Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
WILLIAM C. COUP NEW UNITED MONSTER SHOWS
WILLIAM C. COUP NEW UNITED MONSTER SHOWS. William C. Coup owned and operated four circuses in a career that placed him among the greatest of the showmen.
W. C. Coup's Circus (1885–1889)
W. C. Coup's Rolling Palaces
Coup's Equescurriculum
W. C. Coup's New United Monster Shows
Coup's 10 Consolidated Shows
This card photographed in a museum in Quebec City suggests that Coup featured an act involving Eaton Stone, a white performer, who revolutionized the common Native American act by galloping bareback on a horse while shouting war whoops and performing breathtaking stunts. Stone dressed in beaded costumes, which he claimed Indian women had made for him, and wore facial paint. He may have had these additional performers as background for his act.
As of July 2, 2017 no record has been discovered proving that this circus actually came to Dubuque. Based on other references, the appearance, if it occurred, may have been any time soon after 1879.
For more information about this circus--http://www.circusesandsideshows.com/owners/williamcameroncoup.html and "Eton Stone, the Devil Rider-http://www.circushistory.org/Thayer/Thayer3m.htm