Storyteller's Cabin
To this day, little is known about Red Eldridge except that he was between 23 and 38 years of age, worked at the Riverside Hotel in St. Paul and, when the Sparks circus arrived, approached head elephant trainer Paul Jacoby for a job. Despite Eldridge's inexperience, Jacoby hired him as an under keeper of the elephants. Eldridge's job responsibilities included watering the elephants and preparing them for the parades and shows. For the next few days, Eldridge was instructed according to Sparks' &"gentling care" philosophy when it came to the animals.
After the show, Eldridge left his job at the hotel and traveled south with the circus to their next stop in Kingsport, Tennessee. Kingsport then looked like a town out of the "Wild West." The Carolina, Clinchfieid and Ohio Railroad (known simply as the "Clinchfield") had recently been completed, linking Kingsport with the coal fields to the north and turning it into an industrial boom town. Workers streamed into Kingsport, with many having to stay in temporary tent shelters in the center of town. The streets were muddy and clogged with wagons, wild animals and crowds.
On September 12, Kingsport was putting on its first county fair, and Sparks World Famous Shows was going to be a part of it. Crowds from the surrounding hills came into town, swelling Kingsport's already overcrowded streets. Sometime during the day, crowds lined the roadsides to watch "Mighty Mary" and her fellow elephants - Queen, Topsy, and the two babies, Ollie and Mutt - march through town, trunk to tail.
What happened next has been debated for years, but the most popular version of the story is that the elephants were being led to a watering ditch between shows. Eldridge used a bull hook - a stick with a hook on its end - to guide Mary, but had been warned in his training to nudge her gently and not to provoke her.
According to this story, sometime during the procession, Mary suddenly stopped. Several eyewitnesses claimed that she had spotted a piece of watermelon on the ground and was reaching down to grab it with her trunk. Eldridge forgot his training and roughly prodded her with the stick. Enraged, Mary suddenly grabbed Eldridge with her trunk, lifted him in the air, and flung him against what some claim was a drink stand. Then, according to eyewitness accounts, she stomped over and, with her massive foot, crushed Eldridge's head like a ripe melon.
The crowds screamed and ran for their lives. Some say that a local blacksmith fired shots at Mary, but the bullets bounced off her thick hide. Hearing the screams, Charlie Sparks rushed over and put his arm around Mary's trunk, calming her down. He then saw the mangled body of Red Eldridge, the magnitude of Mary's actions suddenly apparent.
But what was even more frightening was the chant coming from the crowd. Anger had burned away the fear in many of the onlookers. Now their voices rang out in unison: "Kill the elephant!"
