USA > Indiana > Grant County > Centennial history of Grant County, Indiana, 1812 to 1912 : compiled from records of the Grant county historical society, archives of the county, data of personal interviews, and other authentic sources of local information > Part 60
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95
Primarily speaking, the musical development of Grant county has not been different from that of all other localities having like condi- tions. It is simply a part of the great forward movement of the world. We can easily imagine the small boy or girl on the Sahara desert blow- ing upon a blade of grass (if they could find one) or perhaps whittling ont an older whistle. The farmer of long ago who was so hungry for minsie that, to surprise and delight his children, stretched strands of horse hair across the window in a way to make sounds when the wind blew through them, loved music in its erudest form. Or, as another old man told me, "We used to arrange bottles of different sizes. so the wind played a tune as it blew into them." Children knew that a paper stretched over a comb was a formidable musical instrument, one which in these days would shock our ideas of sanitation. Mnsie must have its pioneer days in all localities, but, while the musical life of Grant county is typical of many other places, I hope to show that favorable circum- stances have conspired to give this county distinction. If this is not true, why the proud boast that if a student will, he may get a musical
416
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
education here scarcely second to that offered at Oberhn. A good musi- vian told me this, and something has contributed to the statement, if it is true. Even in an early day Marion had a musical reputation. As a proof of this, a lady told me that Judge Horace P. Biddle, himself a splendid musician, living, I think, in Logansport, always tried to drop inte Mation for over Sunday so as to be with our musical folks. Ilis travels to different courts with the poor facilities For getting about in those days often kept him from home. In an early day there were an unusual number of musical families who drifted into the new county seat, many of whom come into this story Jater.
The good old Quakers of years ago loved music, I am sure, but accord- ing to their accepted idea of religion they forbade it because of its influ- ence and power to give pleasure, for to them any pleasure not abso- Intely necessary was a sin. And yet, when the Song Sparrow Orchestra started up with Mr. Cardinal as chief soloist, and Mr. Bob White as con- ductor, I am sure the hoe moved more merrily down the long row of corn, the earth seemed fair and good and these stern old pioneers did not stop their cars. Their descendants today, who enjoy and accept all forms of good music, are no doubt glad that these carly Folks did not succeed in banishing it from the world.
It has always been that one could appreciate musical sounds, imitat- ing the song of birds. the rush of waters, the patter of rain, all notes, in fact, that suggest sounds with which we are familiar. But the call of patriotic or martial music is perhaps the best carly example represent- ing the influence of music on the emotions. I mean by this, instrumental pieces that have not words to help convey the idea. We say, some pieces make us sad, some make us glad. Old masters felt this in their composi- tions, but often an audience would judge a piece by the standard of the sound alone, as to whether it was pleasing or umpleasing. As musical appreciation progresses we deteet in the notes the likeness to soft moon- light or summer skies. Who can not see in fancy an Indian lodge when hearing MeDowell's beautiful composition : " An Indian Lodge." In "To a Wild Rose, " by the same composer, the name suggests, the music fullills; you can almost smell the rose. Musie produces many other effects purely imaginative and emotional, but true to an inner mood. Indeed, it is the most sincere compliment to a composer, and the supreme test of a performer's ability, to move the emotions. Put your soul into it ; therein lies the magie, whether the player or singer be white, black or yellow,-the magic that reaches the heart, whether the performer be a finished musician or "Just picking it out by car." The singing of Jaron Swazee must have been of that magical kind. So many differ- ent people have referred to it since I have been inquiring into the old umsie of Marion. One lady said, " His voice was so powerful and musical that, with its peculiar carrying qualities, it could be beard alnost a mile." Another said that, " He lived his religion as well as sung it." And still another, "I never will forget one day at the funeral of a young girl. when he stepped into the middle of the room, unasked, and sang : 'Scatter Seeds of Kindness,' with tears running down his face and answering tears in the eyes of his listeners." I felt that I was getting pretty close to the heart of things when more than one person said 10 me: "Oh, if I could only hear again Dave and John Shideler sing, 'Down by the Waters of Babylon.'" I am greatly indebted to Miss Harriet Buchanan for carly recollections. She speaks of a Miss Quay who came from Richmond to Marion to teach music, and stayed at the home of Mr. and Mrs. George Webster, Sr., having the privilege of using their piano for her pupils. Her terms were ten dollars for a term of twenty-four lessons, an hour each in length, with the use of the piano
1
1
117
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
for an hour's practice every other day. "Truly," says she, "it was an unselfish spirit in the good kind friend and neighbor who would endure for the cause of education the loud counting and monotonous thrumming of those days." A Miss Anna Downey also had a nuisic class in Marion subsequent to this time. Miss Buchanan tells of the coming of Judge Brownlee's piano. "Windy " Draper, who had brought it in a big farm wagon from Anderson, the nearest railway station, "hung around" after it was safely in its place to hear the "big music box, " as he called it. A Miss Gleason, the music teacher of the Brownlee girls, was present and played some selections, much to his delight. He said: "Well, I wanted to see if you could reach both ends of the keys at once, " and on leaving he showed his appreciation of Miss Gleason's music by saying: "Come out to see us, wont yon? and bring the 'musicker' along.'
Perhaps before this time Addie Turner Dodd, who was staying in the home of her brother, John Dodd, had a music class in Marion, being the first teacher of Eliza MeClure Cook and others. When Arthur W. Sanford was elected to the legislature by the Whig party, he brought his little daughter " Nan" a melodeon on his return from Indianapolis. She, as Nan Sanford, was closely connected with the musical life of Grant county, living in Jonesboro and later in Marion as a student at the academy and college and afterward as a music teacher until her parents moved to Michigan, where she became the wife of George W. Barlow. Upon request, she has sent me many valuable notes and recol- lections. Mr. Sanford was a good dute player, had some knowledge of band music and taught singing schools. He taught his little daugh -. ter to play simple tones and hymns on the new melodeon, and to accom- pany him as he played the flute. They were often asked to play at school exhibitions. "At one time," writes Mrs. Barlow, "Henry Shu- gart came with his two-horse carriage to take us to an exhibition of the school. The roads were so bad that Mr. Shugart and my father had to walk most of the way, while the melodeon and its small owner were carried in state with as much dignity as possible -- the melodeon being wedged in tightly but its player tossed up and down like a ball." Robert Wilson, who had come in an early day from Maryland to Grant county, and purchased a grant of land from the government four miles south of Jonesboro, had a melodeon with one small set of reeds, but built into a large ease, which gave it almost the dignity of a small piano. The wooden pedals were attached to the bellows by strips of saddle girth, which were awkward to use. But it did not trouble Mr. Wilson any to keep the bellows filled as he played and sang " Nelly Bly," "Nancy Till," "My Old Kentucky Home," and hymns such as "Sessions" and "Boylston." He built a tiny chapel in a field on his farm, close to the road, and organized a Sunday School, filling the place of super- intendent, teacher and chorister. As he was also possessor of a bass viol, he doubtless led the music with the aid of the bass viol, and this may have been the first instrumental music in religious service in Grant county. About this time Mr. Sanford moved to Jonesboro. as did Mr. Wilson, also, who took charge of the Spence House, that famous hostelry, the first and, at that time, only brick building in the village. "So large and fine it was," says Mrs. Barlow, "that it looked to my childish eyes like a castle on the banks of the beautiful Mississinewa river. There were no clerk's desk and register, but in Mrs. Wilson's sitting room the melodeon was installed, and here her husband entertained the travelers, and his neighbors as well, with the best ansie he could render." He was one of the pioneers of music in Grant county, giving out the best he knew as well and as often as he could. and that was saying much for that day. "My little melodeon," Vol. 1-27
418
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
says she, "did duty at the other end of that short business street con- meeting Water street with Main street and, I believe, now known as Fourth street, then as High street. It was literally the musical center of the community, for beside the two melodeons, half way in the block was Jake Bechts' harness shop which was looked after industriously during the day, but on summer evenings Mr. Bechts would play all sorts of fascinating tunes on his banjo. He was a master band at it. Once when unele Sammy Jay (father of David, Tom and Sam Jay ) called at our house, I wondered that he did not ask me to play for him, as every one did. My mother told me to sing for him, and taking into account his extreme age and religions turn, I first sang a hymn. This being passed without notice, I tried singing a silly little song of words taken From Waverly's magazine, and set to umsie in my own childish way. He talked right along as though he did not hear, and my mother said, 'Unele Sammy, don't you like music ?' He replied, 'I don't care meh about it,' in quite a eurt tone. I was both surprised and mortified.
"There must have been some one who taught the children to sing in the Marion schools at this time, " continues Mrs. Barlow, "for my cousin, who lived there, had learned at school such songs as, 'A Rosy Wreath we Twine for Thee.' The first pianos I remember playing upon were in the homes of Samuel MeClure and Oliver II. P. Cary. I seem to remember hearing a band played in Marion when I was very small, at some Masonie demonstration, probably a funeral, for the music was solenm and majestic. I can see Mr. Eltzroth, Jimmy Buchanan's grand- father, in the procession wearing a black hat with a long phime. Ile must have been a Knight Templar. I associated him and his plumned hat with the soloum music and was thrilled with the ave of it. Some years after, in '55 or '56, when my Unele Madison was buried with Masonic ceremonies in the old cemetery on White's Hill, the procession came down Adams street to the courthouse square, then went across Washington and Boots street and Boots ereck, then wound up the hill to the graveyard, led by the band playing Pleyel's Hymn. As we came back, the setting sun blazoned the windows with fire and goll, and to this day I associate windows reflecting the setting sun with that soloun hymn and with death.
"The conventions and mass meetings of the summer of 1856 were grand affairs," says Mrs. Barlow, "and Marion and Jonesboro were renters of excitement. There were long processions of people in car- riages and wagons and on horseback, and in long cars called log cabins, a kind of construction covered with red, white aud blue muslin with a canopy of green boughs. Our Jonesboro log cabin was filled with sing- ers, the 'Campaign Choir.'" Beside the driver was the melodeon and herself, its twelve year old player, ready to accompany the glee club in its rousing songs. "Our cabin jolted along, descending and ascending old Deer Creek hill at about the angle one assumes in climbing Pike's Peak by car in these days," says she. "Our destination was White's Woods, now West Marion, where the mass meeting was to be hell. There were orations, interspersed by the best selections of the Marion and Jonesboro Glee Clubs. I still recall the closing song by the Marion singers: I can remember the tune but only the closing words, Yip, fal de rol, lah Ja Jahdy.' Chele Dave Shunk (later Col. Shunk ) was a mem- ber of the choir, not because he could sing, but because he could yell 'Yip!' louder than all the rest. I remember how handsome Mollie MeClure looked and her wonderful voice -- how she seemed to animate the whole choir." Mrs. Barlow speaks in her notes of having the first. piano in Jonesboro, a Chickering. This was about 1856. In the fall of that year a Mr. and Mrs. Hayford gave a concert in Jonesboro. They
419
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
had recently settled in Marion to teach music in the academy. Their work must have been of importance in that carly day, and the little Nan Sanford became their pupil, so I will let her tell the story. "My own ambition," says she, "was to acquire the wisdom of books and play as well as Mrs. Hayford did. Mr. Hayford could read notes and play hymns and easy pieces on the piano. He played the bass viol rather well, and the guitar a little. He taught the academy students singing, such songs as ' Lightly Row' and the Young Rider.' Later we were advanced to the Young Folks' Glee Book, with such selections as, "Johnny Sands,' and ' Roll on Silver Moon.' Mrs. Hayford's piano pupils learned to count aloud, to keep good time and to keep their bands on the keys. to learn the letters on, under and above the staff thoroughly. They gave us very little finger gymnastie or seales. We learned to play such as marches, polkas, and waltzes; later we were advanced to vari- ations of the Charles Grobe type on familiar aits, as ' Home Sweet Home' and the ' Last Rose of Summer.' I had some pieces out of the ordinary that my father had selected for me, 'Monastery Bells' and Gottschalk's " Cradle Song.' Whether we had voices or not. We were taught the current popular songs. These were, "Lulu is our Darling Pride,' ' Kitty Clyde,' 'Darling Nellie Gray,' and 'Life is but a Strife. This last song all the pupils learned and played till George Steele had it learned by force of repetition, and insisted on singing it in season and out of season. Maggie Brownlee, now Mrs. Gilbert Wilson, would have been voted our sweetest singer, she so charmed us with her sing ing of 'The Lone Rock By the Sea,' and 'Bingen on the Rhine.' It seems that some little trouble arose at the academy and Mr. and Mrs. Hayford transferred their services to the Indiana College then opened by Rev. Samuel Sawyer, and Miss Emily Ward, afterward the wife of R. T. St. John, became the teacher of music at the academy. Miss Ward came from Michigan City and was a beautiful and cultured young lady, a trained musician and a sweet singer. She was an acquisition to the community, and spent the rest of her life here.
"Finally the Hayford family left the college and a new teacher, a Miss Fanny Hulburd, was secured. She was a graduate of a music school in Connectient. She was a fine pianist, played the harp and guitar, and was also the first teacher of voice in Marion so far as I can ascertain. With the pupils of the college, she gave the ' Flower Queen,' a cantata just then composed and published by George F. Root. This was a new thing in Marion. Each teacher introduced some new feature, and left the tide of music higher. The next teacher at the college was a Mr. Kelsey From the Oberlin Conservatory. He was, perhaps, the first teacher of harmony and thorough bass, was a fine pianist and taught also voice and guitar. The young ladies who were sent away to school, Glendale, College Hill and Vellow Springs, had the opportunity for good musical training. Among them I can remember Samuel MeClure's four daughters, Eliza, Mollie, Rosetta and Louisa, Addie Vermilyea, Delight Sweetser, Euretta Webster, Marie Ayers, Terrie Shively, Louise Swayzee, Lucy Cary, C'allie Hall and Jessie Vermilyca. Callie Hall (now Mrs. Will Webster) excelled in guitar playing, and Evaline Pierce made great advancement on the piano. Jessie Vermityea, under the further training of Madame Rive, became a singer of great prom- ise. Marion was not without other musicians, self-taught among whom was Judge A. M. Wallace, that man of tine feeling who could not abide a harsh tone. He drew a smooth bow and everyone loved to hear him play his violin. Dave Cook was another good violinist, then there was Judge St. John (Tom, we called him, then), who delighted all who heard his flute-playing. He could draw from a flute the sweetest tones,
420
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
and, best of all. he was perennial, playing for two or three generations." Mr. St. John himself has told me that he and Joseph B. Horton played their Hutes together at all sorts of gatherings and exhibitions, and that Judge Wallace played with him often on the viohm. .. Yes," said he, " in those days we could serenade all the girls in town in one night. They used to lay apples on the window sills for us." He speaks of Captain John Ruess playing the guitar, Oliver II. P. Cary, the piccolo, and Alex- ander Buchanan, the drum. Mrs. Terrie Johnson, who was Terrie Shively, has told me that Tom St. John brought his flute along when he came to her wedding (in his pocket, I suppose), and being asked to play, requested her to accompany him. Her friends then begged her to sing, which she did. This, indeed, took courage of a bride of so short a time, and to me it displayed a charming simplicity which we lack in these days.
Knowing that the arrival of the first piano in Marion was a musical event, I asked several people about it. They all disagreed. I asked Judge St. John, and he said, "I positively know it was Samuel MetInre's, but don't take my word for it." I then called up Mr. "Jake' Jours, grandson of Samuel MeClure, and found that in a room at his home the piano now stands, a cherished keepsake. The only name engraved upon it is " Adam Stoddart, New York." "Now, " I said, "it will be easy to find out all I want to know." Not so; Mr. Jones kindly tried to help me and found by correspondence with his aunt, Eliza MeChre Cook. that it was bought in 1813 in Cincinnati. It fortunately found a home in a conspicuous place on the southeast corner of the public square, where the old MeChuire house still stands. Mr. St. John says, "t well remem- ber the people standing on the sidewalk to hear it played." There is a story handed down of its coming to Wabash from Cincinnati by the canal, but Mr. E. P. MeClure thinks it a mistake, and that it was shipped to Anderson, whence it was brought here by wagon.
The history of the musical life of Grant county is not to be written in a day. To write a short chapter of so important a factor of our county's growth as its music is an impossibility, covering as it does the period of time since the organization of the county. There were no records to go to. It must be a work of memory, or be gleaned from scrap books and old programs yellowed with time, souvenirs of other days. These I have put together with puzzled brow and many head- shakings, with a laugh here, a tear there-things told to me which seemed to the people relating them of such interest that as I watched their faces light up with memories tucked away for safe keeping and labeled "by gone times, " I Felt that these were the things to be recorded.
"Thinkin' back's a thing 'at grows On a feller, I suppose : Older 'at he gets, 1 jack, More he keeps a' thinkin' back."
This little verse of Riley's was sent me by some one I had asked to "think back."
Something has said to to me, "Gather up the old time events while you may, for they are fast going beyond our reach. " Whoever heard of a history without dates. It seems to me my old school histories were all dates. The few that I have collected for this chapter are my chief treasures. I have had much trouble in arranging in their respective places incidents and events that have been related to me like this: "Let me see, that was before I was married," or. "That was before the barn burned, " or "before I went West." Perhaps it is because I did not begin with "once upon a time." However. I have been careful
121
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
that this chapter should not be a conglomeration of vague statements and unproven facts.
From several reliable sources I have gathered facts concerning the life of Ernst Guenin, who came to Marion some time near 1850. He was a fine musician and could play all sorts of orchestral instruments. Ile had been a member of the royal band of Prussia. He canwe first to Cincinnati, and a friend who was a member of an orchestra took him to a rehearsal. The first violin player being absent or tardy, the leader called for some one to take his place. Gnenin's friend suggested that his visitor could take the place. He was invited to do so, and was handed an instrument and the score which he placed on the music rack up-side-down. He played the part correctly and with such expression that the leader was amazed and delighted. but soon understood it all when he learned that the stranger had been a member of the royal band. To the children of Marion he seemed a man of mystery, with his broken German speech, his shy ways, his odd clothes and his loved fiddle. I have talked to one who, when a little girl, was a neighbor and a friend of his daughter, Dora. She says that his own room in the low brick house at the corner of Eighth and Branson streets (long since torn down) was a curiosity -- the walls being hnung with fishing tackle and guns-and his bed a source of wonder to the children of the neighbor- hood, so slanting it was from head to foot that it looked like an old- fashioned cellar door. He taught insie, almost all stringed instruments, and the Hute, but the fiddle he loved best, and would play far into the night. He was a great hunter and fisher, and furnished their table with wild meat, this being about the only kind they ate. He kept his daughter Dora practicing on the little old piano, or accompanying him as he played his fiddle or flute while the other children raced barefoot up and down the street, calling for her to come out and play as she sat. a captive, with tears running down her cheeks. I have talked to some of the old pupils of Ernst Gnenin and am led to believe that enriosity as to the contents of his mysterious room may have had something to do with their musical zeal. Ile repaired guns and clocks in a little shop on the rear of his lot. Of his teaching in the academy I speak later. Henry Zellar lived about two and a half miles from Marion, on the Monroe pike. He was a German and owned a carding mill. He bought a piano at Dayton in about 1550, had it shipped to Anderson, bringing it from there over corduroy roads. His house was a meeting place for musicians. Ernst Guenin came there often to play his violin while Mr. Zellar accompanied him on the piano. They would play almost all night. Mr. Guenin at one time became so inspired that he improvised a beautiful piece and wrote it out at oneg. Morgan Zellar, a son of Henry allar, could play on several instruments, the fiddle, trombone, and guitar. Emma Zellar, a daughter, became a good piano player. Mrs. Lucinda Culbertson. of our city, is also a daughter of Henry Zellar and remembers when a little girl the young people of Marion coming out to her father's to be with her brother and sisters and enjoy the music. She held Mr. Guenin in childish awe on account of his wonderful play- ing. Both he and her father being German made a bond between them beside their love of music. She recalls one time her father going to town on an errand, wearing his old miller's clothes and Mr. Guenin pre- vailing upon him against his own better judgment, to stay and help out in the music of an entertainment to be given at the academy. Thus he mounted the platform in his working clothes and took part in the orchestra. Sam Bayless, Byron Harlan and George Sweetser played the violin for the entertainment of their friends, and Byron Jones had a gift for guitar-playing and sang with a sweet tenor voice such songs
422
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
as: " I've Something Sweet to tell you, the Story you must Keep, " and "I'd offer you this Hand of Mine." He was well-nigh irresistible- at least Rosetta MeClure found him so.
The old-fashioned singing school greatly advanced congregational singing of hymns. Dignified verse set to stately tunes taught entire communities saving and living grace. "At a singing school in Jones- boro first taught by my father," says Mrs. Barlow, "in the four part singing of those glorious hymns, I first realized what true harmony meant. In this school, the voices of John and Dave Shideler stand out above all others. The Methodist church in which they sang had no need of an organ or other instrument while their rich, sweet tones fur- nished the diapason and bourdon pipe tones. I have often imagined what their singing might have been with the opportunities for training that Campanini or the De Res/kes had." The old time singing school was a factor in developing and aiding some other things beside the con- gregational singing of hymms. In those days of bad roads and few entertainments, the young people were eager for any excuse that would bring them together socially in a way that father and mother would sanction, hence the popularity of the singing school. Here is a descrip tion given by a friend of mine: "Yes, we went miles to reach the appointed place, -in some schoolhouse, probably, and learned the buck wheat notes. We sang with all our strength and voice until we were fired and often overheated, then we had a revess, plunging ont into the keen wintry air, some of us bareheaded, to play ' hindmost three. '" "Truly," said he, "the weather nor any foolish exposure had any effect upon the voral chords in those days. For a long time, even after musje bad made much progress, taking vocal lessons meant only the learning of tunes, with perhaps the reading of notes and a peep into the rudiments of music, never the placing of the voice, that the Lord gave to you and there it was. He placed it for yon, and upper and lower register both- ered you not." For a vocal lesson in those days ( price fifty cents ! you sang until you were tired, and most of the the the teacher sang with Von.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.