How Moses Smith’s Eccentric Notion Made a Fortune for Another Man.
It is not generally known that a former citizen of Owensboro brought across the ocean the first elephant that was ever in America, says the Owensboro (Ky.) Inquirer. The name of the gentleman was Moses Smith, who at one time owned a vast body of land from the mouth of Panther creek up the river, embracing in the neighborhood of Sorgho.
Mr. Smith was at Paris with his brother and had “more money then he knew what to do with.” He told his brother that he intended taking something to America that the people had never seen. “You had better buy an elephant,” said the jocular brother and that was what Moses did. He picked out the biggest animal he could find and paid an enormous price for it. He brought it to New York, where it was a nine days’ wonder, but the owner soon found that he had something worse than the proverbial white elephant on his hands. He tried to sell it, but could find no buyer and at last undertook to give it away, in which he was equally unsuccessful. Finally he found a man who agreed to pay him $100 for it and this individual put it on exhibition. He was so successful that he went into the show business and made a fortune out of Mr. Smith’s folly. Col. Frank McKernan, of Adrianville, is a grandson of Mr. Smith, who lived to a great age at his home in this county.
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