Great Wallace Brothers in United States

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Great Wallace Brothers
Type	circus
Founded	1895
First elephant arrived	1895
Last elephant left	1907
Closed down	1907
Place	Peru
Region	Indiana
Country	United States
Related persons
Owner	1895-1907: Ben Wallace Ben Wallace

Zoological department

Directors	1895-1896: Patrick Meager (menagerie superintendent)

Elephant department

Elephant Superintendent	1903-1906: P. D. Brown 1895-1898: Joe Anderson


Elephant Trainer	1900-1900: Harry Hoffman

Record history
History of updates	2025-03-21: 2025-04-17:

Latest document update	2025-04-17 19:20:52

Description

Great Wallace Brothers, in Peru, United States , was founded in 1895 and the first elephant arrived in 1895. The last elephant left in 1907. Great Wallace Brothers closed down in 1907.

Casualties

2 casualties

1898-06-03: elephant trainer Joe Anderson fatal attack by Prince. † Joe Anderson Died 1898-06-03, Racine, WI.
1900: elephant trainer Harry Hoffman fatal attack by Big Charlie. 1. Crushed his handler of 8 years Harry Hoffman, OR 2. Drowning Harry Hoffman as he was being watered out of the Mississinewa River at the Wallace Quarters † Harry Hoffman Died 1900, Ben Wallace winter quarters at Peru Indiana.

Comments / picturesOwner Ben Wallace.

Records about Great Wallace Brothers from Bob Cline

Great Wallace Circus ( Ben Wallace - owner )

Big Ben Male Asian 1904 to 1906 Sold to unknown person
Big Charlie Male Asian 1899 to 1901 Died April 25, 1901 in winterquarters
Diamond Male Asian 1895 to 1898 Died in March of 1898
Ding Dong Asian Female 1899 to 1906 Went to Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus
Ella Asian Female 1899 to 1901 Died June 28, 1901 when struck by lightning
Gypsy Asian Female 1895 to 1901 Sold to Harris Nickle Plate Shows.
Hazel Asian Female 1902 to 1903 Died of Pneumonia in spring of1904
Mama Asian Female 1898 to 1906 Went to Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus
Maude Asian Female 1902 to 1903 Died in July 1903 train wreck
Pilot Male Asian 1895 to 1899 Died April 11, 1899
Prince Male Asian 1895 to 1898 Died July 3, 1898
Robbins Queen Asian Female 1895 to 1906 Went to Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus
Tess Asian Female 1899 to 1906 Went to Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus
Tony Asian Female 1904 to 1906 Sold to unknown person
Topsy Asian Female 1901 Sold to Doris Colvin -died enroute.

1895: The title of the show was changed from Cook and Whitby Shows to Great Wallace Show. 5 elephants.
1895 to 1897: Diamond, Pilot, Gypsy, Prince, and Robbins Queen.
1898: Diamond, the mammoth elephant at the head of the Wallace Herd, died in March at the winter quarters. He was the first elephant owned by Wallace. Prince, another elephant, killed his keeper Joe Anderson in Wisconsin.

Great <a href='location2.php?location_id=2518' title='Wallace Brothers'>Wallace Brothers</a>
in United States United+States

Great <a href='location2.php?location_id=2518' title='Wallace Brothers'>Wallace Brothers</a>
in United States United+States

Joe Anderson with Prince 1898

Pilot, Gypsy, Prince, and Robbins Queen remained. (Prince died later in the year.) Mama - Asian Female was added.
1899:
Gypsy, Robbins Queen, and Mama remained.
In Sept., 1899, Wallace purchased the La Pearl Show and thereby came in possession of the big hippo that so many showmen wanted, in addition to five more elephants.
Tess - Asian Female was added.
Ella - Asian Female was added.
1900:
Robbins Queen, Mama, Tess, and Ella remained. (Gypsy was sold.)
Charlie - Male Asian was added.
Ding - Asian Female was added.
1901: Robbins Queen, Mama, Tess, Ella (died 1901), and Ding remained. (Charlie died) Topsy - Asian Female was added.
1902 & 1903:
Robbins Queen, Mama, Tess and Ding remained. (Ella died and Topsy was sold.)
Hazel - Asian Female was added.
Maude - Asian Female was added.
1903-08-07: The Great Wallace Brothers Circus Train Disaster. At 8:30 am at the Grand Trunk railroad yards in Durand, MI, two separate trains of the Wallace Bros. Shows met in a rear end collision that resulted in the death of 24 people and twice as many were injured. Ben Wallace estimated $20,000 in losses. Less than a month earlier, the Wallace Brothers train had crashed. (Maude died)
1904: Hazel died early 1904 of pneumonia
Bob Cline, Cheraw, South Carolina, United States. Autor of the book Americas elephants

Records about Great Wallace Brothers from William "Buckles" Woodcocks Blog at http://www.bucklesw.blogspot.com/
1903 Great Wallace
1. Robbins Queen. 2. Mama. 3. Tess. 4. Ding. 5. Maude 6. Hazel

1903-1906: P. D. Brown elephant boss on Great Wallace Circus.

1904-05-06 Great Wallace
P.D. "Jumbo Brown Ele. Supt.
Wm. Winters Men. Supt.
1. Robbins Queen. 2. Mama. 3. Tess. 4. Ding. 5. Tony. 6. Ben (male)

Ben and Tony were probably untrained and with the purchase of the 15 Carl Hagenbeck elephants were expendable.

http://bucklesw.blogspot.com/2013/04/train-wreck-4.html

William "Buckles" Woodcock

1907: Ben Wallace acquired the Carl Hagenbeck Circus and merged his two circuses into Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus. Only Robbins Queen, Mama, Ding and Tess were integrated into the new circus.

References for records about Great Wallace Brothers

Recommended Citation

Koehl, Dan (2025). Great Wallace Brothers, Elephant Encyclopedia. Available online at https://www.elephant.se/location2.php?location_id=1181. (archived at the Wayback machine)

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