Circuses, mistreated elephants on the loose, and the 1916 death of Hero in Elkton, South Dakota
A report that a circus elephant briefly escaped from its cruel captors and ran loose through the streets of Butte, Mont., on Tuesday, April 16, caught my eye and my heart.
Viola escaped from Jordan World Circus and ran panicked before she was captured, according to the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). It reports that she is owned by Carson & Barnes Circus, which PETA says
has been cited for more than 100 violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act.
It’s the third time Viola has made a break for it. Escapes in 2010 and 2014 also failed, since it’s difficult for an elephant to easily hide. I don’t mean to be flip — according to PETA, Viola and other elephants have been cruelly treated and beaten for decades, all for the brief amusement of paying customers.
According to PETA, she is over 50 years old, and since she was torn from her home in Asia, she has been forced to perform around the United States. She has been beaten by trainers who ignored obvious signs of disease and distress.
When I first told this story, it was because the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus announced that it would cease using elephants in “The Greatest Show on Earth” in 2018. That made me think of my great-uncle Jimmy Lavin and the only elephant hunt in South Dakota history.
Jimmy was a kind man, funny, wise and quick with a dime when kids appreciated such a gift. He was a smiling Irishman who loved a good story, knew his way around a deck of cards and cherished his wife Sadie. We all adored him.
He had one claim to fame: he was one of the few people who had fired shots at a rogue elephant rampaging through South Dakota. Jimmy grew up in and around Elkton, a small Brookings County town near the Minnesota state line.
On May 14, 1916, the Orton Brothers Circus came to town. Jimmy, who was around 20, was there when an elephant, and all hell, broke loose.
Hero the Elephant was a 9-foot-tall, 5-ton Asian elephant who was a featured performer in the circus. By all accounts I have heard and read, Hero was weary of abuse and ill-treatment at the hands of his trainer, Henry Newton. Hero may also have been feeling, well, a tad randy and was in no mood to be messed with.
Newton, allegedly drunk thanks to some Brookings bootleggers, reportedly flogged the giant beast, which was a poor idea. Hero picked him up and tossed him 30 feet.
He then raged toward the stunned trainer. Hero bit (his tusks had been removed) and stomped two ponies that were in the way, killing both. The enraged elephant tried to crush Newton as well, but it was a snowy day and the muddy ground saved the trainer.
Then, somehow, things got even stranger.
William Buckles Woodcock Jr., an elephant trainer who wrote in a column that his family owned the circus, has written about the incident.
“My mother was 14 at the time, and since the train happened to be next to the circus lot that day, she had a good view of Newton (Hero’s trainer) being chased under a wagon and barely escaping. Hero tried to tip the wagon over on top of him.
“Running for his life, Newton barely made it aboard the train in one of the coaches. My mother said that Hero then walked alongside the coach looking in each window for his prey. For a fleeting moment, Hero locked eyes with my mother.
“Anyway, Hero, in a frustrated state, proceeded to shove a couple of wagons off a flat car and then continued out into the countryside.”
Circus folks produced guns, but their bullets and pellets didn’t slow him. Uncle Jimmy and other local residents ran for their guns and blazed away as well, but Hero's hide was too thick to be brought down by the small arms.
My dad, who first told me the story, loved Jimmy, but knew of his gentle nature and, well, “relaxed” attitude toward work. Dad always said Jimmy may have fired a round or two into Hero after he was brought down, but he doubted he was actively involved in the hunt. Jimmy died in 1972, so there’s no way to find out.
According to numerous accounts of the incident, Hero finally grew weary of the barrage and fled into the countryside, where he rampaged through fences and caused other damage for 12 hours. Farmers and their families took cover.
Finally, the law was called out. The sheriff had a large hunting rifle, and the bullets it fired pierced Hero’s skull, bringing him down (as seen above in a photo posted on the Elkton Community Museum’s Facebook page).
Hero, who reportedly had been struck by 300 bullets, had no better fortune in death than he did in life.
A South Dakota State College professor and 20 students came to the field and sliced off the skin and harvested the meat. Some of it was served at a local hotel, surely the only time elephant meat was on the menu in the state, although local cookbooks long contained a recipe for elephant. Seriously.
Although few know the story now, Hero has not been completely forgotten.
The third Saturday in May was proclaimed “Hero the Elephant Day” in South Dakota and was observed for years. A piece of performance theater, complete with interpretative dance, was staged at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. “Elephant” told his sad tale in 2010, and the review I read raved about it.
His skull and some of his bones are at the W.H. Over Museum at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion. All Elkton has is the 30-30 Savage Army rifle and a few other mementos, including a piece of luggage made from Hero’s skin.
They’re stored at the Elkton Community Museum at 105 Elk St. in downtown. Dad and I stopped there around 2010 and I checked on the details. It’s incredible but all true.
I can’t help but feel sorry for Hero. He was undoubtedly miserable for a good deal of his life. His death on a cold, damp spring day in a land far from where he was intended to roam was an injustice.
That’s hardly how a Hero should have been treated. Viola knows exactly what he went through, and more than a century later, not much has changed for these massive, magnificent animals.
Tom Lawrence has written for several newspapers and websites in South Dakota and other states and contributed to The New York Times, NPR, The Telegraph, The Daily Beast and other media outlets. Reprint with permission.
