4920. Hon Harrison Watson Ewing
Related story exerpted from the Circus Historical Society biography by W. Hendricks Quinett (http://www.circushistory.org/History/Quinett.htm)
"[...] When I [W. Hendricks Quinett] arrived home in Wooster [Ohio] I heard of a Wild West Show, which had started out of Cleveland, Ohio, and closed after being out three weeks, and was called back to Cleveland. It was owned by Judge Harrison Ewing. So I then went up to Cleveland and called on Judge Ewing and told him that I understood that he had a complete wild west and circus outfit here for sale. He said that he had the outfit stored away. He then told me that he had put his son out with a wild west show, as he had been on a ranch in the southwest for four years and was quite a cowboy and bronco buster. He had brought to Cleveland two car loads of Bronco Wild West horses and they organized this wild west show. He took it out on the road but the show was too large and expensive for the amount of business that it was doing. So he had it brought back to Cleveland and intended to store it away and sell it. I told him that I thought we could take this outfit and play the lots around Cleveland the whole summer and make some money out of it. ""He said that he would call his son in the next day and we would then see what we could do. So the next day I went to his office and his son was there. We held a conference and I came to the conclusion that we could put the show out. I told them that I would take charge of the dressing room department and His son was to take charge of all the wild west department and hire all of his wild west people. I would take charge of the department I was speaking about under a salary. I told him he could place any one he wanted in charge of the ticket office, front door, and all the finances with the show. He asked me how I expected to get the show from one lot to another. I told him I could arrange that with some transfer company, as we would make two day, three day and week stands. All the performers and musicians would board where they pleased, as I should engage them under the condition that they were to board themselves. We opened early in June out by the workhouse on a large lot there and played two days. Then we continued to play all the lots we could get onto around Cleveland, ending the season about the first of October as it got so chilly that we could not stand it any longer. We paid off everybody that was employed, and the show, according to Judge Ewing, had made quite a lot of money. He was perfectly satisfied. Our admission was fifteen and twenty-five cents, and twenty-five cents for reserved seats. So I closed the season there with him and then came back to Wooster. The season of 1890 I jumped to the Gallmar Brothers Circus, a large wagon show with a menagerie. I was the contracting agent. I had a very fine team of horses and buggy. I went twelve days ahead of the show. They opened their season at Baraboo, Wisconsin, the last week in April. I remained with that show the rest of the season and then went to my home in Wooster. [...]"