by Anne Renaud
Seville First Baptist Church. Photo courtesy of the Creamery Square Heritage Centre.
The couple were particularly fond of children. Martin played games with the little ones who would climb him, like a mountain, to search his pockets, which he kept full of candy. He also entertained them with the pocket watch given to him by Queen Victoria, which the children held to their ears; they were often lulled to sleep by the soothing ticking.
Chapter 6
Losing Anna
To help pay for the cost of building their farmhouse, Anna and her husband decided to join the W. W. Coles Circus on their 1878 tour. The circus owner boasted having paid $20,000 to secure their appearance and billed them as “The Two Largest People in the World.” The giant couple attracted thousands of spectators.
Anna and Martin returned home following the end of the touring season and on January 15, 1879, Dr. A. P. Beach was called to the farm. Anna was in labour. The couple’s second child was to be born.
Anna Swan and Martin Van Buren Bates had a combined height of more than 4.5 metres (15 feet) and a total weight of nearly 363 kilograms (800 pounds). Courtesy of Marc Hartzman.
Anna remained in labour for another three days until finally on January 19 she gave birth to the largest baby known to medical history. Weighing nearly 11 kilograms (23 ¾ pounds) and measuring 76 centimetres (30 inches) in length, the baby boy only lived approximately eleven hours.
Anna and Martin were once again devastated by the loss.
Anna’s bouts of fatigue continued to plague her, so the couple decided to retire following the circus’s 1880 tour. Back in Seville, they went on with their peaceful and productive lives. All the while Martin took care of the farm and was also supportive of many town projects.
The couple’s home remained a popular haven for the many friends they had made throughout the years who visited on occasion, including the Siamese twins, Millie-Christine, who had attended their wedding in England, and Lavinia Warren, also known as Mrs. Tom Thumb. Townsfolk would mistake her for a doll riding in the giants’ carriage whenever she came to visit. The giants’ household was also home to many pets, the most popular being Anna’s monkey, Button.
Although it was clear to Martin that Anna’s health was failing, it still came as a great shock to him when she died suddenly at their home on August 5, 1888, the eve of her forty-second birthday. Heart failure was said to be the reason for her unexpected death.
Over the years the small community of Seville had grown quite fond of the kind-hearted giantess, and news of her death was met with great sorrow.
In her last will and testament, Anna, who had always helped her family financially as much as she could, left generous sums of money to her parents and siblings. Her parents each received $500, while her five surviving brothers and sisters each received $1,502.25.
Following Anna’s death, Martin placed an order for Anna’s casket with a Cleveland coffin maker who, believing he had been given the wrong dimensions, sent a regular-sized casket to the farm. Anna’s burial was delayed for three days, the time taken to have a proper-sized casket built for her. To avoid the same mistake being repeated when the time came for his own burial, Martin later had a casket built for himself, which he stored in his barn.
Summary of Anna’s estate. Courtesy of the Creamery Square Heritage Centre.
Anna’s funeral was scheduled for August 8, which also gave her parents enough time to travel the three days and three nights by train from Nova Scotia. According to the Seville Times, the couple’s home was too small to contain everyone, so great were the number of friends and family members in attendance at Anna’s funeral.
The spacious house being too straight to hold them, the services, necessarily brief, were held on the veranda, the people sitting and standing in the yard. The procession of carriages which followed the remains to their last resting place extended over the whole distance lying between the house and the cemetery.
Martin had a statue made in Anna’s likeness, to stand above her grave. Although the monument was meant to measure nearly 5 metres (16 feet) in height, a 10 centimetres (six-inch) section from the waist was lost when the statue was shipped from England. Martin was so enraged by this when the monument was uncrated at the cemetery that he had to be escorted home.
Tombstone of Anna Swan and Martin Van Buren Bates. Photo courtesy of the Creamery Square Heritage Centre.
Martin Van Buren Bates and Frank Bowman, a midget who lived in nearby Medina. Photo courtesy of Steve DeGenaro.
Martin Van Buren Bates with his second wife, Lavonne, and Frank Bowman. Photo courtesy of Steve DeGenaro.
Marriage licence of Martin Van Buren Bates and Lavonne Weatherby. Courtesy of Rhonda Cookenour Turner.
On October 23,1889, Martin married again, this time to an average-sized woman, Lavonne Weatherby. Because of his new wife’s diminutive size, Martin moved out of the house he had built for himself and Anna, into an average-sized house where he lived until his death in 1919, at the age of 81.
On January 10, 1919, Martin Van Buren Bates was buried alongside his beloved Anna and their baby son at the Mound Hill Cemetery.
The last house Martin Van Buren Bates lived in, with his second wife. Photo courtesy of the Creamery Square Heritage Centre.
Chapter 7
Legacy
Today, both Anna and her husband Martin Van Buren Bates are fondly remembered in Seville, Ohio. Visitors to the area are met by a road sign commemorating the couple’s life there. In addition, the town holds an annual Giant Fest, which highlights the lives of the world’s tallest married couple.
Artifacts are showcased at the Seville Historical Museum, including a model of their house and the cradle which had been built for Anna and Martin’s second child. Replicas of clothing items and of Martin’s ring, which is an amazing size 22, are also on display.
Although their house no longer stands, having been dismantled in 1948, the barn does, and still bears the words “Capt. M. V. Bates” on the roof.
Anna Swan’s legacy is also lovingly preserved and nurtured in Colchester County, Nova Scotia.
Road sign in Seville Ohio. Photo courtesy of the Creamery Square Heritage Centre.
The barn of Martin Van Buren Bates, which still stands today. Photo courtesy of the Creamery Square Heritage Centre.
Visitors to the region can view a monument that stands close to the home where Anna’s family once lived. The inscription reads as follows:
Anna Haining Swan was born at Millbrook Colchester Co., N.S., on August 6, 1846. When Anna was three years old the family moved to Central New Annan. At 17 years of age she was 7 feet 11½ inches tall and weighed 413 lbs, and attracted the interest of showman Phineas T. Barnum. She was billed as “The tallest girl in the world” at his American Museum on Broadway, and she later travelled throughout America and Europe, where she was received by Queen Victoria. She married Martin Van Buren Bates in 1871 and died in Seville, Ohio, in 1888.
As well, in the village of Tatamagouche, home to the Creamery Square Heritage Centre, visitors can view artifacts of Anna’s life and learn more about the loving, kind-hearted giantess who touched the lives of many with her grace, dignity and compassion.
Hailed as the pride of Nova Scotia, Anna continues to be acclaimed as a woman who, despite her unusual and challenging physical attributes, rose above adversity to lead a life of love, happiness and adventure.
Plaque in remembrance of Anna Swan Bates near Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia. Photo courtesy of the Creamery Square Heritage Centre.
Creamery Square Heritage Centre. Photo courtesy of the Creamery Square Heritage Centre.
Timeline:
August 6, 1846 Anna Swan is born in Millbrook, Nova Scotia.
March 1851 Anna’s first tour of Nova Scotia as the “Infant Giantess.”
September 1861 Anna attends Normal School in Truro.
&nb
sp; August 1862 Anna joins Barnum’s American Museum.
July 13, 1865 American Museum is destroyed by fire.
March 3, 1868 American Museum is again destroyed by fire.
November 1870 Anna meets Martin Van Buren in New Jersey.
April 1871 Anna and Martin sail to Europe with H. P. Ingalls’s troupe.
June 17, 1871 Anna Swan and Martin Van Buren Bates are married in London, England.
May 19, 1872 Anna and Martin’s daughter is born in London.
July 2, 1874 Anna and Martin leave Europe and return to the United States.
January 19, 1879 Anna and Martin’s son is born.
August 5, 1888 Anna Swan Bates dies in Seville, Ohio.
October 23, 1889 Martin marries Lavonne Weatherby.
January 7, 1919 Martin Van Buren Bates dies in Ohio.
Lexicon
chamber pot: A round container used in a bedroom as a toilet.
chaperone: An older or married woman who supervises or accompanies a young unmarried woman, especially at social events.
chemise: A woman’s loose, shirt-like undergarment or nightdress.
contortionist: A performer who twists and bends his body into strange and unusual positions for the entertainment of others.
daftie: An Old English word that means someone who is a slow learner or mentally challenged.
derrick: Equipment for hoisting and swinging great weights.
goitre: A swelling at the front of the neck that is due to an enlarged thyroid gland. The thyroid gland stores hormones that help regulate many things in our body, including our growth.
levee: A formal reception of visitors or guests.
lofty: To extend high in the air, or be of an imposing height.
Normal School: A Normal School was a school that trained people to become teachers, generally for the primary grades. Today these schools are called teachers’ colleges.
parlour: A small sitting room where visitors were entertained.
plantation: A large farm or estate, on which food crops are grown, such as cotton, tobacco, sugar cane and coffee.
Quaker: Quakerism is a Christian movement that was founded in England in the mid-17th century. Its followers call themselves “Friends.” Their formal title is “The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).” Quakers believe that each individual is directly responsible to God, so they have no priests or pastors and no religious ceremonies. Quakers tend to live simply and practise non-violence and forgiveness. Most Quakers refuse to fight in wars.
tableaux: A living picture or “photograph,” where people are perfectly still and posed in a way to convey a moment, or scene.
tutor: A private teacher who gives individual instruction to another person on one or more subjects.
Bibliography
Books
Bates, Martin Van Buren. A Historical Sketch of the Tallest Man and Wife that Has Ever Existed, Captain Martin Van Buren Bates and Mrs. Bates, Formerly Anna Swan: Together with a Short Description of Mythological, Ancient, Medevial [sic] and Modern Giants. New York: New York Popular Publishing Company, 1880.
Blakeley, Phyllis R. Nova Scotia’s Two Remarkable Giants. Hantsport, NS: Lancelot Press, 1970.
Cavin, Lee. There were Giants on the Earth! Seville, OH: Seville Chronicle Press, 1959.
Fitzsimons, Raymond. Barnum in London. London: Geoffrey Bles Ltd., 1969.
Giles Millard, Ellen. Big Annie: The Nova Scotian Giantess. The Colchester Printing Company, 2008.
Holt Gramly, Allene. The World’s Tallest Couple: Biographical Novel. Mansfield, OH: Appleseed Press, 1983.
Langille, Jacqueline. Giants Angus McAskill and Anna Swan. Tantallon, NS: Four East Publications Ltd., 1990.
Lee, Polly Jae. Giant: The Pictorial History of the Human Colosssus. New York: A.S. Barnes and Company, 1970.
Vacon, Shirley Irene. Giants of Nova Scotia: The Lives of Anna Swan and Angus McAskill. East Lawrencetown, NS: Pottersfield Press, 2008.
Magazine Articles
Burrows, Mary. “Anna Swan: Nova Scotia’s Famed Giantess.” Chatelaine Magazine, December 1966.
Kindig, Eileen Silva. “Giants of Seville.” Western Reserve Magazine, September/October 1977.
Mann, Charlotte. “The Seville Giants: They Had A Big Thing Going.” Western Reserve Magazine, July/August 1982.
Burden, George. “The giantess of Nova Scotia.” The Medical Post, March 3, 1998.
Newspapers
The Nova Scotian, July 14, 1851.
The New York Times, January 26, 1864.
The New York Times, July 14, 1865.
The Daily Index (Petersburg, Virginia), July 17, 1865.
Harper’s Weekly, July 29, 1865.
Adams Sentinel (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania), August 18, 1865.
Waukeska Plaindealer (Waukeska, Wisconsin), March 17, 1868.
The New York Times, February 2, 1869.
Edinburgh Evening Courant, February 24, 1869.
Illustrated Times, March 20, 1869.
The Non-Conformist (Middlesex, London), June 21, 1871.
Illustrated London News, June 24, 1871.
Week’s News (London, Middlesex) June 24, 1871.
The Greenville Advance Argus (Greenville, Pennsylvania), August 15, 1878.
Petersburg Index-Appeal (Petersburg, Virginia), September 14, 1878.
Weekly Graphic (Kirksville, Adair Co., Missouri), March 17, 1882.
Daily Globe (St. Paul Minnesota), July 22, 1883.
The Seville Times, August 5, 1888.
Richmond Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia), December 2, 1894.
The New York Times, March 11, 1896.
Interviews
Dale Swan, great grand-nephew of Anna Swan.
Rhonda Cookenour Turner, 3rd great grand-niece of Martin Van Buren Bates.
About the Author
Anne Renaud is a life-long Quebecker. She received her Bachelor of Translation from Concordia University in Montreal.
Anne is the author of several picture books, as well as historical non-fiction books for children, including, A Bloom of Friendship: The Story of the Canadian Tulip Festival, Island of Hope and Sorrow: The Story of Grosse Île, Into the Mist: The Story of the Empress of Ireland and Pier 21: Stories from Near and Far (to be re-released by CBU Press in 2014). Her work has been nominated for several awards, including the Silver Birch Award, the Hackmatack Children’s Choice Award, the Red Cedar Book Award, the Red Maple Award and the Quebec Writers’ Federation Prize for Children’s & Young Adult Literature. She was selected as a touring author for TD Canadian Children’s Book Week (2013).
Anne is also a regular contributor to children’s magazines, such as Highlights, Pockets, Cricket, Odyssey, Faces, Clubhouse and Shine.
Anne’s readers often ask her why she writes books. She tells them it is because she likes to do creative things and she finds writing to be a very creative exercise. It’s also because she can’t dance well and she can’t sing well, so she tries her best at writing well. She hopes her books educate, entertain and inspire children.