ELNORA — The 78th annual Daviess County Fair has arrived in Elnora. There will be rides and games and tractor pulls and demolition derbies, and maybe even a clown. Clowns are a wonderful part of fairs, rodeos and circuses. Their job is to make us laugh. It’s probably a sad fact that in these modern times with highly-paid late night comedians and entertainment at the touch of a remote control that clowns do not generate the kind of excitement that they once did. But to 76-year-old Elnora resident Shirley Chestnut, the mention of a clown brings back wonderful and exciting memories of stories of her uncle Bill, known as “Elnora’s Greatest Clown.”

William “Bill” Caress was born in Burns City in Martin County, on May 2, 1885. He came to Elnora as a young boy when his parents, John and Eliza Caress, moved their family there after John had agreed to run the Lemon Brother’s Mill and Elevator located in downtown Elnora beside the Wabash and Erie Canal.

In a eulogy in the Aug. 19, 1938, edition of the Elnora Tribune, it was written, “that even at a very young age” Bill wanted to be an entertainer — “a good one,” he had said as a boy. The article stated, “Even before Bill was of age he began to make trips over the country — always entertaining the crowds, and selling some article of worthy merchandise, and always paying his own way. But when winter would come he would return to Elnora and help his father at the mill.”

It was during one of these summer forays entertaining in a small town in southern Indiana that Bill got his big break. A well-dressed man had watched his performance and came up to him afterward and asked him if he would like to join a good circus. The man was Zach Terrel and the circus was none other than the world famous Miller Brother’s 101 Ranch Wild West Show and Circus. Caress was soon on the first train to Bliss, Okla., to join up with the show, the article said.

As Bill traveled with the show, he’d send postcards to his brother, Hayden Caress, Shirley’s dad, and to his sister, Sally. They followed his career with keen interest.

The decade before the start of World War I was the heyday of huge Wild West shows and circuses that crisscrossed the United States and Europe. Along with the 101 Ranch Wild West Show there were others, such as Bills Cody’s, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and Pawnee Bill Lillie’s Great Far East Show and the great Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circuses and many more. The 101 Ranch Wild West Show traveled throughout the U.S. carried along by rail on a 28-car show train, and many times would cross paths with the competing shows. It was during this time that Caress perfected his clown act with his side kick mule, Tango. In 1914, Bill and Tango brought down the house at a performance at Madison Square Garden in New York, and he was rewarded with a cover picture on the New York World Newspaper Magazine.

By the start of World War I the public’s interest in the big live shows started to wane. A combination of the events in Europe and a new form of entertainment, the silent movie, were the culprits. The silent movie had captured the imaginations of young and old alike. When, exactly, Caress followed the trail of entertainers to Hollywood has been lost to family history.

According to “The Real Wild West” by Michael Wallis, “It was a rule that those cast in the early silent western movies arrived in California by way of the wild west shows and many of them had worked with the 101 Ranch Wild West Show.” It was a time when new film stars like Tom Mix, (who also previously worked for the 101 Ranch Wild West Show) and Hoot Gibson became household names and their exploits on the big screen were eagerly anticipated by their fans.

Caress landed parts in the 1927 movies “Black Jack” and “Chain Lightening.” And in 1928 he played the part of a deputy in the movie “Hello Cheyenne,” starring his old friend from the 101 Ranch Show, Tom Mix.

In the 1930s when Shirley Chestnut was just a little girl, the country was in the midst of the Great Depression. Her uncle Bill had returned to Elnora — just like before when things started to get rough or cold when he was a kid entertaining in rural Indiana.

Chestnut said, “We lived close to the railroad tracks and I remember my uncle Bill telling me to be sure and never turn away a tramp because riding the rail as a tramp was the way he got back home from California.

“My dad and aunt Sally were always kind to the tramps that rode the rails during that time.”

Times were tough then even for a clown. Chestnut remembers that her Uncle Bill lived in Terre Haute for a while and worked as a street clown/advertiser for Roots Department Store.

She said, “I always remember looking at him in awe, as a big celebrity when he would come to visit.”

When Caress passed away on Aug. 9, 1938, he was working at the famous French Lick Springs hotel. He was 53.

Chestnut’s personal memories of her Uncle Bill are few because she was but a small child when Bill was alive, but the stories provided by one of Bill’s biggest fans, his sister Sally always kept the memory of her uncle Bill and his exploits fresh in her mind. Aunt Sally lived to be 96 years old and even passed along a fascination of Bill’s story to Dave Chestnut, Shirley’s youngest son, who counts as one of his prized possessions a Christmas card from Tom Mix to his great uncle Bill, “Elnora’s Greatest Clown.”