Well of course we love to claim Somers, New York and point out the Landmark Statue of "Old Bet" but this is what History Magazine had to say about old Bet :
The elephant didn't get into the circus until the 1800s. Hackaliah Bailey, a farmer from Somers, New York, had a brother who was a sea captain. The brother, while in London, bought a female African elephant at auction for $20 and sold it to Bailey for $1,000.
The captain put the elephant on board a sloop bound up the Hudson River for Sing Sing, the nearest river town to Bailey's home. Bailey walked the animal, which he called Old Bet, from Sing Sing to Somers, 56 miles away. He walked the elephant only by night so that the public wouldn't glimpse the beast along the route "for nothing". During the day, he exhibited the elephant for a small fee and began to make a profit.
Bailey's success encouraged others to invest in unusual animals for exhibition and take them on tour. Unfortunately, a ruffian in Maine shot Old Bet to death in 1816.
Old Bet's death didn't stop her from going on exhibition. Nine months later, advertisements began appearing in New York newspapers saying that Bailey had had the remains of Old Bet stuffed and preserved. For the next four years, Old Bet's remains toured New England.
