John H. Brice, circus detective, not only recalls John Campbell but was among the boys who pestered him on Halloween night, throwing “whiskers” from the nail mill at the windows of his home on Fifth and Lawrence.
Mr. Brice thinks he was a water boy at the mill then. He joined the police force in 1899 and chased boys for doing the same thing on Hallowe’en nights that he did at the Campbell home when he was younger.
Mr. Brice became chief of police of Ironton early during the twentieth century and then joined the circus. Last year he served his 43rd year as a circus detective, most of the years with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey – the greatest show on earth.
Portsmouth Daily Times
29 Jul 1910, Fri · Page 7
Brice Joins Big Show
John H. Brice, former chief of the police of Ironton, Ohio, and well-known here, will leave Saturday for New York, where he will join the Forepaugh-Sells circus as chief of the claim department.
He will travel with the circus and adjust all claims for damages made against the company.
Portsmouth Daily Times
23 Jul 1915, Fri · Page 16
Brice Made Manager
John Brice, a well-known former citizen of Ironton, Ohio, and who has many friends in Portsmouth, Ohio, according to word that reached Ironton Thursday, has been made manager of Ringling Bros. big circus. He had been at the head of the detective force of this show for several years.
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