Circus History:
Frank Skerbeck, Sr. (1847-1921)’s father traded a linen factory for a small circus about 1857 in what is now Czechoslovakia. The Skerbeck Circus toured Europe 1871-1876. Eventually the circus went broke.
Frank’s son, Frank, Jr., learned trapeze skills and how to swallow a sword. In 1880 Frank, Jr. sailed to America and bought a “grape farm” [...]