On October 4, 1869, Jacksonville was agog! Charles Sherwood Stratton, the most famous superstar of his time, would be appearing at Horne’s Hall that night along with his troup of entertainers. You might be more familiar with Stratton’s stage name—General Tom Thumb. And you would know Horne’s Hall under its official designation—the U.S. Hotel, the wooden predecessor to the 1880 brick structure we know today.
Standing 2’ 11” tall when fully grown, Stratton had been discovered by P.T. Barnum when Stratton was 5-years-old. Barnum taught the boy how to sing, dance, mime, exchange comic banter, and impersonate famous people. Stratton became an international celebrity, a favorite of Queen Victoria, and changed the perception of the public towards “human curiosities,” making them one of the most popular forms of 19th Century U.S. entertainment.
Stratton’s 1863 marriage to Lavinia Warren, another “little person” became front page news, knocking the Civil War off the front page of the “New York Times” for 3 days straight. Warren’s sister, Minnie, and another Barnum performer, “Commodore” George Washington Morrison Nutt, were their attendants. 10,000 guests attended their wedding reception at New York’s Metropolitan Hotel and the couple was subsequently entertained by President and Mrs. Lincoln at the White House.
The Strattons, along with Minnie Warren and Commodore Nutt, toured the world. How they came to perform in Jacksonville is unknown. The “Oregon Sentinel” reported that “the quartet gave a beautiful performance of songs, duets, comic acts, burlesque and laughable eccentricities” but also wondered “at the audacity of such little souls coming on so long a journey.”