Acrobatic Ancestor

During the Thanksgiving holiday my Grandpa showed me a newspaper article from the 1930's about an old man who was once a featured member of the Barnum & Bailey Circus. But this was not just any old man, William Belknap was my great great grandfather—my grandpa's grandpa. The article itself wasn't all that well written but it did give a glimpse into his life. A transcribed version of the original Bridgeport Life newspaper article is available to download here (PDF format).
Apparently young William was obsessed with acrobatics. He did everything from hand springs and somersaults to vaulting over ponies and hanging from a trapeze. Eventually his talents led him to team up with two other acrobats to form the "La Vina Brothers", a name that they made up to make people think they were immigrants because all the "good" acts were. Their name soon morphed into "The Lavinias" and they landed a starring role in P.T. Barnum's Greatest Show on Earth. It's not clear from the article how long he was able to perform but like all good things it came to an end when he injured his shoulder attempting to somersault over a row of elephants. His career in entertainment over, William went to work for the Belknap Manufacturing Company, his father's business which was already well known for producing high quality valves. He eventually took over as president of the company, the position he held at the time he was interviewed for the article.

I'm sure that if you go back far enough most people have a famous (or infamous) relative in their family tree. It's kind of cool to know that one of mine was a circus performer. Too bad I didn't inherit his talent for landing on his feet—I really could have used it this summer :(