USA > Ohio > Allen County > A standard history of Allen county, Ohio : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development > Part 53
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A symphony within themselves-the words describing Music. In each life there is some response to it. Primarily speaking, the musical life of Allen County is not different from that of other localities having similar opportunities and conditions; it is simply a part of the great forward movement of the world; it is an easy thing to imagine the boy or girl on the Sahara desert blowing upon a blade of grass-if he can locate the grass, and where is the boy who never whittled out an elder and made a whistle of it? The Allen County settler had such a desire for music that he improvised many crude ways of producing it; the Aeolian harp made from horse hairs or silk thread if they had it, was a soul delight when they stretched it in the window and caught the air vibrations. The Shawnees who inhabited Allen County in advance of the white man, made their own music and danced around the camp- fires to the weird strains, and there has been some effort to revive an interest in music of the American Indian.
The Swedish Nightingale, Jenny Lind, whose centenary was observed throughout the musical world in 1920, her birth having occurred October 10 one hundred years earlier, had a voice so sweet that the wild birds took up her notes as she traveled by stage while filling concert engage- ments in America in 1845, and that is said to be an accomplishment- the birds taking the tones of the human voice. There was always music over the hills and the dales-the first stillness of the morning air, the blending of nature's sounds is music with a mesmerism all its own-the song of the meadow lark or the note of the first robin. To keep forever in the heart the thrill awakened by the woodland sounds is to remain forever young, and it serves to lighten the hardest task in the world. The call of the jaybird is suggestive of the out-of-doors; he is a rest- less creature, and it is natural for him to be on the wing, calling: "Jay, jay, jay," whether or not it is music; the frog, the locust, the katydid and cricket-each has its peculiar musical note, and begs pardon of
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all the others ; think of the grand chorus on the morning air-the leading musicians all in nature's orchestra.
Aye, "Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast," and some highly civilized people are delighted with it. "Any time is song time if the soul be in the song," although in an early day the music of Allen County was of a different character; while some still enjoy the old- fashioned, rollicking tunes, supervision has changed the musical situa- tion in Lima and the rest of the world. There was a time when "Scot- land is burning. Look out. Look out. Fire. Fire," was a round that was popular in local music circles-when everybody sang it; there was a time when Southern harmonies-Missouri and Kentucky melodies, and text books constituted the musical knowledge of the community. James Nicholas of the Welsh community who for eighteen years was practically the only vocal teacher in Allen County, used Southern har- mony exclusively-the patent or square notes thought to be easier mastered-and there are still men and women who call them "buck wheat," the name suggested because of the resemblance to grains of buckwheat."
In an early day the musical situation in Allen County was simply this-some liked it and others had no inclination toward it; prejudice, ignorance, intolerance, on the one hand, and hunger for music, an enthu- siasm that stopped at no hardship on the other; music, however, has won the day and this is a musical nation, the development in Allen County being abreast with other communities. What if some good citizens do enjoy ragtime-it's music. While the "haswassers" may not all appreciate Mendelssohn fully, they recognize "music in the air." In their day everybody enjoyed the concerts given by old-time singers, and someone harking back to other days has penned these lines :
"There's a lot of music in them, the hymns of the long ago
And when some gray-haired brother sings the ones I used to know I sorter want to take a hand-I think o' days gone by,
'On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand, and Cast a Wistful Eye',"
and the classical music of today-well, it's the old, old songs that seem to stir the heart.
Again, someone writes :
"If the heart be young, songs may still be sung,
Sweeter in the meter than they ever were before,"
and someone else exclaims :
"In the darkest, meanest things There's always, always something sings,"
and blessed is the man who has soul to catch the silent music-to live above the discords of earth life and catch the immortal strains. While some of the pioners were circumscribed in their understanding of things, thinking that any pleasure not an absolute necessity was sin, whenever the Song Sparrow orchestra started up its musical cadences with Mr. Cardinal as chief soloist, and musical Bob White as the conductor, the hoe always moved more merrily down the long rows of corn, and when the whole earth to them seemed fair and good, why should they stop their ears-why shut out the woodland' music? Today their posterity is glad that they were unable to banish music from the world. The stately rhythm :
"When Music, heavenly maid, was young When first in early Greece she sung,"
has no geographical limitations, and many join in the refrain :
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"I want to hear the old songs, I never hear them now- The tunes that cheer the tired heart, And smooth the careworn brow,"
and when sufficiently urged there are still a few lingering about in every community who sing them.
With reference to the music at camp meetings in Allen County in 1838, an old account says: "A few shrill blasts from a tin horn announced the hour of the meeting, and the scattered groups assembled on the seats in front of the preacher's tent; someone started a familiar hymn and all joined in the singing; the evening service often lasted far into the night," and in writing about it, Joseph Dobbins says: "I remember one of the favorite hymns they sang was 'The Turtle Dove'," and he admits that he liked it so well that he committed it, and the first verse reads :
"Hark! don't you hear the turtle dove- The token of redeeming love ; From hill to hill we hear the sound, The neighboring valleys echo round,"
and the writer's comment: "There was something sublime and beau- tiful in the music of that sweet old hymn, swelling from the lips of the vast congregation, so full of soothing melody as it rose loud and clear, floating upward and dying away amid the sighing of the summer wind in the surrounding forest," would subject him to comment today. He might find himself quoted by some satirist in a newspaper, for instance, B. L. T., in the Chicago Tribune.
There were joyous gatherings in rural community centers fifty years ago, when the people came in wagons bringing the trundle bed contin- gent along, and there were always some who walked and carried torches to light them home again. While the trend of civilization is away from the rural community center, it is a memory that many would not have effaced; it is with sad hearts that some of the older ones note the changes, although in Allen County there is still a permanent rural population in contrast with the prevailing conditions in most places. On December 1, 1920, there was a musicfest at Gomer, and the news- paper account says : "Residents of the picturesque village of Gomer turned out enmasse for the Eisteddfod; a brilliant assemblage of musi- cians and literateurs gathered to compete for prizes offered by the hamlet ; old fashioned dinners were served in the township hall," and there are few rural community centers where such a thing would be considered today. The Welsh singers are given to chorus rather than solo work, the competitive singing idea having been brought from Wales by their ancestry, and while Lima and other musical talent entered the contest, an adult Gomer chorus under the direction of George Williams won the prize, and in the choruses by children from different communities the Gomer chorus led by Ivor Evans won first honors.
The Eisteddfod in Gomer was only an echo from the past in musical history; Dr. John Davis, who was chorister in the Welsh Congrega- tional Church there for thirty years, had a chorus of 100 trained singers, and for years the community entered all musical contests, frequently winning first honors. They always entered Lima and Delphos contests, and they went to Cincinnati and Columbus: "The proof of the pudding is in the eating," and the recent Eisteddfod suggests the present-day musical interest at Gomer. Today there are pianos in rural homes as well as in the homes of the towns, and there are some who remember
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the cabinet organ and melodeon which had their time and popularity when pianos were rare in the different communities; through the player piano and the different forms of the phonograph, the compositions of the best writers are available to all. "Put your soul into the music ; therein lies the magic," no matter whether the performer be a finished, educated musician, or one who "just picks it out by ear," and there are some who assert that none become artists who have never lost in love- that their music is unsympathetic and cold, that a broken heart develops melody in the soul, and who would not like to hear again: "The Maiden's Prayer," "An Indian Lodge," "To a Wild Rose," and "Down by the Waters of Babylon"?
The lack of leadership in music has been the handicap in many com- munities ; it is said that singing always creates an appetite for food, and there are some good singers in Allen County. Sometimes, too, there is music without words that conveys most intense feeling, producing sad- ness and at other times gladness, and the old masters felt this in all their stately compositions. James Whitcomb Riley once said :
"Thinkin' back's a thing that grows On a feller, I suppose ; Older 'at he gets I jack, More he keeps a thinkin' back,"
and that is essential in gathering up the scattered threads in any depart- ment of history. When a violinist who played on a very old instrument emphasized that fact in securing an orchestral engagement, he was assured that "no one will ever know the difference," but it seems that in a musical way many people adhere to the old things. The hymn writers of the past seemed to leave little in the way of religious train- ing for the hymnologists of the future. Those who write the hymns of the church have much to do with shaping theology.
In the old days when because of the scarcity of church hymnals the minister "lined the hymns," by reading a line and then having the con- gregation join him in singing it, a feeble old man in the pulpit one day exclaimed : "Mine eyes are dim, I cannot see," and when the congre- gation sang the words, he explained: 'I did not mean it for a hymn; I only said 'mine eyes are dim'," and again they sang in unison. How- ever, not all congregations follow so blindly, and it is related that when the violin was first introduced into a religious service in Lima, there was a difference of opinion about it. A man named Day had come from Connecticut to Lima, and when he joined the chorus choir in the Baptist Church on Union Street, he brought his fiddle; the violin was unknown that long ago. The church had a center aisle and the men sat on one side while the women sat on the other, and there were raised seats in front for the singers. Mr. Day had used his instrument in a church choir in Connecticut, but when he introduced it in Lima, one brother remained outside and another closed his ears with his fin- gers in order not to allow it to interfere with his worship; since Lima churches support the best musicians and enjoy the best music today, that Union Street Baptist Church episode seems like an impossibility.
To the tune of Duke Street, church-goers everywhere sing the line: "Our exiled Fathers crossed the sea," and in the second stanza of the same hymn is this further bit of American history :
"Laws, freedom, truth and faith in God, Came with those exiles o'er the waves ; And where their Pilgrim feet have trod, The God they trusted guards their graves,"
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and it is quite as easy to incorporate religion as patriotism in the hymns of the day. While 300 years have gone by since the time when "Our exiled Fathers crossed the sea," music still tells the story. It is said, however, that more songs came out of the Civil war than from any other one period in American history. There is no question about music shaping sentiment in either religion or history.
Students of American history agree that "Nelly Gray" did as much to create anti-slavery sentiment as did "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and another song of the period : "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp," will not die while there are Civil war soldiers or their sons and grandsons to sing it. T. E. Cun- ningham who was an active man in time of the Civil war, co-operated with the Lima Silver Cornet Band and assisted by Prof. Frank Webb, who was a choir leader in his day, did much to teach those songs to the people, and Joseph Simon who was a regimental bandmaster, although he spoke only a broken English, assisted in those war song programs; while the old-fashioned singing school had its part in per- fecting the congregational singing of hymns-dignified verse set to stately tunes that taught the whole saving grace, the war songs taught patriotism to all; they sung them with spirit, and when they sang: "Take up your gun and go, John," the appeal was irresistible to the young men of the community."
In a short time everybody was singing: "We are coming Father Abraham, six hundred thousand strong," and then came the plaintive song : "Just Before the Battle, Mother," and finally, "Tenting Tonight" was the expression of saddened hearts; while people were awed at the prospect of emancipation, there came another song, "Wake Nicodemus Today," that was more joyful, and just at the opportune time came "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," and Allen County still sings it: the words from the pen of Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, with the chorus "Glory, Glory, Hallelujah," has become a national air today. "The Vacant Chair" was one of the saddest songs growing out of the Civil war. It was unquestionably the song-writing period in United States history.
It is conceded that only war and love stir the emotions; people do not sing about the high cost of living; even woman's suffrage has not produced anything enduring; the world does not sing of the Panama Canal which was the greatest engineering feat of the ages, and the fulfillment of the hopes of many years; perhaps "Tipperary" and "The Rose of No Man's Land" will live in history. Nothing else has come out of the World war to compare with the songs of the Civil war. In every period there have been local singers who made the most of the war songs, and the "Allentown Tune" had its place in local history ; in the days of Gen. William Blackburn there was a martial band at Allentown, the fifes and drums being played by the Stuckey, Campbell and Westbay boys, and in the Civil war days they sang the words :
"O'er my ear like the sweet south That breathes upon a bank of violets, Stealing and giving odor-"
to this mystic tune, and an old account says: "It should be perpetuated in every household in German (now American) township, for it belongs there as distinctively as Maryland, my Maryland belongs to Maryland. The Allentown Tune led many a boy to the Civil war who never returned, and there is pathos in it for those who remember it," but some little inquiry failed to get trace of it. People living in Allentown said they never had heard about it; someone must still remember Allentown Tune.
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It is said the curse of modern music is commercialism ; people object to it when they miss something from it, and singing for money is differ- ent from singing for love of it. Coleridge says: "Genius is the power of carrying the feelings of childhood into the powers of manhood," and after singing schools had enabled the people to sing collectively, they began sitting in groups in the churches so they could sing well together, and thus was evolved the choir-the war department of the church today ; the enriched church service grew out of the trained sing- ers giving their time and talent to such things. Since 1893, music has been incorporated into the course of study in the Lima public school, E. F. Davis having been the first director and now all the schools have special work in music; it is said that a fund was established by Presi- dent George Washington with which to establish a national conservatory of music, and that recently musicians are inquiring into it. Berlin once swayed the musical world, but the discords of war broke up the har- mony there for Americans; a number of Allen County musicians have studied abroad, and some were in Berlin where they thought musical technique was acquired first hand, but the war has caused this country to rely upon its own resources, and home talent serves the purpose.
It seems that there has been a musical atmosphere in Allen County from the beginning; before there was an established court and legal busi- ness was taken care of by circuit riders, John C. Spink, who was known as the violinist of the Northwest, would always bring his fiddle when attending court in Lima; Judge Potter was the vocalist of the old Allen County bar, and his favorite songs, "Lord Lovell" and "Rosin the Bow," were rehearsed frequently ; J. M. May and Count Coffinberry were trom- bone players in this circuit court orchestra. With Judge Potter as soloist, the obligatos were played by members of the bar. Doan Cunningham, who was also a vocalist, used to sing "The Little Gray Mare" to the amusement of all. In 1910, the following criticism appeared in a Lima newspaper: "It takes a team of horses to draw the average citizen out to a musical entertainment today, but the old city hall was packed to hear Clara Louise Kellogg, Emma Thursby, Julia Rive King and others." When Emma Abbott sang "The Last Rose" at the dedication of the Faurot Operahouse, September 4, 1882, there were many people in attendance. A clipping relative to a community welfare meeting, A. D. 1920, says: "Under the dynamic urging of Fred Calvert, the musical program following the banquet developed into a near-riot, the singers rat- tling the rafters with their vocal efforts," showing that Lima audiences are not always in the same attitude toward such things. There may be some difference between listening to others and singing themselves. There are times and seasons for all things.
Music has always served its purpose, and no matter where the settlers came from to Allen County, the youngsters would meet and in their form of entertainment-usually a kissing bee-they would join hands march- ing to the weird music of their own voices :
"Arise, my true love, and present me your hand, And we'll march in procession for a far distant land Where the girls will card and spin, And the boys will plow and sow, And we'll settle on the banks of the Ohio,"
and the historian, Henry Howe, suggests that the musical name of the river and state attracted the settlers. "The Dusty Miller" was another marching song, the music-made by the voices of the players :
Vol. I-27
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HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
"Happy is the miller boy who lives by himself ; As the wheel goes round he's gaining on his wealth ; With one hand on the hopper and the other in the sack- Wheel goes round, and girls fall back,"
and the frequent changes made them all acquainted with each other.
An old account which was in reality a paid advertisement of a show in Lima, October 13, 1857, mentions the coming of the first calliope to Allen County. It was heralded as the latest and in some respects greatest of musical wonders; it was a novel and interesting application of steam in the production of music; it was the all-absorbing excitement in the exhibition world that year; it created great sensations everywhere, and thousands poured into Lima from all parts of the country; now the calliope fails to attract attention. An article in the 1920 October number of Musical America by H. Eugene Hall classed Lima as a managerial as well as musical center. Frank E. Harmon, Tony Zender and Mr. Hall himself being promotors who have booked many musical attractions. A great many civic entertainments have engaged the attention of the pub- lic, and the Woman's Music Club has long been active in advancing local music interests; it was organized October 22, 1891, with Mrs. S. S. Wheeler as its first president; for six years Mrs. Ira R. Longsworth has served as president ; the annual dues is $4, and with 1,000 members it is possible to bring many excellent musical attractions to Memorial Hall. When this musical organization was effected it was called the Sappho Club, the women becoming members, all busy with their families and yet designing to keep up their musical training; there was dormant music talent which the club aroused, and for a time the programs were limited to the work of the members; later outside talent was brought to Lima, and now the Lima Woman's Musical Club is a well known booking agency ; the name Sappho was dropped and the same organization con- tinued as the Woman's Club.
When sentiment must be created for this musical organization now the Lima Woman's Musical Club, two or three influential women went out in their carriages calling on prospective members, and the whole thing appealed to all. The first meeting was in the home of Mrs. George South- ard who was a pianist, and for a time the meetings were always in the homes of members; when the membership was enlarged that was no longer possible, and meetings are held in different assembly halls and in Memorial Hall. While there are sixty active members, the associate members swell the number to 1,000, and allow the club sufficient funds with which to book worth while attractions; there is always good patron- age, and the membership dues relieves the members from assessments. The Etude is another music club in Lima, with a restrictive membership limitation ; it is a study club and Mrs. Waldo E. Berryman is its presi- dent. Musical programs are given in connection with many pleasure clubs that do not pursue definite studies. Music is a feature on club pro- grams in Delphos, Bluffton and Spencerville, and there are talented pianists in some of the smaller communities.
Because there is no organ in Memorial Hall, the organ recitals under the auspices of the Woman's Musical Club are given in the Market Street Presbyterian Church, but there are organs in many churches and in eight Lima theaters; while the churches used to vie with each other in the height of their steeples, now it is the volume and quality in the tone of their organs, the church without a pipe organ being the exception ; some of the best organs are in lodge rooms. In the 1920 financial report of the Lima Lodge of Elks is the following expense for the item of music:
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"During the past year we paid $4,000 for our new pipe organ, and $1,700 for the Violin Virtuoso Piano in the Grill Room," and there is similar equipment in some of the other lodge rooms. While some of the churches in other Allen County towns are supplied with pipe organs, as yet no private family has installed an organ.
While pipe organs are so common, it is an interesting fact that the first one in Lima was dedicated formally August 15, 1860, by George Feltz who is recognized as dean among Allen County musicians. It was a two-stop organ in St. Rose Catholic Church; this church now has its third pipe organ, and Mr. Feltz has played on all of them. When he was invited to dedicate the first one he was living at Freyburg in Auglaize County ; he brought three spring wagon loads of trained singers from Freyburg to Lima for the service. He soon removed to Lima, and for thirty-five years Mr. Feltz was director of music in St. Rose. Mrs. Feltz sang in the chorus while he was director. On April 19, 1914, Mr. and Mrs. Feltz, who had been connected with the musical life of Lima for more than fifty years, passed their golden wedding anniversary. It is given to but few to remain actively engaged in music for so many years. While he played the organ and she sang in the chorus at St. Rose, they were both active in all community music movements.
For many years Mr. Feltz was director of the Lima Choral Society, and later of the Orion Mannerchor Society; he was always a business man rather than music teacher; he frequently directed the chorus and played the music himself ; he was director of the first Eisteddfod and in 1875, with a chorus of sixty singers from all the Lima church choirs, he won the first prize at Delphos. Under his leadership the Lima Choral Society frequently sang in contests; for a period of twenty years, Mr. Feltz was director of the Orion Mannerchor and it was only broken up by the World war; he was engaged in contests with Lima singers in Columbus, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Milwaukee-was never afraid of any- thing when his singers were in active training, and while he had much to do with training Lima musicians, it was not his method of acquiring life's necessities ; music was an avocation with him.
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