STRATTON, Charles Sherwood, dwarf, born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, 4 January, 1888; died in Middleborough, Massachusetts, 15 July, 1888. He was first exhibited as a dwarf by Phineas T. Barnum at his American museum in New York city on 8 December, 1842, who gave him the title and name of General Tom Thumb. At that time he was not more than two feet high, and weighed less than sixteen pounds. He was engaged at a salary of three dollars a week and travelling expenses; but, as he proved a great success, his salary was soon increased to twenty-five dollars a week, and at the end of his second year he received fifty dollars a week. In 1844 he visited Europe under the management of Mr. Barnum, and appeared at the courts of England, France, and Belgium. In 1857 he again visited Europe, and on later occasions he travelled extensively on the continent. He accumulated a large fortune, and settled in Bridgeport. In 1862 he met Lavinia Warren, also a dwarf, who was exhibited by Mr. Barnum, and married her on 10 February, 1863. The wedding ceremony was performed at Grace church, in New York city, with "Commodore" Nutt as groomsman and Minnie Warren as bridesmaid. Subsequently Mr. and Mrs. Stratton travelled over the world and gave exhibitions wherever they went. As he grew older he became stout and weighed seventy pounds, and his height increased to forty inches. The dwarf's death was the result of a stroke of apoplexy. He was buried in Mountain Grove cemetery, Bridgeport, where a marble shaft forty feet in height was raised to his memory, on the top of which is a full-length statue of the little general.--His wife, Mercy Lavinia Bump, born in Middleborough, Massachusetts, 31 October, 1841, was first engaged by Mr. Barnum in 1862, under whose management she assumed the name of Warren. When exhibited with General Tom Thumb she was both shorter and lighter than her husband, but her height increased to forty inches and her weight to fifty pounds. After the death of Mr. Stratton she lived in retirement until her marriage on 6 April, 1885, to Count Primo Magri, an Italian dwarf, with whom she has since given exhibitions in the United States and Europe.