USA > Ohio > Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state, Volume III > Part 2
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MARY CHRISTINE COTNER
MARY CHRISTINE COTNER, head of the violin department and in- structor of Music at Miami University, also head of violin department and assistant professor of music at Western College, was born at Pocasset, Okla., the daughter of Clarence and Mary Cotner. She was graduated from Mac- Murray College, attended Chicago Musical College, University of Michigan, studied abroad at the Knocker Violin School, London, England, and under the Leopold Auer Fellowship at the Julliard Graded School.
Miss Cotner was formerly music instructor at the Georgia State College for Women. She is active in musical and other professional organizations.
MELVIA LYNCH DANIALSON
MELVIA LYNCH DANIALSON, head of the department of music educa- tion of Ohio University, is a graduate of the Columbia School of Music and received her M. A. at the University of Minnesota in 1930. She heads the music department of Ohio University, and is author of many short stories, poems and articles published in educational and other magazines.
JESSIE NEELY EAGLESTON
JESSIE NEELY EAGLESTON (Mrs. Freeman T. Eagleston), violinist, member of the executive committee of the Ohio Federation of Music Clubs, is president of the Symphony Club of Columbus and a board member of the Woman's Music Club of Columbus.
MARY EDDY
MARY EDDY of Perryville in Southwestern Ashland County, ranks as one of the important collectors of ballads in the state and nation.
Becoming interested in balladry while a student at the University of Chicago, she wrote her master's thesis on the subject and then there began her unique career, that of collecting ballads wherever she could find them.
While a teacher for many years in the schools of Canton, Ohio, she sought the aid of her pupils and her friends in uncovering interesting folk-
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songs of Ohio. She would travel miles to get the tune and the words of a ballad from the lips of some old resident who had been taught the song by his elders to whom it had been handed down through family generations.
Publication of her collection of ballads in 1939 culminates an ambition of many years standing.
ETELKA EVANS
ETELKA EVANS, teacher of violin and head of the Music History Department of the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, was born at Stock- bridge, Mass., and completed her education at the Hochschule fur Musick, Berlin, Germany, and at New York University.
She was previously dean of music at Southwestern University. Miss Evans' enviable reputation as music educator has been widely extended through numerous lecture recitals, many published articles and by the ar- rangement of music pageants, in which field she is regarded as expert.
JOSEPHINE FORSYTH
JOSEPHINE FORSYTH (Mrs. Phillip Andrew Myers), concert singer and composer of Cleveland, was born in Cleveland and received her musical education under distinguished teachers, notably Rita Elandi and Marcella Sembrich. She was starred in several musical comedies and then turned her attention to the composition of musical settings for poems, many of which have become very popular as radio broadcasts. She is active in many music organizations and a life member of the League of American Pen Women.
DONNA SOUDER GOODBREAD
DONNA SOUDER GOODBREAD spent many of her girlhood years at Ada, where her father, Dr. R. L. Souder, in addition to his arduous duties as a physician, conducted the Presbyterian Choir for many years.
After her marriage to Harry Goodbread, she lived in Columbus and for a time in Cleveland. In both cities she took an active part in music circles. She was a professional accompanist, was pianist for several concert singers.
Donna Goodbread was a member of Women's Music Club of Columbus; a past president of Lecture Recital Club and program manager of Fort-nightly music club of Cleveland. She was president of the Ohio Federation of Music Clubs from 1925 to 1930 and was at one time chairman of the Atwater Kent Radio program. She died in October, 1936, and was laid to rest in the Ada cemetery, survived by one daughter, Ruth.
MRS. CLYDE M. GRUBBS
MRS. CLYDE M. GRUBBS, composer of songs and verse, wrote "Lovely Ohio" which is sung at all Daughters of America conventions. She is the
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daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. William Tillack. Her mother (Cassie Osgood) was a member of a prominent pioneer family of Lorain County.
Mrs. Grubbs is state registrar of the Daughters of the American Colonists and corresponding secretary of Mayflower chapter Daughters of the American Colonists of Lorain. She is a charter member of Nathan Perry chapter Daughters of the American Revolution and at present is second vice-regent of that organization.
She is instructor in voice and director of choir of First Congregational Church. She is mother of two boys.
MARY DAVIS HAHN
MARY DAVIS HAHN (Mrs. Adolf Hahn), was born in Lima, Ohio, of Welsh and German parentage, but spent much of her early life in Cincinnati and Chicago, where she studied voice and violin at the leading musical schools of those cities.
At the age of sixteen, she embarked on a successful concert career, appearing in almost all of the metropolitan centers of the country. Later she herself organized a string quartet, with which she played for several years in engagements throughout the United States. She also accompanied the Welsh Prize Singers on three national tours.
At the outbreak of the World War, she abandoned her concert work and began the private teaching of music. It was at this period that she helped to organize the now noted Cincinnati Matinee Musicale Club, known for its far sighted and discriminating sponsorship of soloists and musicians, many of whom, including Julia Culp, Myra Hess, Nelson Eddy, Bartlett and Robertson, appearing first as practically unknown artists under the auspices of the Matinee Musicale, were greatly assisted in their launching to inter- national reputation and fame, by that organization which Mary Davis Hahn has for many years directed as president.
After her marriage to Adolf Hahn, director at that time of the Cill- cinnati College of Music, she joined the faculty of that institution as associate director and teacher of voice and violin, where she remained in that capacity until the illness of her husband, a few years ago, caused her retirement and a return to private teaching.
She retains her deep interest in the affairs of the musical world through her continued activity as president of the matinee Musicale Club; her mem- bership on the Board of Directors of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Association; her work as president of the southwest district of the Ohio Federation of Music Clubs and her chairmanship of radio, in connection with the Women's Symphony Committee.
MRS. ADOLF HAHN
President, Southwest District, Ohio Federation of Music Clubs
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JANE OSBORN HANNAH
When JANE OSBORN HANNAH (Mrs. Frank F. Hannah) of Wilming- ton, O., went to Germany to perfect herself as a concert singer, it was with no certainty that she would succeed. She had studied hard, struggled harder, during her period of training in Chicago, where the McCormick family took active interest in the development of her talent, as did members of her own family. Even so, when she made her debut in Germany, in "Madame Butter- fly," nobody was more surprised than was the singer herself at the approval she won.
She sang Wagnerian roles at the Leipsic opera in 1913 and again her talent and ability were warmly recognized. On her return from Europe she made a number of concert tours on which her best role, that of Madame Butterfly, attracted attention of music lovers wherever and whenever she sang it.
The artiste now has a teaching studio in New York. She married Frank F. Hannah of Chicago, whom she had met in Germany where he was in the consular service.
LILLIAN BAILEY HENSCHEL
LILLIAN BAILEY HENSCHEL, famous throughout the United States and widely known in Europe for her beautiful lyric soprano voice, was born in Columbus, in 1858 and sent by her parents to Boston to be taught by Madam Rudesrorf. This teacher was greatly distinguished in her own right but she had a son even more famous. His name was Richard Mansfield.
From Boston, Lillian Bailey went to London to be taught by George Henschel, baritone, orchestra conductor and composer. They fell in love, toured the world with concerts that were brilliantly successful and won fame throughout the world of music. When she died, Lillian Henschel was buried near her own much loved home, in the Scotch Highlands.
BERTHA B. HERBRUCK
BERTHA B. HERBRUCK (Mrs. Ralph A. Herbruck), born in Dayton, the daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Henry Borghardt, will, in 1940, com- plete her sixth year as president of the Ohio Federation of Music Clubs. She is also a member of the national board of the National Federation of Music Clubs ; National Chairman of Music in the Home, for the National Federation ; a member of the Metropolitan Opera Guild of New York; member of the National Council of Women; former junior counsellor of the Ohio Federation of Music Clubs; co-founder of the Mother Singers of Dayton; three times president of the Dayton Music Club; two times president of the Dayton Woman's Club; president of the Dayton Federation of Women's Clubs ; patroness member Sigma Alpha Iota (professional music) ; member of the Woman's Literary Club, Burroughs Nature Study, and Oakwood Garden.
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Mrs. Herbruck taught school in Dayton for which she prepared by courses at Columbia University. Then she took up music seriously and studied in Berlin, Paris, and at the Institute of Musical Art in New York City. She was for a time soprano soloist in New York, New Rochelle and Dayton churches. Mrs. Herbruck is vitally interested in young students and keenly active in the annual state and district contests. She has given lectures on musical subjects in various places.
MINNA ANNA HOFFMAN
MINNA ANNA HOFFMAN (Mrs. John A. Hoffman), daughter of the late William Theodore Wagner and Mrs. Anna Wagner, and wife, since 1918, of John A. Hoffman, of the artist faculty of the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, is an Ohioan whose support of the highest standards of musical educa- tion and interpretation has gained her a national reputation.
Outstanding in Mrs. Hoffman's work in her home city was her leadership in connection with the splendid music department of the Cincinnati Woman's Club, and no record of her achievements would be complete without mention- ing the success to which she has guided the well-known Clifton Music Club which during her presidency for the last twelve years has sponsored brilliant concerts and soloists of international repute. A devoted patroness of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, she has taken an active part in every cam- paign for a successful season. Particularly in the affairs of the Conservatory of Music has Mrs. Hoffman taken the deepest interest, and to her the famous series of Conservatory afternoon musicales owe much of their success.
She is first vice president of the Ohio Federation of Music Clubs and chairman of the Cincinnati division of active music clubs, doing constructive work in the field of music. Her work has not been confined to clubs and organizations, for she has become well known during the two and one-half years that the Ohio Federation of Music Clubs has conducted broadcasts over important radio stations. Mrs. Hoffman has been Cincinnati chairman of the Atwater-Kent contests.
Nationally, efforts for creative artists have always been close to her heart, and she has from time to time been instrumental in Ohio movements for the support of projects for the welfare of these artists. Notably in this connection have been the several campaigns in the state to aid the colony at Peterboro, N. H., founded by the late Edward MacDowell, and carried on by his widow.
MLLE. ILSE HUEBNER
MLLE. ILSE HUEBNER, a pianist and composer of international repu- tation who has been a resident of Cincinnati for the past 11 years, now calls the city her permanent home.
MRS. JOHN A. HOFFMAN Chairman, Cincinnati Division Ohio Federation of Music Clubs
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In the field of composition Mlle. Huebner has achieved laurels both in this country and abroad.
She recently was awarded a prize of $1000 for a symphony she composed. Among her works are an Orchestral Suite, Tone Poem for Orchestra, Piano Quintette in G, String Quartettes in E and A, Trio for Cello, Violin and Piano and Ratendelein (Choral for Chorus and orchestra). She also is composer of several short operas ,among which "Ten Schitze des Thrones" is an outstand- ing European success. Two sonatas for piano and violin and 165 songs are included in her compositions. A number of her songs are to texts by a Cin- cinnati poet, George Elliston. The two, Miss Elliston, as lyricist, Mlle. Hueb- ner, as composer of the music, won in 1928 the coveted Oesterreichische Music Pad Reichaverband award, a prize highly regarded by poets and composers since the time of Bach.
Mlle. Huebner is of the artist faculty of the College of Music, Cincinnati. She is also head of the faculty of the Cape Cod School of Music, a post that takes her to the North Shore each summer. She has appeared as soloist with the great orchestras of Europe and America.
Born in Vienna, Mlle. Huebner was a prize student at the Master School of the Vienna Staatsakademic. She studied music under the famous master Theodore Leschetitsky and composition with Anton Dvorak. When only S years old she played the Mozart D Minor Concerto with the Symphony orches- tra. At the age of 11 her first composition, a piano sonata was published. When she was 13 she played Grieg's piano concerto under this master's own direction.
ADELLA PRENTISS HUGHES
ADELLA PRENTISS HUGHES, first woman of the United States to be manager of a Symphony Orchestra and for many years the only one, may be said to have started her remarkable career in 1898, when her special talent as piano accompanist and her ability in concert management first challenged general attention.
She was born in Cleveland, the daughter of Loren and Rebecca Rouse Prentiss, attended Miss Fisher's School for Girls and studied music under Felix Dreyschock. She took her A. B. at Vassar College and soon began to take active interest in the music progress of her home city. In the intervening years, Mrs. Hughes is said to have headed or worked with virtually every important musical activity of the city and many that were state wide and nation wide.
She virtually organized the Cleveland Orchestra and during the period of her management, from 1917 to 1933, labored unceasingly and successfully to bring this now nationally known orchestra to its present fine standing and standards.
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On the resignation of Mrs. Hughes as manager of the Cleveland Orches- tra, in 1933, she was honored with a city wide expression of tribute and a program in which 1500 persons participated.
Mrs. Hughes is now vice president of the Musical Arts Association, an organization which has sponsored effectively the musical development of Cleveland.
No one, it is believed, has done more than Adella Prentiss Hughes to develop and advance music appreciation by the public. She inaugurated music memory contests in the public schools and in various ways established contact between the schools and the orchestra. Despite her deep interest in the prog- ress of music, Mrs. Hughes has found time for other helpfulness.
During the troubled period immediately following the World War, her welfare service to the foreign born of Cleveland, especially those from Poland, was nationally recognized by that republic, which conferred on this already distinguished Cleveland woman the Order of Gen. Haller's Swords.
HELEN JEPSON
HELEN JEPSON (Mrs. Roscoe Possell) Metropolitan Opera star, started on her brilliant career by singing in the choir of Woodland Methodist Episco- pal Church, Akron, Ohio.
She was born at Titusville, Pa., graduated from West High School, Akron and later sold records in an Akron music store.
Two Akron women, Mrs. D. S. Bowman, choir leader, and Mrs. F. A. Seiberling, helped to start the statuesque girl with the platinum blond hair and even then, remarkable voice, on her climb up the ladder of success. They saw to it that she should have a real musical education, which included six hard years at the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia. But the hard work proved well worth while. When Helen graduated from the institute she was able to sign a contract with the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company.
The same year she had an audition with the "Met" which was so favor- able that she joined this world famous opera company the following fall.
Helen Jepson is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. Henry Jepson, whose present home is 10917 Florian Ave., Cleveland. It is there that she renews family ties when her engagements take her to Cleveland, so this city may also make claim to being the part time home of the now famous singer. Helen is the wife of Roscoe Possell, distinguished flutist. They have a six year old daughter, Patricia.
Four years ago Helen Jepson took part in the weekly radio broadcast of Paul Whiteman's orchestra. It was not until then that the story of her hard fight for fame became generally known, so it was not until then that the music lovers of her native state began to point with special pride to Helen Jepson as another Buckeye girl that has made good.
HELEN JEPSON
Soprano of Metropolitan Opera Claimed by Akron, Ohio
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HELEN BEACH JONES
Taking up the study of music when but four years of age, HELEN BEACH JONES has since been so prominent a figure in the musical circles of her native city that she is now designated as "the music mother of Toledo," but this has been only one phase of her work as various women's organizations as well as the church, have profited greatly by her support and her work. She has ever been a woman of kindly spirit and her character is the expres- sion of high ideals.
Mrs. Jones was born in Toledo and is a daughter of William A. and Harriett E. (Brigham) Beach. The mother was born in Oneida County, New York and her father was one of the early mayors of Toledo. In young man- hood he learned and followed the carpenter's trade and later became a con- tractor and builder, retaining his residence in Toledo until his death. Mrs. Jones was one of two children born of her father's first marriage, her sister being Mrs. Anna B. McLaren, the wife of Selah Reed McLaren, who is engaged in the lumber business of Toledo. By a second marriage there were other children in the Beach family ; Stanley and George, both business men of Toledo of a former day but now deceased; William who has also passed away ; Fred ; Harry C .; Edward who died in early boyhood; and Nellie who died in young girlhood.
Mrs. Jones attended the Toledo Public schools until graduated from the Central high school, at which time she was valedictorian of her class. She had begun the study of music at the age of four. After leaving high school she taught for three years in the public schools here and while thus engaged devoted her leisure to the further pursuit of her music studies, specializing in organ music. She was still quite young when she became organist in a church in Lima, Ohio, and also acted as choir leader for two years. She then returned to Toedo and was made organist in the old Westminster Presby- terian church.
It was while in Lima that she became acquainted with Samuel Milton Jones, who was then engaged in oil production there. He invented a method having to do with that line of work and removed to Toledo, where he began the manufacture of his machine, starting a factory which he conducted under the name of the S. M. Jones Company, continuing at its head throughout his remaining days and the business is still being carried on with his son Percy Jones as the operating head. He had two sons by a former marriage. Percy C. and Paul H. and the latter is married and has a son, Samuel M. To S. M. and Helen (Beach) Jones was born one son, Mason B., who married Gertrude Wither of Toledo and has three sons, Edward W., Mason B. and Samuel, III. Mr. Jones was a very prominent and honored citizen of Toledo where he was three times elected mayor, being in the midst of his third term at the time of his death in 1904. The first time he was elected as a "dark
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horse." At his second election he was given an enormous majority and he became known everywhere as Golden Rule Jones, such being his honesty, his loyalty to duty and his regard for the rights and privileges of others. Every- where he was held in the highest esteem and all knew that any trust reposed in him was never betrayed in the slightest degree.
Since the death of her husband Mrs. Jones has continued her activities in the musical and philanthropic and club circles of Toledo and perhaps no better estimate of her life and character and what she has accomplished could be given than by quoting from the year book of the Central High School Alumni Association: "Mrs. Samuel M. Jones, musician and philanthropist, has long been the persuasive power for good that she is today in Toledo. Church, musical, women's and other organizations have claimed her con- tinuous endeavors. She studied music, served as organist, music teacher, leader in musical advancement and is now known as the 'music mother of Toledo.' She was president and one of the founders of the widely known Eurydice Club, a woman's chorus. She founded Beach House, a home for needy girls, named for her mother. As the wife of the famous 'Golden Rule' mayor of Toledo, she gave her winsome, dignified, and tactful support to all his efforts for social welfare." Such is the accepted opinion of Helen Beach Jones.
GRACE EDWARDS KAISER
MRS. GRACE EDWARDS KAISER, musician, vocalist, reader and com- poser, whose fame in musical circles and radio has made her name known beyond the boundaries of this country as she is composer of a song written for Guatemala, Central America, and accepted by its president, has contributed much to the pleasure which music lovers gain from artistic presentation not only of the writings of others, but also compositions of her own.
Mrs. Kaiser retains her residence in Cincinnati, her native city. She is the daughter of Thomas Henry Hunt and Eva (Williams) Edwards, both of Welsh descent, and a granddaughter of Alexander H. Edwards, who was a midship- man on the battleship "Constitution," and who also served as county clerk in Wisconsin. Mrs. Kaiser completed her school education in Latonia, Kentucky, and she received a music scholarship from David Davis, director of the Cin- cinnati Civic Cambro-American Society and well-known vocal teacher. At the age of fourteen years she lived in Mildale and Erlanger, Kentucky, and then removed to Hyde Park, Ohio, remaining in Cincinnati, where she taught singing and developed children's choruses. She was formerly director of the choir of First M. E. Church, Norwood, Ohio. It was David Davis who made the real discovery of her voice while she was singing in a chorus of one hun- dred at the age of sixteen years. He stopped a rehearsal of the Civic Cambro- American Society and picked her out of this group, insisting that she study voice immediately. She was chosen soloist of the Society to go to Columbus,
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Ohio, to compete in the Estefeod Contest in which sixty contestants competed, but of which only two were chosen, Mrs. Kaiser being one of the two.
Mrs. Kaiser's progress has been continuous and her talent has found ex- pression in many phases of musical art. She directed the first memorial for women at the Greater Cincinnati Women's Exposition and was the first woman to put on a woman's achievement program in this city. Mrs. Kaiser was the first Ohio woman to have one of her musical compositions played on the air over national hook-up by the U. S. Marine Band from Washington, D: C., on a memorial program, which played her "The Call to the Colors" in May, 1937. She was also the first woman to write a song for Guatemala, Central America, it being dedicated to that country and accepted by President Ubico. This song was first broadcast from Guatemala on New Year's night, 1939, and later in the spring to the San Francisco Fair, by the Alma Latina Marimba Band. Mrs. Kaiser has written two hundred and fifty songs, several of which have been published by various organizations. She was the first to compose a national song which was used at the convention of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union to commemorate the 18th Amendment, and was national soloist at this convention, held in Washington, D. C. She also wrote a pageant for the Ohio State Convention of the W. C. T. U., called the "Torch of Progress," given Oct. 17, 1933. "Fair Ohio," words of which were written by Miss Susie M. Best, were set to music by Mrs. Kaiser and dedicated to Ohio's governor. It was later accepted as the Mariemont Chapter, D. A. R. song.
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