2026 - 31 The Day the Circus Came to Town

Parmenas James (P. J.) Nolen, My Great Grandfather

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 31
Prompt: A Day In the Life

P. J. Nolen woke early on the morning of September 21, 1916, and ate the breakfast provided by Mrs. Hardy, wife of J. A. Hardy, proprietor of the Arlington Hotel, where P. J. had boarded for years. Hot, strong coffee was not the only thing brewing in the dining room. Excitement was too! It was the day the Al G. Barnes Circus was coming to town.

Actual ad for the circus from Batesville Guardian newspaper.

P. J.'s son Luther was still asleep upstairs. P. J. let him sleep. He had a feeling they were going to need another pair of hands before the day was over.

P. J. walked across the street to 458 Main Street and opened P. J. Nolen’s Harness and Saddle Shop. Isaac Ross, the shoe repairman; Wash Sherrill, his right-hand man; and Katherine Smythe, his bookkeeper, were waiting outside when he unlocked the doors, full of expectation for a busy day.

They wouldn't be going to the circus. P. J. was more interested in whether hundreds of extra horses meant somebody was going to need a strap repaired than in Samson the Aviation Lion or the trapeze-performing baboons.

P. J. knew that when a big show came to Batesville, it brought people from miles around into town, and he intended to be ready for them. Back in January, he had bought out all of Mr. Moon's supply of saddles. Ott Moon was based in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and represented the Hermann-Sanford Saddlery Company in Springfield, Missouri. P. J. was well stocked and ready for business.

Two weeks earlier, The Batesville Guard had described the approaching circus as "The giddiest, gayest, glitteringest, grandest galaxy in the land." The show had been almost entirely rebuilt that year—its program, railroad cars, cages and even its wardrobe.

And what a show it promised to be! Five hundred and six people traveling on two special trains. A thousand trained animals. Thirty lions performing in a single act. Elephants, camels, zebras, bears, leopards, sea lions and monkeys. There were high-diving and jumping dogs, sixteen champion dancing horses and, altogether, an astonishing 550 horses and ponies.

The circus would attract not only the citizens of Batesville but also P. J.'s customers from six surrounding counties—and hopefully some new ones.

P. J. had made sure everyone knew about his business and services in advance of the big show. He had a thousand handbills printed for $1.50 and posted them all over town. He even mailed a few to his son Leonard in Sand Springs, Oklahoma, suggesting that he paper his walls with them.

The handbill boasted that P. J. would be open from 4:00 a.m. until 9:30 p.m.

"So don't fail to come in and see Old Reliable when you come to the city."

Actual handbill advertising P J Nolen's Harness and Saddle Shop

The first customer through the door was the head groom for the circus horses. He and P. J. talked for a while about the champion dancing horses before the groom gathered up what he needed to make their tack shine: harness oil, harness polish and metal polish.

He had barely left before a farmer came through the door. He had brought his family into Batesville for the circus, but as long as he was in town, he had business to take care of. P. J. knew him; he had been coming to the shop for years. Today he needed a new set of lines and a repair made to a piece of harness he'd brought along in the wagon.

"Wash, see what you can do with this."

Wash carried the harness to the back of the shop while P. J. waited on another customer. Katherine sat at her desk keeping track of the morning's sales as money changed hands faster than it did on most Thursday mornings.

Then the door opened again.

This time a circus teamster hurried in carrying a broken trace. One of the teams hauling the heavy circus wagons had broken it that morning, and the wagon would have to be ready to move again when the show packed up that night.

"How soon can you fix it?"

P. J. looked at Wash.

Wash looked at the growing pile of work.

They would find a way.

The smells of leather and harness oil filled the shop while outside Main Street grew noisier by the hour. Wagons rattled along the street. Horses clopped past the open door. Children darted by, too excited to walk. Farm families who seldom had reason to spend an entire day in Batesville had come to see the circus, and many of them stopped at P. J. Nolen's while they were in town.

Some came for saddles and harness. Others needed collars, bridles, lines, straps, buckles or a quick repair. A few came in simply because they had seen one of P. J.'s handbills and wanted to see what "Old Reliable" had to offer.

Not every customer came to see P. J.

A circus rider appeared in the doorway holding a boot with a loose heel. She needed it before the afternoon performance.

"Isaac!"

That one belonged to Isaac Ross.

At 10:30, the mile-long circus parade began.

They heard it long before they saw it. The circus had promised six concert and military bands, and the music came rolling down the street ahead of the parade—brass horns, pounding drums and cymbals competing with the shouting of children, the clatter of wagons and the hoofbeats of horses.

For once, even P. J. stopped working.

Isaac came out from his shoe-repair area. Wash put down the harness he was repairing. Katherine abandoned her books. The four of them crowded into the doorway with everyone else along the street.

Then came the circus.

Horses and ponies, elaborate wagons, costumed performers and animals most people in Batesville had only seen in pictures passed before them. Somewhere in that mile-long procession were elephants and camels, while the bands took turns filling the street with music.

P. J. watched the horses.

Of course he watched the horses.

Five hundred and fifty horses and ponies.

That was a lot of leather.

When the last of the mile-long parade disappeared down the street, P. J. turned back toward the shop.

"All right. Show's over. Back to work."

At least for them.

The first circus performance wouldn't begin until 2:00, but the doors opened at 1:00, and gradually the crowds began moving away from Main Street toward the circus grounds.

By noon, Katherine had barely had time to look up from her books. Wash had repairs waiting. Isaac had shoes and boots to mend. P. J. had moved from customer to customer all morning, talking, selling and keeping an eye on everything.

Mrs. Hardy appeared in the doorway carrying lunch from the Arlington. There certainly hadn't been time for P. J. to cross the street and sit down at her table today.

"Thank you, Mrs. Hardy," he said as he took the food. Then he remembered the young man he'd deliberately left sleeping that morning.

"When you go back, tell Luther he's slept long enough. Send him over. We're going to need him."

P. J. had judged that correctly.

It wasn't long before Luther appeared at the shop, rested and ready to work. His father put him to work wherever he was needed. Luther was a good stitcher, and on an ordinary day there was plenty in a harness and saddle shop to keep a good stitcher occupied.

But this wasn't an ordinary day.

At 2:00, the afternoon performance began. Main Street quieted. For the first time all day, P. J. and his crew had a chance to catch up.

Then a woman from the circus hurried through the door carrying a bundle in her arms.

She was one of the dressers responsible for the performers' elaborate new wardrobe. The show's wardrobe had been almost entirely rebuilt that year, but weeks on the road were already taking their toll. Several costumes needed repairs before the evening performance.

Someone had told her there was a stitching machine at Nolen's.

She laid her bundle on the counter and opened it.

Bright fabric, braid and glittering trim spilled across a counter normally covered with leather, buckles and harness fittings.

P. J. looked at the costumes.

Then he looked at Luther.

"Luther, I believe this one's yours."

Soon Luther was guiding a glittering circus costume through a stitching machine in his father's harness shop.

By late afternoon, the circus crowds were pouring back into town after the first performance, and Old Reliable was busy again.

Then another circus man appeared at the door. This one carried something considerably smaller than a horse collar.

A dog collar.

One of the performing dogs had broken it during the afternoon show, and the trainer needed it repaired before the evening performance.

P. J. examined the torn leather. The buckle was still good, but the strap had given way.

"We can fix that."

Compared with the heavy harness Wash had been wrestling with all morning, the little collar hardly looked like work. He cut away the damaged leather, fitted a new piece around the old buckle, punched the holes and stitched it securely into place.

The trainer gave it a hard tug.

"That'll hold."

"It had better," P. J. said. "I've got my reputation to think about."

The trainer tucked the collar away. He had a 7:00 opening to prepare for and an 8:00 performance to put on.

As evening approached, the streets began to empty once again. Families headed back toward the circus grounds for the second show. Somewhere under those acres of tents, the dancing horses would perform, dogs would dive and jump, thirty lions would enter a ring together, and Samson the Aviation Lion would cause his advertised "thrills of amazement."

P. J. Nolen wouldn't see any of it.

Neither would Wash, Isaac, Katherine or Luther.

P. J.'s handbill had made a promise.

Old Reliable would be open until 9:30.

The evening performance was well underway when the last few customers straggled into the shop. One needed a strap. Another had spotted something in the window that morning and stopped on his way home to buy it. P. J. wasn't about to turn away a customer just because it had been a long day.

Finally, 9:30 came.

Wash put away his tools. Isaac gathered up his shoe-repair work. Luther stretched after spending much of the afternoon bent over the stitching machine.

Katherine remained at her desk, adding columns of figures.

P. J. came over and looked at the day's receipts.

It had been a good day.

A very good day.

Tomorrow there would be merchandise to reorder, repairs still waiting to be finished and another ordinary day of business at P. J. Nolen's Harness and Saddle Shop.

Someone remarked that at least circus day was over.

P. J. smiled.

"Don't get too comfortable. Santley's circus is coming next month."

Very likely P J Nolen's shop. It was with the correspondence I inherited from my grandfather and says "picture of shop" on the back. The two men are very likely Ott Moon and Wash Sherrill. UPDATE 8/25/26: Wash Sherrill's great granddaughter, Rebecca Ann Ivy Gorrell has confirmed that the man on the left IS Wash Sherrill.

A Note About This Day

Did September 21, 1916, happen exactly this way?

Almost certainly not.

But much of the world surrounding this imaginary day was very real.

P. J. Nolen really operated a harness and saddle business in Batesville. Isaac Ross repaired shoes. Wash Sherrill worked alongside P. J., doing repair work and helping sell the goods. Katherine Smythe kept his books. Luther was a good stitcher. P. J. boarded at the Arlington Hotel, corresponded regularly with his son Leonard in Sand Springs, and advertised his business with handbills.

And the Al G. Barnes Circus really did come to Batesville on September 21, 1916, promising a mile-long morning parade, six concert and military bands, two performances and hundreds upon hundreds of animals.

What I don't know is whether a circus groom bought harness polish from P. J., whether a rider handed Isaac a broken boot, whether Luther stitched a glittering costume, or whether a performing dog needed its collar repaired.

Those parts I imagined.

I have spent years collecting names, dates and records for my ancestors. But P. J. left me something more. Through his letters to my grandfather Leonard, he left little glimpses of his business, his employees, his customers, his worries, his successes and everyday life in Batesville.

So for this week's prompt, instead of telling you about P. J. Nolen, I decided to spend a day with him.

I hope you enjoyed the circus.