Pictured are several 1/2 inch or G-scale models handmade by Kosciusko County Historical Society Co-Director Greg Steffe, along with an artifact from a circus truck.

Text and Photos
By Patrick Webb
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — The Kosciusko County Historical Society has a new display on Indiana’s circus heritage.

Circus memorabilia, such as posters, photos and tickets, are on display. Many come from KCHS Co-Director Greg Steffe’s personal collection.

“It’s been a hobby and a passion of mine for many, many years,” said Steffe, who has amassed his collection over the years. Items were set up during the museum’s winter break.

Several models on display were also built by Steffe. The models are in half-inch or G-scale, with the exception of the wheels.

“I’d always built models,” Steffe said. When he was 12 years old his family went to Florida and he saw a “hand carved model circus of the 1930s made by a man by the name of Bob Clark.”

“It was everything, it was all the tents, the parade, menagerie and the sideshow, and this fascinated me,” Steffe recalled. In college he tried building circus wagons and enjoyed it.

Steffe said the models varied from taking one to several months, depending on the intricacy. Steffe uses drawings and pictures to build the models to scale.

Steffe made connections with carnival workers while serving on the Kosciusko County 4H Fair Board. He also volunteered at a circus based in Wisconsin when they stopped in Indiana.

Steffe said that many people’s perception of carnival workers comes from the 1950’s, and described carnival workers as down-to-earth, hardworking people.

“I’ve told a lot of people that if I had a choice between dealing with doctors and lawyers everyday or dealing with show people, give me show folks any day of the week,” Steffe said.

Indiana’s Circus History

“Virtually at one time every major circus in the United States, with the exception of Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey, made their winter home right here in Indiana,” said Steffe. “So it all happened right around us.”

“Peru at one time was known as the circus capital of the world,” Steffe said. Peru is now the home of the International Circus Hall of Fame, at the former winter headquarters of the American Circus Corporation; and the Circus City Museum.

One circus that started in Peru in 1882 was started by Ben Wallace. Steffe said the show started touring over the road, but “within a couple short years the show had grown and prospered to the point that it was converted into a railroad operation.”

Traveling by train, Steffe said, “was a sign of a truly large and successful circus in the latter part of the 19th century.”

In the 1940s and 50s, circuses began switching to road vehicles. According to Trains Magazine, the last circus trains operated in 2017 for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus; and 2019 for the James E. Strates Shows carnival train.

Wallace eventually merged his circus with the assets of Carl Hagenbeck, a German animal trainer who performed at the 1892 Chicago World’s Fair, to form the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus. According to Steffe, an employee for Hagenbeck signed the deal without his permission, leading to an unsuccessful lawsuit by Hagenbeck to stop it.

When Wallace retired, he sold his circus to what became the American Circus Corporation, which Steffe said was “the most powerful institution in the history of the American Circus.”

The Great Depression saw the end of circus’ “golden age” and presence in Indiana. A fire at a winter headquarters in Rochester in 1940 for the Cole Brothers wounded around 100 animals and destroyed “a great deal of equipment,” Steffe said.

The Cole Brothers Circus, which wintered in Peru, moved their circus in 1940 to the Kentucky State Fairgrounds in Louisville.

Steffe said that none of the large named circuses stopped in Kosciusko County because of the town’s size. The smallest town in Indiana the circuses would stop at was Muncie, when Warsaw’s population was around 8,000.

Museum Under The Big Top

On June 21, the museum will host a “Museum Under The Big Top” event during Warsaw’s Third Friday, in conjunction with the circus display.

“We’re actually bringing in one of the few steam calliopes still in the United States to play,” Steffe said. Other events planned include face paint, circus food and games for children.

The circus display will remain in the museum until the museum closes for the year.