The Hanging of Mary the Elephant in Erwin, Tennessee, in 1916

More than 90 years ago, in the small town of Erwin, Tennessee, a 7,500-pound circus elephant named Mary was hung in the railroad yard because she killed her "under keeper." The stories behind the reason for the hanging have led to many articles and books to be written. But no matter which version of the story is told, the outcome is still the same: Mary was hung on September 13, 1916, and the small town of Erwin still gets the bad publicity for being the place that hung an elephant. Many locals still tell their version of the story as told to them by friends and family members passed down through generations. One source that seemed the most accurate was an article on the Web site www.rootsweb.com/tnunicoi/mary.htm.

The story about Mary actually begins back in 1896 when Charles "Charlie" Sparks and his wife, Addie, owned a circus show called "Spark's World Famous Show". Charlie Sparks purchased his first elephant in 1896, which was Mary. When Charlie purchased Mary she was four years old. Charlie and Addie cared deeply for their animals and their trainers were always instructed to use gentle care when working with them. Mary was the circus' first wild animal. By the year 1916 when the circus arrived in St. Paul, Virginia to do a show, Mary had been with the circus for 20 years. Upon arriving in St. Paul, Charlie Sparks needed an 'under keeper' for the elephants. After leaving a job at local hotel in St. Paul, Walter "Red" Eldridge was hired by Charlie Sparks to be the 'under keeper'. The circus left St. Paul to go on to Kingsport, Tennessee where they were scheduled to perform on September 12, 1916. Between the shows in Kingsport, Red Eldridge took the elephants to a watering hole to get a drink. As Red was bringing the elephants back to the tent, Mary spotted a piece of watermelon along the side of the road and went towards it. To get Mary to keep moving, Red prodded Mary's sensitive ear with a bull hook and she became very enraged. She picked up Red with her trunk and tossed him against a drink stand then proceeded to go over to him and step on his head with her enormous foot and pressed down until his head was flat. During this whole incident there were people screaming over and over to "kill the elephant". A local blacksmith tried immediately to shoot Mary but his gun was not powerful enough. Soon Charlie Sparks arrived and was able to calm Mary down.

The Mayor of Kingsport and local Sheriff "arrested" Mary and took her to the county jail where they chained her outside. While she was there, many onlookers came by to see the killer elephant. That night, Charlie and Addie Sparks had to make the difficult decision as to what to do with Mary. They did not want to take the chance that Mary might hurt someone else. They knew they had to have Mary destroyed. But how? Mary was a 7500 pound elephant and would not be easy to destroy. Mary was very smart and the Sparks' knew she would not eat any food laced with cyanide. They remembered back in 1903 that an elephant was electrocuted on Coney Island, but Kingsport did not have enough electrical power to electrocute Mary. Since the circus was moved by railroad, they thought that maybe they could use two train engines to crush Mary or use a railroad derrick to hang her. A derrick car is fitted with a crane used to lift the train cars onto the tracks. About 40 miles south of Kingsport was the town of Erwin, Tennessee. Erwin was a railroad town that had a major changing yard for the Clinchfield Railroad. The Sparks' contacted Clinchfield Railroad to see if they could bring a derrick car to Kingsport so that Mary could be hung in Kingsport. Because of the bad rain storms during the summer of 1916, floods had occurred and there had been washouts along the tracks. Clinchfield Railroad did not want to risk sending its derrick car the round trip of 80 miles in case they might need it to go over the mountain into North Carolina.

Late into the evening of September 12, 1916, Charlie Sparks decided that the next day they would load the elephants and take them to Erwin so they could hang Mary there. They finally arrived at the rail yard around 5 pm on September 13. They chained Mary's foot to the railroad track and placed the derrick chain around her neck. As they started to lift Mary, the derrick chain broke. As Mary fell on the track, she was stunned and they quickly got another chain around her neck. They lifted Mary again, this time the chain held and within a few minutes Mary was dead. Mary was buried on the railroad property, and no one has ever been allowed to dig up her remains. Matter of fact, the exact location of where Mary was buried is still now known and most people just try to guess the location.

The hanging of Mary is part of Erwin's history, even though the killing of her 'under taker' occurred in Kingsport. Erwin has been known as the "town that hung an elephant" for years. Several books, news reports and even questions on game shows have been written about this historic event. This was a cruel and unfortunate way to have to dispose of this wild animal. In this day and age, this would be considered animal cruelty and the parties involved would be punished by the courts. But back in 1916, there were no humane ways to dispose of a large killer animal or a sanctuary to place them in, so they had no choice but to find what we would consider cruel, way to kill them.

Source:
www.rootsweb.com/tnunicoi/mary.htm