known as the world’s most daring animal trainer. There were 20 big and little elephants, including Jumbo the 2^nd, the only African elephant in a circus in the country.

The Katy Railroads offered weekend bargain fares like $5.16 for a round trip to the Centennial Exposition in Dallas, and $4.93 to the Frontier Centennial in Ft. Worth, and for an extra 89¢ you could be picked up at the train station and transported by street car to the grounds of the exposition. What a deal! School children were given the advantage of the state-wide rate reduction on all railroads as well as special rates for the Centennial. The November Herald announced that 56 school children attended the Centennial and have returned from a two-day trip to Dallas.

Speaking of railroads, that very year the president of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s train rolled through New Braunfels on the MKT tracks on June 12, 1936. Nearly a third of Texas’ population saw and heard the president on his Texas Centennial tour. He visited Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Dallas and Ft. Worth. The train “passed through” New Braunfels in the middle of the night, but no stop. Supposedly, many people were standing by the tracks to see the president, but they were disappointed. All I can say is that FDR did not know how important New Braunfels was.

The NBHS Class of 1936 was known as the Centennial Class. There is a photo of this class in the Sophienburg.com column of August 21, 2007. I interpreted it as a costume party but now I know they were cowboys and pioneers. There were 54 seniors taught by 15 teachers that year and it was the largest class ever to graduate from NBHS up to that time. There were so many of them, that the graduation was held in the Seele Parish House because it had a stage that would accommodate all the graduates. In keeping with the Centennial Celebration, the class contacted several prominent Texans at the time to participate in the graduation.

On March 2^nd, take time to reflect on how important the Republic of Texas was in attracting the German settlers to Texas that led to the establishment of our great city. It would lead to other important dates and milestones that we celebrate today.

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