{"id":935,"date":"2013-05-30T13:22:11","date_gmt":"2013-05-30T17:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/?p=935"},"modified":"2013-05-30T14:02:25","modified_gmt":"2013-05-30T18:02:25","slug":"gypsy-the-circus-elephant-lowndes-county-ga-1902","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/2013\/05\/gypsy-the-circus-elephant-lowndes-county-ga-1902.html","title":{"rendered":"Gypsy the circus elephant, Lowndes County, GA 1902"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nMy father told me about the circus elephant that escaped in Valdosta and\r\nran as far north as Cat Creek, a few miles from where we live,\r\ngoing on 111 years ago.\r\nMy great-aunt Evalyn told us more; she was 17 when it happened\r\nand about 97 when she told us where she was then living in Texas.\r\nIt seems she got it mostly right, although it’s not clear exactly what the right story is.\r\n<\/p>\r\nLowndes County Historical Society and Museum, undated,\r\n\r\nGypsy the Elephant<\/a>,\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nThe story of Gypsy the elephant is one of Valdosta’s most bizarre\r\nand notable stories. In 1902 Gypsy, a large Asian elephant who\r\nbelonged to the Harris-Nickle-Plate circus, killed her trainer,\r\nbroke free, and went on a rampage in Valdosta before eventually\r\nbeing brought down north of town by the chief or police. At the\r\ntime, the incident was so peculiar that people in surrounding towns\r\naccused the citizens of Valdosta of fabricating the entire story for\r\npublicity.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nOur old family neighbor Albert Pendleton (from when we all lived\r\non Varnedoe Street in Valdosta; way before my time), added:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nFrom some newspaper accounts of the incident, it was said that there\r\nwere mixed emotions of people returning from Cherry Creek that day,\r\na mixture of sadness and yet relief. They had watched Gypsy as she\r\nlooked at them and the rifle, as it fired. They had heard her shriek\r\nand had seen her die. It took a big hole in the ground to bury\r\nGypsy, and a detail of men chopped her up and buried her in several\r\ndifferent holes near the spot. An estimated 3000 people rode out to\r\nsee the dead elephant. The incident was the only topic of\r\nconversation in town.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nAlbert Pendleton, Way Back When Vol.II No.11\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nThis story says Cherry Creek: variations like that happen in\r\noral history.\r\nAnd the oral version included the elephant chased the trainer\r\ninto a basement and crushed him there.\r\nI never understood\r\n

    \r\n
  1. \r\nhow did an elephant fit through basement doors?\r\n
  2. \r\na basement in Valdosta?\r\n<\/ol>\r\n

    \r\nMartin Register wrote at an unknown date\r\n\r\nsome time before 6 Sep 2004<\/a>,\r\n\r\nThe Rampage of Gypsy the Elephant<\/a>,\r\nwith an opposite version, citing a primary source:\r\n

    \r\n

    \r\nOn the chilly evening of November 22, 1902, Gypsy, “the\r\nlargest elephant in the world,” looked down at her trainer,\r\nJames “Whiskey Red” O’Rourke, as he lay comatose on a\r\nValdosta, Georgia street. The man did not know it at the time, but\r\nthis was the last road he would ever travel.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\nAs was his habit, O’Rourke had once again had too much to drink and,\r\nfrom most accounts, had simply passed out and fallen awkwardly from\r\nhis seat astride Gypsy’s neck.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\nHe flopped in an ignoble heap at the intersection of Central Avenue\r\nand Toombs Street.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\nAccording to an account of the incident published the next day in\r\nthe Valdosta Times, Gypsy, to the great pachyderm’s credit, tenderly\r\nattempted to lift O’Rourke back to his place atop her neck, but her\r\ntrainer was unresponsive. She reportedly prodded him a few more\r\ntimes and, still getting no response, proceeded to lower her\r\nfive-ton bulk onto the trainer, crushing him into a bloody mish-mash\r\nof teeth, hair and bones.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

    \r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\nRay City History Blog 5 March 2012,\r\n\r\nBones of Gypsy the Elephant<\/a>,\r\nquotes the entire VDT article of 25 Nov 1902,\r\nELEPHANT GYPSY GOES WILD AND IS KILLED NEAR HERE,\r\nincludes this part which mabye Auntie conflated\r\ninto a single trainer in a basement:\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\n

    \r\nOne of the clowns, Barney Shea, who was formerly her keeper,\r\nundertook to lead her toward the depot and place her on the cars\r\nthere and it was believed that he would succeed, as the animal knew\r\nhis voice and followed him nearly to the Plant System depot. In the\r\nmeantime, a large crowd had gathered and excitement was running\r\nhigh. A train was stopped on the crossing where the elephant was to\r\npass and this, together with the excited crowds, seemed to rattle\r\nher. She turned back toward the Christian church, from which some\r\nof the members of the circus were calling to her in “elephant\r\ntalk,” but it was apparent that she was getting thoroughly\r\naroused. She grabbed an electric light pole with her trunk and shook\r\nit until the lights flew out all along the street. Then, she began\r\nto hurl bricks and pieces of timber through the air.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\nElephant Thoroughly Aroused.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\nBilly Mincer, another of the clowns in the circus, was hemmed in a\r\nrear door of the new Christian church but was pulled out and hurled\r\nsome distance of the angry animal. She started to renew her attack\r\nupon him but he was pulled out of the way by some parties who were\r\nnear by. He was in an unconscious condition and was carried to the\r\nValdes Hotel for medical. In the meantime Barney Shea and Clem Kerr,\r\nthe latter being the advance agent of the circus, were in the new\r\nChristian church calling to “Gypsy” and trying to get\r\nher under control. Shea fired at her with a pistol several times,\r\nbut the bullets did no harm except to make her mad.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

    \r\nRegister’s writeup names the First Baptist Church.\r\n\r\nThat church’s own history<\/a>\r\nsays its current building was dedicated 18 November 1900,\r\nso it would qualify as “the new Christian church” of the VDT story.\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\nAnd here’s yet another contemporary version, from the New York Times 24 November 1902,\r\n\r\nElephant Kills Keeper. Beast Terrified by a Wreck Crushes Him to Death in a Car.<\/a>\r\n

    \r\n

    \r\n\r\n\"Elephant<\/a>\r\nGypsy, a big elephant belonging to a travelling show, went crazy six\r\nmiles from Valdosta yesterday afernoon and killed her keeper, James\r\nO’Rourke. The circus train had been in a wreck in Tifton early in\r\nthe day when several animal cars were wrecked and two or three\r\ntrained horses killed. Gypsy was in a highly nervous state when the\r\ntrain pulled out for Valdosta, the next show point.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\nSix miles out from that town Gypsy became so restless that O’Rourke\r\nentered her car as the train stopped at a small station to try to\r\nquiet her. Immediately the mad brute attacked the man and crushed\r\nhis life out against the side of the car. O’Rourke for some reason\r\ndid not close the door of the car after him, so after killing her\r\nkeeper, Gypsy escaped to the woods. Her absence was noted before the\r\ntrain left the station and a hunt was organized. The big beast was\r\nshot a number of times before she succumbed to rifle balls in the\r\nbreast.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\nO’Rourke’s body was taken to Valdosta where it was given a\r\nspectacular burial this afternoon, being taken to the cemetery in a\r\ncircus wagon drawn by six white horses. His home was in New Orleans,\r\nwhere he had a wife and family.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

    \r\nSo Gypsy was either in a basement, in a train car,\r\non the way to the fair grounds, or supposed to get in a train car,\r\nat the time her trainer (O’Rourke or somebody else) either fell off her back in a drunken stupor,\r\nran away from her, or followed her in,\r\nwhen Gypsy either tried to revive him or crushed him in a rage,\r\nafter which she ran about the town trumpeting, maybe in grief,\r\nmaybe as a delayed reaction to a train wreck, maybe in glee,\r\nmaybe because her tusk broke, or maybe because people were shooting\r\nat her.\r\nUnvarying elements of all the versions include that people shot\r\nat Gypsy the elephant until they killed her north of town near\r\na creek, apparently Cherry Creek by all the contemporary accounts.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\nAlso, 1902?\r\nMy family didn’t move to Valdosta until 1903, so either Auntie Evalyn\r\nwas visiting other relatives in Valdosta at the time, or she was repeating\r\nthe talk of the town some 80 years later in about 1982,\r\nwhich is now 30 years ago.\r\nI don’t recall her saying she saw the elephant personally herself,\r\nand I don’t know where the audio tape of her talking about it is.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\nAccording to the Martin Register article:\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\n

    \r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nIn his article, Mr. Pendleton explained that Ms. Morgan’s memory of\r\nGypsy appearing with the circus at Troupville means the elephant\r\nprobably had been known to Valdostans for over 40 years. Indeed, at\r\nthe time of her death, circus employees estimated Gypsy’s age to be\r\nbetween 65 and 67 years, claiming she had been bought by circus\r\nmanagement in India around 1847.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

    \r\nGypsy the Elephant (1837?-1902) R.I.P.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"My father told me about the circus elephant that escaped in Valdosta and ran as far north as Cat Creek, a few miles from where we live, going on 111 years ago. My great-aunt Evalyn told us more; she was 17 when it happened and about 97 when she told us where she was then […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10,71],"tags":[2323,2324,3,2325,2764,5,2,2788,2326,2760,45,1286],"class_list":["post-935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-mammals","tag-circus","tag-elephant","tag-georgia","tag-gypsy","tag-history","tag-john-s-quarterman","tag-lowndes-county","tag-mammals","tag-new-york-times","tag-okra-paradise-farms","tag-valdosta","tag-valdosta-daily-times"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Gj0O-f5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=935"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":942,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935\/revisions\/942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}