Hachaliah Bailey

Hachaliah (or Hackaliah as it is often seen) Bailey was born in New York in 1775. A farmer in Stephentown (later called Sommers), in upstate New York, he purchased his first and most notable menagerie animal from his brother, a sea captain, the second elephant ever to come to the United States which he named Old Bet due to the profits she immediately began making him. Hachaliah's original intention was to use the elephant as a work animal on his farm. Bailey quickly realized, however, that there was far more money in the curiosity of his neighbors than would ever be in farm work, he began exhibiting Old Bet in the surrounding community and eventually started to travel New England showing off his elephant. This became one of the first menagerie shows and inspired Bailey's neighbors to begin doing the same. Within a day's ride of Sommers, no less than seven new touring animal exhibits cropped up.

Bailey eventually licensed the touring of Old Bet, first to neighbors Andrew Brown and Benjamin Lent, then to Nathan Howes who would later go on to his own circus fame. In one famous incident, after Howes had withheld Bailey's portion of Old Bet's earnings, Hachaliah tracked Howes and the elephant to New Bedford Massachusetts. When Howes refused to pay Bailey what he was owed, Bailey threatened to shoot "his half" of Old Bet, forcing Howes to relent or lose his cash cow as well. This would, unfortunately, turn out to be an eerily prescient incident.

In 1816, Old Bet was indeed shot to death, not by either of her owners, but by a farmer in Berwick, Maine. Reports vary as to his reasons but the supposed cause was, according to Rev. William Bentley of Salem that "he took money from those who could not afford to spend it."

Old Bet was buried in Somers after being briefly exhibited in New York City in 1817. Many of the artifacts associated with Bailey and the elephant are on exhibit at the Elephant Hotel which Bailey built with the profits from his exhibition as well as the memorial pillar outside the hotel that Bailey had commissioned. In later years, Bailey's former partner, Howes and several other menagerie owners would use the Elephant Hotel as their meeting place for the formation of the Zoological Society in an attempt to build a monopoly on the menagerie business.

We'll hear more about Howes and the Zoological Society next week. Till then, check out the Sommers Historical Society website below.

http://www.somershistoricalsoc.org/elephanthotel.html