THE BALLOON MAN

This Day in History: The Walter L. Main Circus May Have Come to Town
Train wreck almost destroyed circus and canceled show.

By Lon Cohen
July 20, 2011
An advertisement that ran in the Port Jefferson Echo on July 15, 1893 announced that the circus was coming to town on July 20 of that year.

The Walter L. Main was a popular show back in the late 1800s traveling by rail all across the United States to entertain folks with what the ad says are 1,000 men and horses employed for the event. Three rings of excitement were promised with a display of performers and wild animals, including a Shetland pony 26 inches high and a tail “15 feet in length.” Long enough, an illustration showed, for a grown man, two young ladies and a little boy to all hold at once.

The actual show that year may have been in danger of never materializing even though performances were promised for various towns across Long Island. On the morning of May 30, 1893, a tragic train wreck killed five employees and many of the animals from the circus.

“Five persons lost their lives when the train of the Walter L. Main Circus jumped the tracks on the morning of May 30, 1893, in one of America's worst circus disasters,” reads a report on the Circus Fans Association of America website. “Wild animals were released from shattered cages, and wrecked circus wagons and equipment were scattered across the site.”

The New York Times reported on the train wreck as well saying that “the cars went down a steep grade and over an embankment.”

The Times reported that lions and tigers got loose and fifty horses were killed, though the paper did say that the elephants and camels were safe.

Another article says that Mr. Main was able to rebuild his circus in short order with the help of the local populace and complete his shows that year.

“Believing the show must go on, Main stayed in Latrobe eight days, during which time he assembled another circus by borrowing and buying from others in the business,” reads the report. “He went on to complete his show engagements for the season.”

No reports found in any local Long Island papers say that the circus was canceled that year nor do they make mention of the train wreck.

Subsequent advertisements and announcements in various papers tell of the circus surviving that year to return to entertain folks in Port Jefferson for decades afterwards. Reports show the circus coming to Port Jefferson as late as 1931.