Location: Glenwood Cemetery (Plot Sec. 11S, Lot 42) at 51 S West, Homer, NY
(42.632730, -76.191493)
On February 2, 1870, both giants were revealed as fakes in court. The judge ruled that Barnum could not be sued for terming Hannum’s fake giant a fake. Hannum, who had once told the Cortland Standard that “I am the father of the Cardiff Giant,” was now publicly seen as a fraud. Humiliated, he brought his giant home.
The novelty of the giant had by this time worn off so that the stone image ceased to be a real attraction even in the days when a two-headed calf was called entertainment. (New York Sunday Telegraph)
David Hannum died a shunned pauper in 1892. He was buried between his parents in an unmarked grave in Homer’s Glenwood Cemetery. There he lay, destined to be forgotten, until Mayor John Briggs of Homer, on April 24, 1941, in giving him a maker, declared it “David Harum Day.”
Wait, David, who? Harum? That, my friends, is a story for another day.
Sources:
1. White, Andrew. The Cardiff Giant. web.archive.org/web/20050212173955/http:/www.lhup.edu/%7Edsimanek/cardiff.htm. Accessed 13 Sept. 2022.