Pet Lions & Well-Dressed Elephants

~A boy of fourteen happens upon a stuck circus wagon on the Old Salt Road near Syracuse, New York.  The year is 1846. With his two draft horses, he helps get it out of the ditch. With this single act of kindness, Charley White begins his circus career.  

He learns from masters how to train animals using kindness, not whips. He takes these same principles and applies them to leading boys employed by the circus and later, young men in the Civil War under his care in the Union Army. Charley is badly wounded at Antietam and struggles to reclaim his life. His wife leaves him with both of his sons.

He rises from his sorrow to be the man he was destined to be. He buys a den of lions and struggles to make a living until one day he receives a telegram from Barnum asking him to bring his lions and join his new show in 1871. 

~Annie Matchett a young woman from Canada West arrives in Cincinnati in 1861.  Here she meets William Albert Donovan, an acrobat with the Antonio Brothers. They marry and tour the northern states during the Civil War.  Annie is widowed in 1869 and left with a seven-year-old son.  She knows how to sewand ekes out a living making costumes in Manhattan.  In 1871 she isinvited to work for Barnum's newest enterprise.  

Annie is elevated to wardrobe mistress, and becomes the youngest person and only female at Barnum's management table. Charley takes on the role of menagerie manager.  Annie and Charley fall in love and together they helped to create The G...