March 6th, 2016

Heir Schmitt joined us for dinner this past Wednesday night. He is the owner/landlord of the house we were originally going to move into before we found our present home. We are grateful for the opportunity to still develop a friendship with this kind man, though we are not his tenants. Perhaps that’s even better.

As we chatted over dinner the other night, he began to share some of his family stories. He captivated us with the details of his father surviving WWII, how his family renovated and rented out the upstairs of their home to an American family back in the 1950’s and the strength of his mother as she solely provided for her injured husband, parents and children.

He also told us a very entertaining story about this local monument of a man plowing behind an elephant. The man is actually Heir Schmitt’s grandfather. I may get some of the details mixed up but here’s what I remember…

Heir Schmitt’s grandfather was a carpenter. He was hired by a wealthy circus family to build wooden horses for the carousel alongside other projects. The family paid Grandfather Schmitt on the front end for these jobs, which was a big deal and not very typical. Over time, a friendship developed.

The circus family lived in a beautiful villa with a large garden. At the start of WWI, the men of the family and most of the horses left the village to fight. This made it difficult to maintain the large garden. One day, Grandfather Schmitt was having tea with the daughter of the family. As she shared about the challenges of keeping up with the garden, Grandfather Schmitt remembered how elephants were used for manual labor in India. He suggested using one of the circus elephants to pull the plow to break up the ground in the garden. The daughter liked the idea so Grandfather Schmitt designed a harness using large, leather belts. He outfitted one of the elephants and successfully plowed the field. 

Somewhere along the way, the success of using the elephant to plow a field was shared amongst the villagers. People did not believe this was possible and a bet was made. A crowd of folks came to a field to watch the elephant at work. Harnessed to the plow, the elephant pulled it down to the end of the field where he then rewarded himself by grazing ears of corn from a neighboring field. The elephant would then walk back down the field, turn around and repeat. When he reached the end of the field again, he rewarded himself with a second mouthful of corn. The owner of the corn field became enraged at the lost of his corn and began to yell at the elephant. Grandfather Schmitt offered to pay for the corn but the farmer would not have it. Meanwhile, the elephant started becoming agitated. The crowd of villagers added to the commotion, agitating the elephant even further. Grandfather Schmitt implored everyone to calm down but they would not listen.

In the midst of the commotion, Grandfather Schmitt watched the elephant suck up several rocks from the field into his trunk and then point his trunk at the crowds. He yelled at the villagers to hit the ground as the beast began to fire a round of stones out of its trunk. The rocks flew over the heads of the people, hitting the surrounding trees with great force. The elephant then trumpeted loudly and loaded it’s trunk for a second round. Chaos erupted! The elephant bolted, pulling a flying plow behind it. The plow swung wildly from side-to-side as the beast ran through the streets, leaving a trail of damaged doors, fences, gates and road. The elephant ran back to the security of it’s circus tent. Upon seeing the damage, Grandfather Schmitt refused to pay because the villagers did not heed his warning. This story became famous and a monument was built in remembrance. 

As Heir Schmitt shared about his famous Grandfather, his face lit up. The boys were enthralled as they listened. They especially liked the part where the elephant shot the rocks out of his trunk! E asked if this was a true story and Heir Schmitt said, “Yes!”

The next day, lil S and I drove over to see the monument again. I was completely surprised to find a sign nearby with a summary of Heir Schmitt’s story! Though it was a shorter version and retold a bit differently, several of the details were similar. The sign had it printed in German, English and a third language (I’m guessing French). Reading through it, I learned that the elephant’s name was Sam.

Gotta love family stories that become a part of local history!