29 Facts About Adam Forepaugh

Adam Forepaugh ran a successful horse trading business which provided horses to street railway companies.

Adam Forepaugh became wealthy selling horses to the US government during the American Civil War.

Adam Forepaugh entered the circus business by taking part ownership in a circus due to an unpaid debt for the purchase of 44 horses.

Adam Forepaugh's innovations included commission of the first railroad cars for a traveling circus in 1877, the first three-ring presentation and the first Wild West show.

Adam Forepaugh began working in a butcher shop at age 9, earning $4 a month.

Adam Forepaugh left home on the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad to Cincinnati, where he worked in cattle appraising and managing stagecoach lines.

Adam Forepaugh moved to New York City and formed a livestock and horse trading business.

Adam Forepaugh became the largest purveyor of horses in New York state and earned a reputation as an expert judge of horses.

Adam Forepaugh ran a successful business selling horses to street railway companies.

Adam Forepaugh purchased old "nags" from one streetcar company, allowed the horses to rejuvenate on an island in the Schuylkill River, and then sold the horses at a higher price to a different streetcar company.

Adam Forepaugh's horse selling enterprise during the American Civil War became his most lucrative business venture.

Adam Forepaugh became wealthy selling horses to the US government.

O'Brien could not repay the loan and Adam Forepaugh assumed partial ownership of the circus.

Adam Forepaugh sold the Great National Circus and renamed the Dan Rice Circus as his own name.

In November of 1865 Adam Forepaugh opened the Philadelphia Circus and Menagerie at 10th and Callowhill Streets.

Adam Forepaugh's circus toured 250 or more days each year and employed over 400 performers and workmen.

Adam Forepaugh was different from most of his fellow circus operators.

Adam Forepaugh was intimately involved in all aspects of the circus business.

Adam Forepaugh had more animals than Barnum and generally paid higher salaries to the much-favored European talent.

In 1887, Adam Forepaugh obtained permission to perform in Madison Square Garden, a venue that Barnum considered to be exclusively his but had forfeited by his neglect to renew his contract.

In 1889, Forepaugh sold his circus acts to James Anthony Bailey and James E Cooper and sold his railroad cars to the Ringling Brothers.

Adam Forepaugh was noted for his business acumen and marketing prowess, which made his circus profitable every year except one.

Adam Forepaugh heard of this and saw an opportunity to one-up Barnum.

Adam Forepaugh was the first circus operator to separate the menagerie from the big ring in order to attract church goers who might be leery of the "sinful" attractions of circus acts, yet still desirous to see the exotic animals in the menagerie.

Adam Forepaugh was responsible for many innovations in circus history, which influenced circuses for many years.

Adam Forepaugh attributed the quote to Barnum in a newspaper interview in an attempt to discredit him.

An article at the end of 1907 observed that the Ringling brothers intended to close the remains of their property, the former Adam Forepaugh show, eighteen years after its original owner's death, and stop using the name and likeness which had "been seen oftener than that of any other American, dead or alive" by that writer's estimation.

Adam Forepaugh gave his name to Adam Forepaugh Park, the 1890s baseball venue in Philadelphia.

In 2010, a young adult book Tombstone Tea by Joanne Dahme takes place in Laurel Hill Cemetery and Adam Forepaugh is one of the characters in the book.