Mercy Lavinia Warren Bump was born Oct. 31, 1841, in Middleborough, Mass., to James S. and Huldah P. Bump. She had four brothers, George, James, Sylvanus and Benjamin, all of whom reached six feet or more by adulthood, and two sisters, Caroline Delia, a normal-sized person, and Huldah (later known as Minnie Warren), who grew to 32 inches. Before being hired by P. T. Barnum in 1862 to appear in his American Museum in New York City, Lavinia spent four years with a relative's traveling boat show steaming up and down the Mississippi River. She was employed as a teacher in a one-room country school when Barnum heard of her. Within the year, Lavinia, 21 years old and 32 inches tall, met Charles Sherwood Stratton,"General" Tom Thumb, whom she later married.