The Circus Blog

Posted By thecircusblog on January 3, 2012

This is J.E. Henry, my grandfather, at the age of 49. Here again is another photo that I never knew existed until a few months go. I only knew my grandfather as an elderly man during  1944 and 1945 when he was at his winter quarters in El Monte, Calif. The most outstanding thought in my memory is him sitting on the porch with a giant pig tail Macaque monkey at his feet. He was full of old circus stories and I made a good audience for him to tell them to. I do remember him telling me of how they used to travel over the roads and sometimes along the side of the road. In the 1880’s and into the early 1900’s the Henry animals had to be herded from town to town, some times taking two or even three days. My Dad also told me that when he was just six years old he would help herd the stock and many a night had to camp over till morning.  Grandfather started to build semi trailers for the some of the small animals and cargo.  The wild animals such as lions, bears, monkeys and others were in cage wagons pulled by a team of horses. When grandfather first started out with his circus it was a total wagon show. This was after his father Robert Henry died. Then later in the 19th century, he used converted autos to pull the equipment.

Categories: JE Henry Circus 1800 - 1900
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