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"The Prince Of humbug," "The Shakespeare of advertising"
Histoy of P. T. Barnum
Name: Phineas Taylor Barnum
Birthday: July 5,1810
Birth Place: Bethel, CT
A Famous quote by barnum is,"There's a sucker born every minute."
Family History:
Barnum was the son of Philo Barnum and aslo the
grandson Ephraim Barnum, a captain in the Revolutionary
War. Barnum's father died Sept. 7, 1825, leaving his mother with five children whom
Phineas, at fifteen years
age, was the oldest. The family became so poor that the neighbors loaned Phineas a pair of
shoes so he
could attend his fathers funeral.
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Jobs Barnum held:
At first Barnum worked on farms, which he disliked
alot. So his father opened a store and made him a clerk.
When his father died they lost the store. Then Barnum became a clerk for mercantile firm
at Grassy Plain,
then in a grocery store in Brooklyn, and later in a porter house (where malt liquors were
sold) in New York.
Then he returned to Conn. and opened up a lottery business. Two years later he tried to be
an auctioneer,
then opened up a country store in Bethel with his uncle, Alanson Taylor. Next he tried the
newspaper
Business.
His column "Herald of Freedom" gave
him alot of trouble. He was prosecuted three times for libelous
editorials and finally a Judgement of $100 was obtained against him and he was jailed for
60 days. His freedom, at the end of that time was celebrated by Bethel towns people with a
parade, music, speeches
and the firing of cannon.
P. T. Barnum's Wives
P. T. Barnum's first wife, Charity Hallet, was born in Fairfield,
CT, in 1808. He met her in 1827 in his
hometown of Bethel, where she was employed as a seamstress.
They married two years later in a secret ceremony conducted in New
York City and attended only by the
brides family, because Barnum's mother, Irena, initially felt that Charity was not
good enough for her son. However, within a month, she relented and welcomed her new
daughter-in-law.
After a few years of marriage, Barnum viewed his wife as
old-fashioned, a hypochondriac, nervous and
proper, and she often was the object of her husband's criticism and practical jokes.
Charity was content to remain at home with her children, while Barnum traveled the country
and abroad on trips of business and pleasure.
By 1847, Barnum's heavy bouts of alcoholism threatened their
marriage, but, through the intervention of a
Universalist clergyman, he gave up drinking and became a staunch supporter of Temperance
Movement.
Charity Barnum's chronic illnesses and complaints lingered for
several years until, in 1873, after 44 years
of marriage, she died of heart disease.
At the time of his wife's death, the 63 year old Barnum was in
Europe, ostensiby on business, but also
meeting old friend. John Fish, and Fish's 22 year old daughter, Nancy, with whom Barnum
had been corresponding for more than two years.
Rather than return home for Charity's funeral, Barnum remained in England to be consoled by Nancy.
P. T. Barnum and Nancy Fish were secretly married Feb. 14, 1874, in
London, just 13 weeks and two
days after Charity death. He returnded to the United States in April and soon sent for
Nancy to join him.
They were married at a public cermony in New York City in September 1874.
No records of Feb. 14 wedding were ever found among belongings of
the Barnum or Fish families, and
the marriage certificate of that ceremony was not discovered until 120 years later.
After Barnum's death in 1891, Nancy Fish Barnum lived abroad and
married two more times. She died in
Paris in 1927.