Mighty Haag Circus

During these years, the circus used a variety of types of transport: boat, carts, trains, horse-pulled wagons, and trucks.

Harry James' mother, Myrtle Maybelle (Stewart), was an acrobat and horseback rider in the Circus.

Maybelle and Everett James gave their son Harry the middle name of Haag after the circus owner.

After purchasing a small tent from a longtime side-show man, Squire Bowman, Haag produced a side show at the local fair grounds.

[5] In 1890, at the age of 24, Haag purchased a flat-bottomed boat to anchor in the Red River near Shreveport, Louisiana.

At Morgan City Haag moved his show onto carts and later and wagons, and began touring overland.

Haag added more carts and wagons to carry the expanded show as he toured Louisiana and Kansas.

[7][8][9] For a decade the Mighty Haag Shows toured Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky and others in the Southern United States.

Its animal acts included elephants, bears, ponies, camels, lions, tiger and blue-faced monkeys, along with a hyena, ocelot and badger.

Featured acts were the one-legged clown, Roy Fortune; a highwire walker and aerialist; and the sword swallower Marguerite Davis.

[2][15][16] Ruby Haag Brown, daughter of the late Charles William Fisher and Ruth Eleanor Gregory, was a performer in the show.

[19] After the Circus officially closed, Harry Haag, and the Silverlake and Fisher families took Alice, the elephant, and a few other acts.