Ephraim Williams (circus owner)
Ephraim Williams (1860–1921) was an American circus owner. Also known as Prof Eph Williams, he was the first Black circus owner in the United States in the 1880s and he was likely the only Black circus owner in the country until his death.[1][2][3] He owned several circuses including the Ferguson and Williams Monster Show, Professor Williams' Consolidated American and German Railroad Shows, and an all-Black tent show named Silas Green from New Orleans which became one of the longest-running tent-shows in history. [2] He called himself "The Black P.T. Barnum".[1] In 1897 the Freeman newspaper described him as "the only Negro circus owner in America."[4]
Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Williams spent his formative years in Medford, Wisconsin. In Wisconsin Williams worked at the Briggs Hotel and the "saloon business" and took up " horse training as a hobby.[5] Williams became an accomplished horse trainer, horse performer and magician under his stage name of Professor Eph.[6] He invested in his first circus in Appleton, Wisconsin, the Ferguson and Williams Monster Show in 1885. While stranded in Iowa he partnered with Frank Skerbeck and his family, a German trapeze artists and sword swallowers to tour small towns under the name Professor Williams' Consolidated American and German Railroad Shows. Based in Wisconsin this show was made up of fifteen railroad cars, fifty horses and 150 people, would tour every season until 1893.[5]
He had a absence from touring until 1896 when he returned to Medford to run the bar at the Hotel Winchester. In 1897 the Freeman newspaper reported that he was "the only Negro circus owner in America" and owned 200 Arabian horses and employed 75 men.[4][5] In 1901 he moved to Milwaukee where he opened William's Great Northern Shows.
By in the summer of 1908, while in Phoebus, Virginia, he partnered with William Baynard on the Baynard's and Eph Williams' Famous Troubadours and he "started a tour across the Mason and Dixie Line for the first time in my life."[5] By 1909 he was the sole owner of Eph Williams' FamousTroubadours.[5]
After losing his "dog-and pony circus" in bad weather he invested in the Silas Green from New Orleans, originally owned by Salem Tutt Whitney, under Williams' ownership it became the longest-running Black-owned show, until it passed into white ownership after Williams died.[7]
In 1892 he married Rhoda Amelia Black (c.1862 - 1918), they had four children. She would often travel with the shows, the Freeman described her as "one of the ableist business women of her race". One of their daughters Josephine, billed as "Little Baby Josephine", was also a child performer.[5]
See also
References
- ^ a b Loohauis-Bennett, Jackie (7 July 2009). "Troupe tells story of black performers". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
- ^ a b Hughes, Sakina M. (2021). "Reconstruction, Railroads, and Race: The American Circus in the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era". In Arrighi, Gilliam; Davis, Jim (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to the Circus. Cambridge University Press. pp. 44–45.
- ^ Sampson, Henry T. (2013-10-30). Blacks in Blackface: A Sourcebook on Early Black Musical Shows. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-8351-2.
- ^ a b Abbott, Lynn (2002). Out of sight : the rise of African American popular music, 1889-1895. Internet Archive. Jackson : University Press of Mississippi. p. 98. ISBN 978-1-57806-499-1.
- ^ a b c d e f Abbott, Lynn (2007). Ragged but right : black traveling shows, "coon songs," and the dark pathway to blues and jazz. University Press of Mississippi.
- ^ "Ephraim Williams: Appleton's Entertainer Extraordinaire". Wisconsin Historical Society. 2021-02-12. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
- ^ Peterson, Bernard L (2001). Profiles of African American stage performers and theatre people, 1816-1960. Greenwood Press. pp. 310–311.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)