One of the True Little People..

The Little General......

As a child, nearly seventy years ago, I was extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to listen to my country grandfather (and his sons) telling wonderful stories around the turf fire whenever we were ‘down the country’.    They were magical and wonderful times.

Back home, we also had an older half-brother Frank (one of my heroes) who could also tell wonderful stories – more modern for their time – but still nonetheless as exciting to a young child listening to them at bedtime.   

I have since discovered that Frank’s version bore no resemblance to the true versions and with his wonderful endings to each and every one made them in fact better than the originals.   He always ended up adding “.....and they got a penny worth of aniseed balls (childhood sweets) and lived happily ever after”

One of my favourite such stories was about Tom Thumb. In later years I saw films about the story but they have never distracted from my memories. Frank’s tale, such as this and others, always contained frightening mentions of witches, giants, bad fairies and all such frightening things to a child of five or six.

It was purely by accident that much later in life, I came across someone called General Tom Thumb – a real live person.  His real name was Charles Sherwood Stratton and was a member of P.T. Barnum’s famous circus.

The strangest thing is that when Stratton was born on January 4^th, 1838 at Bridgeport, Connecticut, he weighed in at 9 pounds 2 ounces – a big baby by all accounts. He appeared normal size and grew for the first six months of his life. At six months old he was 25 inches tall and weighed 15 pounds. Then he stopped growing.

The family doctor could offer no explanation or help. By the time he was four years of age he had not grown a further inch nor put on any further weight. Apart from the growth and weight factors, he was a truly normal child. He had several brothers and sisters who did not share the same problems.

An old friend, and in fact a relative of the family, P.T. Barnum heard about the child and after convincing the parents that what he intended to do for them and the boy was for his good and future prospects.  He began to teach him to sing, dance and in particular, impersonate famous people.

Barnum entered a partnership with the boy’s father with an agreement to share any profit from the scheme.

In 1845, at the age of five, the youngster made his first tour of America. It was a huge success and the tour expanded. A year later, he was taken to Europe and became an international celebrity. He appeared twice before Queen Victoria and on one of the occasions the Queen’s pet poodle attacked him after a performance in Buckingham Palace. He was introduced to the Prince of Wales who was later to become King Edward V11 who was three years old at the time. He towered above young Stratton.

The tour was also a financial success and he was mobbed wherever he went. He had his own carriage and made vast amounts of money for both Barnum and the Stratton family.

In 1847, at the age of nine, for the first time since he was a few months old, he began to grow but only ever so slightly. In January 1851, he stood 2 feet 3 inches tall. On his 18^th birthday, he measured 2 feet 6 and a half inches.

In 1863, he married another tiny person, Lavinia Warren and this made international news. The best man was another similarly small performer called Nutt and the Bridesmaid was Lavinia’s even smaller sister. Following the wedding, the couple was received by President Lincoln at the White House.

In 1868, at the age of 30, he measured 2 feet 11 inches and finally reached a height of 3 feet in the early 1870’s.

He continued to earn a considerable amount of money and bought a house in a very fashionable part of New York. He also owned a steam yacht. He later purchased a specially adapted home on one of Connecticut’s Thimble Islands. He was so wealthy in fact that when Barnum got into financial difficulties, Stratton bailed him out. They soon became partners.

He and his wife made a tour of Europe and Japan and made his final appearance in England in 1878. On 10^th January 1883, a fire broke out where he was staying in Milwaukee, which became known as "one of the worst hotel fires in American History". Stratton and his wife were uninjured but 71 people died in the fire. It is said that the memory haunted him for the rest of his life.

In fact, six months later, he suddenly died from a stroke. He was 45 years old when he died, weighed 70 pounds and measured 3 foot 4 inches. Over 10,000 people attended his funeral.

It is most probable that his height deficiency was caused by the malfunctioning or damage to his pituitary gland but it wasn’t until 1915 and the advent of X-rays, that it was determined that the pituitary gland was responsible for the Human Growth Hormone.

So, that is the ‘true’ story of Tom Thumb, but I still prefer my brother Frank’s version.  

And the end? Why of course, "Someone bought them a penny worth of aniseed balls and they all lived happily ever after"……….

--------Mike--------