Escaped animals · Camden County
The mysterious Winslow-area predator
Contemporary source summarized; the Barnum rumour set beside a verified 1887 fire
A national-news digest reported that an unidentified animal was killing chickens near a Camden County place whose source transcription appears to read “Owensburgh,” and blamed one of P. T. Barnum’s animals. Barnum’s Bridgeport winter quarters did burn that November, though nothing ties the fire to Camden County.
The brief
The single-sentence item said local residents suspected the predator might be one of P. T. Barnum’s escaped animals. The surviving text does not describe the animal, quantify the losses, identify a witness, confirm an escape, or report a capture. The place name is damaged in the clipping and should be checked against the original newspaper; “Owensburgh” is only the best current source transcription reading.
What lay behind the Barnum rumour
Barnum & Bailey’s winter quarters in Bridgeport, Connecticut did burn in 1887, and animals did get loose. The Camden Evening Telegram carried the wire report on November 21, under the headline “Barnum Burned Out” and the sub-head “Wild Animals Loose in the Street.” Datelined Bridgeport that day, it said the main building caught fire at half past ten the previous night and burned in half an hour, with a loss the dispatch put at a million dollars. The boss animal keeper and four workmen broke in the south door and led thirty elephants to an open lot; the report called three lions and one hippopotamus “the only other animals saved,” the hippopotamus having broken out through an east door and run through the crowd. Its closing paragraph is the one that matches the rumour: the last news the reporter could get was that three lions had broken out of the ball ground where they had been shut in and were wandering loose in the streets.
A follow-up Camden wire item on December 5, “Barnum Hires Mrs. Gilligan,” reported that Mrs. Gilligan had settled with Barnum over the loss of her cow, agreeing to accept $75 for the damage the escaped lion had done. The cow died before the money was paid, and Barnum then gave her a Jersey cow from his dairy farm. The report adds that she signed a contract to exhibit herself with the show the following season.
So escaped circus animals were real news in New Jersey papers in the closing weeks of 1887, which is reason enough for residents to reach for Barnum to explain an unaccounted-for predator. It goes no further than that. Nothing places an escaped Barnum animal in New Jersey, Bridgeport is roughly ninety miles from Camden County, and the “Owensburgh” brief cannot even be dated within 1887 from the surviving crop, so it cannot be shown to follow the fire rather than precede it.
Sources and research limits
The surviving newspaper crop does not show a reliable masthead, complete issue date, or page number for the “Owensburgh” brief itself. Names and damaged words are identified as uncertain in the text; researchers should verify them against a full newspaper image before citation. A direct search for the original Camden County brief (using “Owensburgh,” “Winslow,” and “chickens” against New Jersey Chronicling America titles for 1887) did not locate the source clipping.
- The Evening Telegram (Camden, N.J.), November 21, 1887, page 1, “Barnum Burned Out” — Chronicling America full text reviewed; a wire dispatch datelined Bridgeport, Conn., Nov. 21, on the fire and escaped animals.
- The Evening Telegram (Camden, N.J.), December 5, 1887, page 1, “Barnum Hires Mrs. Gilligan” — Chronicling America full text reviewed; a follow-up wire item on the $75 settlement for a cow injured by one of the escaped lions. The cow died before the money was paid and Barnum replaced it with one of his own.