The Circus Riot of 1870
By Beth Boulden Moore
The citizens of Elkton looked forward to the arrival of the Campbell’s Circus and Menagerie. The town had not hosted a circus for two years, and this circus promised it was the “largest Menagerie and Circus in the United States” according to the April 23, 1870 Cecil Whig. The circus’s show was supposed to include “wonderful feats of professional riders and gymnasts in leaping, balancing, displays of strength, etc., etc., “ and “a horned horse and a whole host of other animals”.
The circus was scheduled to arrive in town April 29th and 30th. Showtimes, according to the Cecil Whig, were 1 and 7 o’clock pm. Shows would be held at the Elkton Fairgrounds, which was across the railroad tracks from the Railroad Hotel.
Friday, April 30 was a rainy and dreary day, according to the Cecil Democrat’s May 1, 1870 issue. Throughout the day on Friday, the 30th, “numbers of employees were observed to stop work at intervals and repair to a neighboring drinking saloon” at the Railroad Hotel. After the evening performance, a number of circus employees went to the Railroad Hotel’s barroom. The employees demanded that hotel manager Enoch Ferguson give them liquor. The manager made the mistake of placing a decanter on the bar. It was seized by one of the circus employees and the whole group ‘stampeded’ into the street.
There they began “amusing themselves with frequent and unmeasured potations (drinks)” and, according to the Cecil Whig, several of them were in a “reckless mood” after drinking all day. Town Constable Lewis, secured by manager Ferguson, attempted to arrest the group of people, but could not. He was outnumbered and he left to get help. The mob of people immediately began to throw rocks at him. Lewis went to find help, and once the constable left, the crowd turned its attention to a bystander named Isaac Boyd, pelting him with stones. Boyd was badly beaten and cut about the head. Boyd retaliated by pulling out a knife and stabbing animal keeper William Randolph across the abdomen.
Randolph’s wound proved to be serious, and he was taken to the Howard Hotel across town to receive treatment. The Cecil Democrat reported that the wound was “a horrid gash in the stomach about four inches in length, and through which the bowels were opened.” Although the wound was serious, Randolph survived the attack. Randolph later insisted that he was not part of the group and had been on his way from the depot to the hotel. He approached the crowd and was attacked by Boyd.
During the melee, hotel manager Enoch Ferguson took refuge in the upper floor of the hotel. Ferguson’s son, Hugh, came down to see what was going on. He was knocked down and his head badly cut by a pitcher. Afterward, he was confined to bed, as his wounds were serious.
The ‘Circus Riot’ attracted at least one out of town newspaper. In the May 1, 1870 issue of the New York Times, a story appeared under the column “Crimes and Criminals”. The Times began their story with the sentence “A serious riot occurred at Elkton, Md last night between some members of a circus company and citizens of the town.” The article gave an account of the riot and the injuries of those involved.
A week later, the Cecil Whig reported on the riot and offered some editorial comments. They said, “These circuses generally have a gang of drinking rowdies with them and on the occasion of public gatherings at Elkton, there is always a gang of similar characters who collect here from the barrens and slums of the town, and a free fight is the consequence. No circus company should be allowed to exhibit here without the Town Commissioners appointing a strong police, who should be armed and whose business it should be to enforce order, and charge the circus company with the expenses or forbid the exhibition.” They also stated that “This is a handsome state of affairs to be enacted under the very nose of the high Sheriff of Cecil County.”
