Two Hundred Years Ago: The Downfall of Horatio

Two hundred years ago, the big news of the day in Vermont and New Hampshire was Horatio. Today, few know about Horatio; however, in the year 1820, he was an animal celebrity.

Horatio was an elephant that originally came from Poonah (about 100 miles from Bombay) where he had supposedly been “employed in the wars in India,” until he was captured from one of the Mahratta chiefs. He was later brought to America on a ship bearing the name Horatio, from which his name was derived. As one of the first elephants to come to America, he commanded a great deal of attention, as evidenced by the numerous articles that heralded his arrival as he began his tour of northern New England.

Given the rarity of seeing an elephant in Vermont, on August 29, 1820, the people of Woodstock were likely excited when the Woodstock Observer ran an advertisement for the “Great Natural Curiosity” that would be coming to Barker’s Hotel.

Advertisement from the August 29, 1820, Woodstock Observer.

View of Henry’s Hotel,,

which had formerly been known as Barker’s Hotel in the 1820s.

Barker’s Hotel was located on the Village Square in Woodstock, at the corner of Central Street and Elm Street, where Dr. Coburn’s Tonic is now located. Since Horatio was purported to stand between 9 and 10 feet tall and to be 30 feet from the tip of his nose to the end of his tail, one can imagine that his owner probably brought Horatio to Woodstock in the middle of the night to prevent anyone from seeing him. Preventing people from getting a sneak peak was important as the touring elephant was a money-making venture, and the owner was charging 25 cents for adults and half price for children to see the famed pachyderm. (Using an online historic money converter, 25 cents in 1820 would be about $5.50 in today’s money.)

Others must have thought owning an elephant was a good investment because the following week, on September 5, 1820, the Woodstock Observer notes that “The large Elephant called Horatio was purchased in this town last week of Mr. Roblin, the former owner, by Messrs. Curtis and Campbell of Windsor, and Messrs. T. & J. Emerson of Norwich, in this county. The price is variously stated from ten to eighteen thousand dollars.” Using the same online historic money converter as above, where a dollar in 1820 is equated to about $22.22 in today’s money, Horatio sold for somewhere between $222,220.00 and $399,960.00 – not a small amount of money.

Some three weeks later, Horatio was back in the news. This time, however, the reason was tragic. At night, the elephant and his entourage were crossing the bridge that spans the Connecticut River between Putney, Vermont, and Westmoreland, New Hampshire, and the bridge collapsed.

The accident was described as follows in the Woodstock Observer that covered the story on September 26. “On Tuesday night, between 12 and 1 o’clock, they attempted to pass the Bridge over [the] Connecticut River. Maj. Curtis, one of the owners, and a colored man were forward, and Capt. Roblin and another colored man, each on horseback, were in the rear of the Elephant. They passed in safety until near the gate on this side, when, in consequence of some delay in opening it, the Elephant stopped between the last pier and the abutment. Maj. Curtis had succeeded in opening the gate, but the Elephant remaining still, Capt. Roblin and the colored man advanced and were in the act of spurring him forward with their whips, when one of the cross-timbers on that side of the Bridge, (which proved to be defective) and into which the plank timbers running length-ways of the Bridge… suddenly gave way, and the Elephant, the two horses and their riders were precipitated together with the falling timbers and planks a distance of thirty-six feet, on the rocks!”

The two horses died instantly. Captain Roblin was severely injured and died within four hours.  The African American man’s leg was injured and had to be amputated. Horatio was alive, but clearly injured. The following morning, Horatio was raised to his feet using tackles, but he was unable to stand on his own. By that afternoon, he had been moved onto an ox-sled pulled by eight yoke of oxen that drew him up the steep bank beside the river. He was then taken to a barn in Westmoreland.

The following week, the newspapers published that Horatio had passed away on September 26 due to his injuries. Because elephants were still such a curiosity, it was decided to remove his skin and mount it for a display in a museum in Boston.

The story of Horatio lives on in old newspaper accounts (such as those taken from the Woodstock Observer, The Vermont Journal, The Republican and American Journal, and numerous other area papers). The story also lives on through a place name. The remnants of the collapsed bridge are still referred to as the “Elephant Bridge” - a sad tribute and reminder of a day about 200 years ago when one man, two horses, and an elephant lost their lives, and another man lost his leg.