The Mabie Brothers U.S. Olympic Circus, then the largest in America, arrived here in 1847 to become the first circus to quarter in the Wisconsin Territory. Between 1847-1894, Delavan was home to 26 different circus companies, making Delavan the . . . — — Map (db m273110) HM
At this site, March 20, 1871, the first P.T. Barnum Circus was loaded on rail cars and transported to Brooklyn, NY where it made its initial performance on April 10, 1871. The circus was conceived and organized in Delavan by William C. Coup and Dan . . . — — Map (db m109261) HM
Delavan Civil War volunteers assembled beneath this Burr Oak tree, for muster, 1861-1864, before boarding trains for the Union Army training camps.
This tree is approximately 242 years old.
The Muster Tree
The railway station . . . — — Map (db m273264) HM WM
In 1847 two New York brothers, Edmund and Jeremiah Mabie, toured Wisconsin with their United States Olympic Circus. The circus stopped over in Delavan and the brothers took time off to hunt prairie chicken near Delavan Lake. They liked the area so . . . — — Map (db m272863) HM
Dusty and rutted in dry spells, muddy and miserable in wet, Delavan’s main street, Walworth Avenue, remained unpaved from the 1830’s until the second decade of the 20th century. In 1911, Delavan’s City Council voted to pave the three block central . . . — — Map (db m273141) HM
This area was a hub of circus activity during the 1847-1895 period when 26 circuses spent their winters in Delavan. Built in 1848, the three-story building north of this park at 117 Park Place was the Park Hotel. The Park Hotel housed many circus . . . — — Map (db m273113) HM
In 1839 Ebenezer Cheseboro emigrated to Wisconsin from New York and settled in the town of Darien, two miles west of Delavan on the Janesville road. Due to the lack of a school for his deaf daughter, Ariadna, a teacher of the deaf was hired to come . . . — — Map (db m33473) HM
