Get a copy of Michelle Chalfoun’s book Roustabout. It’s a novel but Chalfoun did run away with the circus. She has also worked on boats as a deckhand and cook, and in shipyards as maintenance and repair crew. Her second book The Width of the Sea uses these experiences as background. She is a great writer. After reading Roustabout I felt like I’d been with the circus.
FWIW, that branch of the family’s in Indiana, which is somewhat farther south…hmmm…come to think of it, he might have been living as far south as Kentucky or Tennessee at that time. I’ll have to ask…
You want to join the circus? Why not give yourself a glimpse of what it will be like and go to next year’s Burning Man. If you can survive that, you’ll have a remote chance of lasting in the circus.
Veeery interesting. I’m too lazy to pump my Mom for more information right now, but if I’m guessing right, his last name would be either Hunt, Upton, Owsley or Gray. This would’ve been in the 40’s and 50’s…so, given that you were talking about your “great-great-great-grandfather” it’s probably all a coincidence.
