The Geocities ads on the right side of your browser window can be pushed offscreen by clicking on the tab that's marked by a couple "greater than" symbols ( >> ).   We recommend doing it once the page is loaded.  If clearing the ads loses your place on the page, scroll up.

During December and a good part of January, members of the Alleghanians seem to have had extensive time on their hands as though they were pausing in New York waiting for something to happen.  Then as a January 19 engagement at the Broadway Tabernacle neared, energy level appears to have started picking up.

The Alleghanians took part in the annual New York Typographical Society banquet at Niblo's Saloon on Friday evening, January 16, singing "Uncle Sam's Farm" and a fitting selection which included the lines,

Miriam Goodenow sweetly sang "Ben Bolt."  She then responded to encore calls with what one news account called "The Pretty Little Maid."

After the Typographical Society function came the big Broadway Tabernacle concert.  "Several new Songs, in accordance with the progressive spirit of the age, will be introduced," pledged the group's classified advertisements.

A New York Daily Tribune review followed, implying a strong turnout, "not withstanding the intense cold."

Page 7

So wrote Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., prior to the Alleghanians concert at the Broadway Tabernacle on Monday evening, January 26, 1852.   A new, enthusiastic era in Alleghanians advertising had begun.

"They have . . . the merit of varying their performances to suit the different tastes of a miscellaneous audience," said a New York Tribune preview of the January 26 concert.  "To pieces of touching pathos, which move the finer feelings of the heart, they add songs of genuine humor, which would draw laughter from the most devoted victim of the blues.  Their soprano, Miss Goodenow, has a voice of remarkable sweetness and purity of tone, and sings with a correctness of taste that would do credit to many public singers of more exalted pretensions.  At the last concert she was encored in every piece.  Those who have not yet attended their 'Concerts for the People' should not neglect this opportunity of doing so."

All four members of this Alleghanians lineup had reputations for making excellent use of fine voices.  This was especially true of their work in the quartet's group vocals.  Yet this booklet includes few praise-heavy anecdotes or admiring descriptions of solo performances by, or the individual abilities of, the three men.  Few were found.  Press interest and apparently fan interest was very much focused on Miriam Goodenow.  In addition to the wonderful qualities of her voice and her remarkable use of it, she had a distinctive look and evidently considerable romantic and star appeal.

"Miss Goodenow possesses, in an eminent degree, that lofty and soul-inspiring genius and power of sweet vocalization which fail not of arousing the noblest sentiments and emotions of the human heart," said Jesse Hutchinson.  "Nor can it be deemed invidious here to say, that among all the bright luminaries which, for the past year or more, have radiated the musical world, the lustre of this star has not been eclipsed, nor its native brilliancy at all diminished."

On the day of the Alleghanians' Broadway Tabernacle concert, Monday, January 26, the New York Tribune reported, "It is probable that they will leave us soon, as negotiations are in progress for a tour through California.   P. T. Barnum, the renowned, has made them a very honorable and flattering offer, which we presume will be accepted."  Evidently negotiations did not take long, for the very next day the Tribune said, "We learn that the Alleghanians have signed the papers for a tour in California, and will soon prepare for a trip to that auriferous region."

Page 8

The Tribune's capsule review of the January 26 concert said, "This band of singers had a great audience last night, and gave much satisfaction, although the muffled echoes or rather muffled silence of the Tabernacle is enough to vex the patience of a singer with the lungs of Stentor.  During the performance, and at its close, they were heartily applauded."

For years, as New York's principal large hall, the Broadway Tabernacle may have been beyond most criticism on points such as acoustics, sight lines, decor, seating comfort, and ventilation because the city offered no real alternative and no handy large-scale point of comparison.  The opening of the grand Metropolitan Hall changed all this and hastened the Tabernacle's fall from grace.  "At the time of its erection," said the New York Times in 1857, "it was regarded as quite a miracle of taste, spaciousness and splendor, but the rapid advance made in the arts has quite thrown the once elegant Tabernacle into the shade, and it is now regarded as a very gloomy and dismal hole."

It could be that the Broadway Tabernacle's fall from grace was complete by 1857.

"These popular vocalists have positively decided to go out to the Land of Golden Promise, and have engaged passage in the steamer Prometheus, which leaves port on the 5th of March next," said the New York Tribune about the Alleghanians.  "E. T. Nichols, Esq., as business man, goes out as general manager and advertising agent.  Jesse Hutchinson also, one of the renowned Hutchinson Family, is a member of this troupe.  Jesse is an original song-writer, and will stir up the enthusiastic Californians mightily with his go-ahead songs.  Altogether the company will consist of six persons, beside the pianist and attendants, and a brilliant career is before them.  It is the first popular band of American vocalists that has ever gone out to the auriferous region, and no party has ever gone thither under more flattering auspices."

Edward T. Nichols, incidentally, was an associate and cousin of Phineas T. Barnum.

"The Quartette Company consists of Messrs. Oakley, Boulard, and Dunning, and the ever-delightful and talented Miss Goodenow, whose fame is rapidly rising to the zenith of popularity," reported the New York Tribune.  "Thousands already rank her as one of the first artists of the land, if not indeed the very Queen of Songsters in America.  We predict a perfect furore of excitement among the gallant Californians.  On the whole, there seems to be no obstacle in the way of a most triumphant and successful tour."

Page 9

Clearly if anyone or any thing was standing in the way of a triumphant and successful tour, it was not Miriam Goodenow.

Phineas T. Barnum never mastered the art of thinking small.  "We learn that they are under engagements to come back again to New-York by next fall, and thence to Europe," noted the Tribune.  "Surely they have no idle duties before them.

"By notice in our advertising columns, it will be seen that they are to sing two or three times the coming week for different associations, and we advise all who would cherish the memory of their songs to avail themselves of the closing entertainments."

On February 4, the four Alleghanians closed their concert series and returned to their homes to prepare for a long trip.  "The Alleghanians deserve great credit for all they have done in the cause of Music, and for the high-toned character they have uniformly sustained through the land," declared the New York Tribune.

On February 5, the Tribune reported that "The Alleghanians are fast making preparations to depart for California.  They have secured passage on the Prometheus for the 5th of March, and will positively leave on that date, Providence permitting."  But the best-layed plans of mice and showmen often get rethought.  Or renegotiated.

"Thus far the Lord hath led me on."   - Isaac Watts

One of the main goals for this first edition of Voice and Spirit has been to lay the foundation for an eventual revised, greatly expanded second edition.  Thus far the Lord has led us on.   A full-length biography of the Alleghanians is very much needed, and it is starting to look feasible.  Whether it would take the form of a traditional, hardcopy book or remain as a World Wide Web-only publication is yet to be seen.  Either way, I am hoping many readers of these pages will keep an eye out for Voice and Spirit II.  If it is possible to make a full-length Alleghanians biography happen, my plan is to do it.

Alan Lewis,  August 14, 2007