The Birth ofl/America; ' in 1882

owners of the show, and one prone to self-aggrandizing bluster, claimed that America was the second elephant ever born in captivity. America was born only two months before the arrival in New York of the most famous circus elephant of all time, Jumbo, on Easter Sunday, 1882, and only two years before the origin of a small wagon circus run by the five Ringling (originally, Riingeling) brothers from Baraboo, Wisconsin. According to Richard Reynolds, a Trustee of the Circus Historical Society, writing on William "Buckles " Woodcock's web-log (bucklesw.blogspot.com), America was not even the second elephant born in captivity in North America. Reynolds claims that the first elephant calf born in the United States was delivered on Monday, May 31, 1875 at St. Joseph, Michigan, during a tour of the Howe's Great London show (owned, mainly, by James E. Kelley). The calf was named Joe and lived only a few days, although Mr