Big Charley the Elephant

Peru, Indiana

Died 1901

Peru, at the turn of the century, was the winter headquarters for a number of circuses. One of these was the LaPearl Circus, and one of its elephants was a bull named Big Charley.

Big Charley was regarded with suspicion by the circus folk. The only human who had a rapport with him was Henry Huffman, his trainer. This arrangement worked well until April, 1901, when Henry was laid up in bed for three weeks. Charley had no one to take him down to the Wabash River for his usual bath. Big Charley got mad.

On April 25, 1901, when Henry reappeared, Big Charley let himself be led to the riverbank. Then he grabbed Henry, dashed his brains out against a log dock, and held him under water until he was sure he was dead. Big Charley followed Henry shortly thereafter, a victim of several well-placed bullets.

The Miami County Museum honors Big Charley by displaying his tusks, along with the skull of another elephant that has a bullet hole in it. "But we put 'em together," the curator explained. "For the school kids."

All other Big Charley relics vanished in the flood of 1913.