Nellie Keeler (April 6, 1875 – 1903) was an American child circus performer known as Little Queen Mab.

Life

Nellie Keeler was born with dwarfism on April 6, 1875, in

Kokomo, Indiana Kokomo ( ) is a city in Indiana and the county seat of Howard County, Indiana, United States. It is the principal city of the Kokomo, Indiana Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Howard County, the Kokomo-Peru CSA, which includ ...

.''Kokomo Tribune'', Oct 26, 1975 She was the youngest of three daughters and a son raised by Ezra and Maria Keeler. Her father was a farmer and a Civil War veteran, having served with the 4th Indiana Cavalry. Ezra Keeler died in 1917 while in his seventies at a home for disabled war veterans in Marion, Indiana. Maria Keeler lived to be in her late eighties, and died in 1937 in Kokomo. By the age of three Nellie Keeler came to the attention of

P. T. Barnum Phineas Taylor Barnum (; July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman, businessman, and politician, remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and founding the Barnum & Bailey Circus (1871–2017) with James Anthony Bailey. He was ...

through local press articles about her diminutive stature. Nellie weighed only eleven pounds and stood just a few inches over two feet. After a successful four-week tryout in 1878 she began touring with Barnum’s circus, along with the company of her father,1880 US Census Records as the "sweet girl with radiant golden hair". Barnum placed her on a stage a few feet above the floor in a fashionable blue cashmere costume and short skirt. Next to her sat

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, a man Barnum claimed stood nearly eight foot tall and weighed over six hundred pounds. Nellie’s contract with Barnum stipulated bad childhood behavior could void her contract and deprive her family of a potential income of a hundred dollars a month. Nellie’s employment with Barnum came to an end when by the age of twelve she was no longer a tiny little girl. Over her short six-year career Nellie was billed as "a microscopic bud of humanity", "a little elf", "a fairy beauty", a "pocket volume of humanity" and "the Indiana Midget".''New York Times'', June 18, 1903 Nellie's circus income enabled her father to become an independent farmer, free of mortgage. Her obituary, which appeared in the June 18, 1903, issue of the''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', stated she died at age twenty-eight from tuberculosis at her residence near

Versailles, Indiana Versailles is a town in Johnson Township, Ripley County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 2,113 at the 2010 census. The town is the county seat of Ripley County. History It was decided in 1818 a county seat should be located at ...

, and that she had been in declining health since her teens.

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keeler, Nellie 1875 births 1903 deaths 19th-century American people 19th-century American women American circus performers 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Entertainers with dwarfism Sideshow performers 19th-century circus performers Tuberculosis deaths in Indiana