The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26
FAMOUS CIRCUS
 RIDER IS DEAD Mrs, Mary HiIIman Dies At Age
 of Ninety-tws LAST YEARS IN P00RH0USE As a Young Girl Mary HilIman Was Daring Rider and Soon Became One of the Most Famous
 In the World.
LAST YEARS IN P0ORHOUSE

Scranton, Pa, December 25.-Once the most famous and most daring bareback rider in the country Mrs Mary Hlll- man. aged 92 years, died yesterday morn ing at the Carbondale district almshouse in Greenfield township There came back into her mind just before she died mem ories of the days of long ago when she appeared before the multitude in span gles and performed feats of daring which crowned her queen among women riders and with her last breath she gasped out something about her once favorite horse and of her being ready to make her sen sational entry into the sawdust ring.
 Her four husbands and her youngest daughter had met violent deaths and there was always the fear in her mind that her death would be like theirs. Instead IL was most peaceful. The woman's first husband was shot to death in poker game in the west; her second fell from a horse in the circus ring and was killed while she looked On; her third fell from A ship while crossing the ocean and was drowned and her last was killed in railroad wreck his head being severed.
 Her youngest child was killed in the circus ring as the father had been, be- ing trampled to death by a horse which she had been thrown from.
 Her love for horses was the one great passion of her life She never forgot that love for them which was bred in her when she was child.
 One of her greatest pleasures in her declining days was viewing circus post CTS. She would follow the billboard men of the circus from board to board in the country when a circus was due in Car bondale and the whole country in that Vi- cinity was being colored with the flaming posters.
 Several years ago, just a few days be- fore the Forepaugh circus was scheduled to appear in Carbondale, MT. and Mrs. Jeremiah Clune, who were then in charge of the almshouse missed Mrs. Hillman. A general search was started. Late that night the aged woman was driven up to the doors of the almshouse by a farmer who lived nearby.
 Molly was walking home from Car bondale and I gave her lift, he said.
 "I was at the circus, it was grand" said the aged woman, and the fires of youth shone in her eyes.
 She had walked to Carbondale and then to the circus grounds. There Chief Of Police James McAndrew had seen the pathetic figure lettering in front of the flaming pictures on the canvass. He ac- costed her. She told him her story. He had her passed into the big tent and to the reserved seat section. There wasn't a happier woman in the world than she during the exhibition.
 Born near Newark, N J., in 1916. her mother being a granddaughter of the chief of the Oneida Indians and her father, William Cook, the village black smith, she spent her babyhood with horses instead of with dolls, the usual playthings of girls of her age. At 10 she could ride any horse in the vicinity.
 Ut was born in her." said the neigh bors and a circus man who witnessed her feats of horsemanship three years later said the same thing. He enticed her into joining the circus troupe with which he was travelling Several months later she became the wife of Bernard Bertram, the ringmaster. Several months later her husband was shot during a dispute over cards in a western town. Then came her other three marriages and the violent deaths of her youngest child and the hus- bands.
 She was with Dan Rice for years and appeared before the crowned heads of Europe. Later she became a rider in the Forepaugh circus and later she joined P. T. Barnum. For years she was the undisputed queen of bareback riders.
 For 30 years she appeared as a pro- fessional performer Then she retired and came to this city to live with her sister. The latter died three years later and soon after that the former circus queen became charge on the poor board. One sister, Mrs. Nelson Dunlap of Port Jervis, survives her.
 The funeral will take place tomorrow afternoon from the undertaking establish ment of E. J. Burns on Dundaff street.
 There will be services in St. Rose church and burial will be made in St. Rose cen- etery.