81-year-old Sonja Barta is a former fourth-generation circus performer. She’s lived in Sheboygan all her life.
“My dad started me at age four. We had mats in the basement, and he taught me how to tumble.”
Her great-grandfather, a street performer and musician from Germany, brought his skills to Wisconsin. His sons caught the circus bug early on.
“They learned to walk the wire, they did Roman rings, they tumbled, they juggled. They learned to do everything by themselves,” Barta said. “But they decided they wanted their own show.”
So, the Seils-Sterling Circus was born in 1920.
Most circuses relied on the railroad to reach big cities, but the family thought small towns also deserved a show, so they used cars instead…