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1852
Chapter 3 Part 1
[Full Title: To Dream in the Golden City; or, How Mr. Oakley Learned To Fly.]
After a visit to their respective homes, the Alleghanians regrouped in New York where they sang for a great temperance banquet at Metropolitan Hall. This was followed by a concert at Knickerbocker Hall in what was then the upper part of the city. Then the company toured to Williamsburgh and into New Jersey.
On February 24, the New York Tribune announced that "Next Monday and Wednesday evenings will be the last opportunities their thousands of friends in New-York will have of hearing their stirring and inspiring songs, previous to their departure for the Gold Region. The occasion will undoubtedly be most interesting, entertaining and exciting, and whatever the weather may be the great Hall will undoubtedly be filled at an early hour. The amiable and delightful Miss Goodenow has alone more friends than could crowd into the Hall, and we are sure they will be out in multitudes on these two farewell evenings."
The Alleghanians had a significant change of plans sometime toward the middle of February; but it is not at all clear from currently available information as to exactly when this change took place, how early the public knew of it, or even why it happened. We do not at present have all the particulars of how this came about; but the names of
"It is known to most of my friends, that I am connected with the Alleghanians, and that we are to embark for California in March," wrote Jesse. "We go there to sing the songs of Home and Hope and Promise - of the 'Good Time coming.'"
Notice the drop in specificity from
They have secured passage on the Prometheus for the 5th of March, and will positively leave on that date, Providence permitting
to
[W]e are to embark for California in March.
The Alleghanians and Jesse Hutchinson were held up several times in their efforts to get to the West Coast. One of the first of these delays apparently resulted from incidents in the prior voyage of the steamship Prometheus. The New York Times, for instance, reported that "Dispatches have been received by
"On February 24, the New York Tribune announced that": "Those popular vocalists," New York Daily Tribune, February 24, 1852, p. 5 col. 5.
"We do not at present have all the particulars": Edward T. Nichols appears not to have been much in the news at this time. At least this is the impression which arises from generally unproductive online searches, on his name, of the New York Times and Hartford Courant archives. (He was a Connecticut native who often operated out of New York City.) Yet there were periods when evidently Nichols was quite a trial for his renowned cousin and periods when Nichols was also more widely controversial. Among other things, he eventually did some prison time and appears to have been quite lucky he did not spend even more time behind bars. Source: A.H. Saxon, P.T. Barnum: The Legend and the Man, paperback (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989), 194-195. In this A.H. Saxon treatment, Nichols' character hardly sounds like a good match with the ever-respectable Alleghanians. Edward T. Nichols, then, is likely a worthy subject for further research, say, in connection with the Alleghanians delayed departure for California and in connection with his own sudden disappearance from news stories about the Alleghanians: two things which may have gone hand in hand. This may have been and probably was one of the key turning points in Alleghanians history.
"It is known to most of my friends, that I am": Jesse Hutchinson
"The New York Times, for instance, reported": "Settlement of the Prometheus Affair," New York Daily Times, February 10, 1852
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"We shall traverse over much of the country," wrote Jesse, "visiting all the principal mines and great points of
As Jesse was looking forward, so was he looking back. There is no hard evidence that one of his verses from this time was intended to be sung as part of his popular song "The Good Old Days of Yore," but it easily could have been. This verse would fit right in.
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"Jesse Hutchinson's Farewell" Breathe one song of Home 'mong others, Father's dear old Home, and mother's, Where once gathered sisters, brothers, Round the good old cottage door. Tell the wanderers far off driven, Though the ties of earth be riven, To all true hearts this promise's given, "We shall meet on a happier shore;" Meet again to part no more. |
The Alleghanians quartet was singing Jesse's "Good Old Days of Yore" at this time. A couple decades later and more, when Oakley, Boulard, and Dunning were no longer in the group's lineup and Miriam Goodenow and Jesse Hutchinson were no longer of this world, the Alleghanians would still be singing "The Good Old Days of Yore."
"To all true hearts this promise is
Among highlights of Alleghanians concerts in early 1852 were the songs "Kathleen Mavourneen," "Oh How I Love My Mountain Home," Stephen C. Foster's "Old Folks at Home," "Right Over Wrong," Jesse's new "Welcome to Kossuth" which was sung to a medley of tunes, and "Where Shall the Soul Find Rest."
The New York Tribune, speaking of the Alleghanians' upcoming farewell concerts at Metropolitan Hall, reported that "Miss Goodenow will also sing a farewell song written to the tune of 'Home, Sweet Home,' and prepared expressly for her; also several other popular songs both new and old. The evening's entertainment will conclude with an original grand Farewell Song, in the memorable and enduring tune of 'Auld Lang Syne,' and in the great chorus of which the audience are cordially invited to join."
"The Song of Labor," by all appearances, seems to have been sung only by the Alleghanians and by Joshua Hutchinson, a bold solo artist in an otherwise solidly harmony-group family.
"We shall traverse over much of the country": Jesse Hutchinson [Jr.], "Jesse Hutchinson's Farewell," The Musical World and Journal of the Fine Arts, New York, March 1, 1852, p. 189 cols. 1-2. Dateline: February 25, 1852.
"Breathe one song of Home 'mong others, Father's": Jesse Hutchinson [Jr.], "Jesse Hutchinson's Farewell," The Musical World and Journal of the Fine Arts, New York, March 1, 1852, p. 189 cols. 1-2. Dateline: February 25, 1852.
"The New York Tribune, speaking of the Alleghanians'": "The Alleghanians," New York Daily Tribune, February 27, 1852, p. 5 col. 5.
"The Song of Labor was a popular piece with audiences": "The Song of Labor," lyrics Frances D. Gage, music: Composer unknown, first line of text: "I love the banging hammer, The whirring of the plane," first line of chorus: "Ho! brothers, shout! brothers, In the cheerful call," no later than 1852.
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"The Song of Labor" The buzzing of the spindle, The rattling of the loom, The puffing of the engine, The fan's continual boom The clipping of the tailor's shears, The driving of the awl, The sounds of busy labor, I love, I love them all.
Ho! brothers, shout! brothers, In the cheerful call, The sounds of busy labor, We love, we love them all. |
The sample lines from "The Song of Labor," which were "quoted" in newspaper advertisements, actually were not part of this song's lyrics. Additionally, the lines that appeared in ads were partly rewritten during this period. This would be the work of Jesse Hutchinson, Jr. Rewriting and re-rewriting were two of his specialties.
A work being presented as a "New Song for Our Dear Native Land" was really not at all new to the world, though evidence points to this piece being a recent addition to the repertoire of the Alleghanians.
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"Our Own Native Land" We've roamed over mountain, We've crossed over flood, We've traversed the wave rolling strand. Though the fields were as fair And the moon shone as bright, Yet it was not our own native land, No no no no oh It was not our own native land.
The right hand of friendship How oft have we grasped, And bright eyes have smiled and looked bland. Yet happier far Were the hours that we passed In the West, in our own native land. Yes yes yes yes oh In the West, in our own native land.
Then hail, dear Columbia, The land that we love, Where flourishes Liberty's Tree. 'Tis the birthplace of freedom, Our own native home. 'Tis the land 'tis the land of the free. Yes yes yes yes oh 'Tis the land 'tis the land of the free. |
The sample lines from The Song of Labor, which were quoted": "'The Song of Labor.' Embracing every trade and occupation.
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From the banging of the Hammer, The driving of the Awl, The shouting of the News Boys, And every other call." |
Source: "Grand Farewell Festival," Advertisement, New York Daily Tribune, March 3, 1852, p. 8 col. 4.
In earlier advertisements, these lines ran with a different ending: "From the banging of the Hammer, The driving of the Awl, The shouting of the News-Boys, The Shepherd's mountain call." Source: "One More Grand Rally," Advertisement, New York Daily Tribune, January 26, 1852, p. 1 col. 6.
"A work being presented as a New Song for Our Dear": "My Own Native Land,"
This would seem to be the original version: "Oh! It Was Not My Own Native Land: Ballad," "Written and Adapted to a German
"My Own Native Land" is as close as this song comes to having a standard title. The Alleghanians often called it "Our Own Native Land" or, sometimes, "Our Dear Native Land." When researching his amazingly helpful Hutchinson Family book, Excelsior, Dale Cockrell found that the Hutchinsons sang this song through the middle years of the 1840s; and there is nothing to say they did not perform it beyond that period. They called this song "We've Roamed Over Mountains." For a fragment of the lyrics, which is more than enough to identify the song, see "We've Roamed Over Mountains," s.l.: s.n., n.d., in Item 43v, Ludlow Patton's Hutchinson Family Scrapbook, Wadleigh Memorial Library, Milford, New Hampshire.
The Alleghanians were announcing "My Own Native Land" as "new" not long after connecting with Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., allowing one to wonder whether group members may have picked it up from him. But the composer, William B. Bradbury, was quite actively before the public in New York City in those days. So, the singers could have gotten "My Own Native Land" from him. Some combination of these two possible sources seems a good bet. The Alleghanians must have been frequently in Jesse's company, and they definitely connected with Bradbury. The group's very last scheduled public appearance before sailing off to their California adventure was to have been a supporting role in a William B. Bradbury entertainment at the Broadway Tabernacle. For a source, see "Choir Concert," New York Daily Tribune, March 17, 1852, p. 5 col. 4. Whether they got back to New York from Boston in time to actually make this appearance is not totally clear, though it seems quite unlikely.
Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., was very enthusiastic about the speed of trains. He indulged this passion in a song called "The Rail Road Cars."
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My stars! my stars! How I love the steam cars, As in grandeur they roll on their train. Swift like a winged spirit Yet the thunder, oh, hear it, As they rattle o'er mountain and plain. |
In Jesse's day, verses of this particular structure, without a chorus to go along with them, seem to have been remarkably rare. "My Own Native Land" is the closest match I have ever found, and it is not for lack of looking. I suggest this as likely the tune Jesse had in mind for his "Rail Road Cars."
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The Alleghanians had long sung songs by Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., going all the way back to his "The Seasons" in the group's very first year, 1846. Jesse had been the Hutchinson Family's only successful lyricist; and these days, the Alleghanians were adding more of his verses to their concert programs: some likely with the same melodies the Hutchinsons used and others with new, original tunes. Jesse also began writing new verses for the Alleghanians.
Jesse Hutchinson wrote that "[T]he Alleghanians, who have for so many years sustained a high reputation, both as vocalists and as citizens,
"The Alleghanians, now about to embark for California, will give their farewell concerts at Metropolitan Hall, on Monday and Wednesday evenings next," reported the New York Tribune. "These are the only public occasions they will have of appearing in this City, and they will offer their friends the best selection of songs which they have ever sung."
A concert was held, in between these New York City dates, at the Brooklyn Female Academy.
An entertainment held at New York's Metropolitan Hall was given in grand style pretty much by definition. "The height was six stories, though the Concert room and galleries occupied three of these, leaving two below and one above," said the New York Times. "The entrances were on the northern end on Mercer street, and through a covered passageway on Broadway. The lobby was 100 feet by 20 in breadth. Two broad flights of double staircases led to the level of the concert floor."
The grand Concert Hall was 150 feet in length by 100 feet broad, and 50 feet high. The design of this room was furnished by Mr. Tripler. It was constructed on strict acoustic principles. The walls and ceiling presented a plane surface, except at the east end, where the stage was carried into a broad recess of a concave form. Those persons who have visited the Hall often will need no elaborate description to refresh their memories in regard to the free view from all parts of the house. Neither pillar nor chandelier obstructed the line of vision.
The Times article also spoke of lighting "by jets ranged outside the first and second circles" and of the stage which was "capable of enlargement at pleasure."
"Jesse had been the Hutchinson Family's only": The Alleghanians sang the Charles Mackay song, "There's a Good Time Coming," a piece which was intimately identified with the Hutchinson Family. The Alleghanians attributed the music to "Hutchinson." We may well imagine that they sometimes sang Jesse Hutchinson verses, such as "The Good Old Days of Yore," to the published Hutchinson Family melodies. On the other hand, the Alleghanians' version of Jesse's "Uncle Sam's Farm" was set to music credited to group member William H. Oakley.
New song verses written by Jesse specifically for the Alleghanians is a subject which falls in a gray area. "Welcome to Kossuth," at first glance, would seem to be an example. But the Hutchinson Family also sang a "Welcome to Kossuth" song, starting at pretty nearly if not exactly the same time; and it seems about certain that the Hutchinsons' and Alleghanians' "Welcome to Kossuth," at least lyrics-wise, come out to be precisely the same production.
As the Alleghanians prepared to leave New York for California, "Farewell" and "Grand Farewell" - which may be two slightly different "titles" for the same song - was/were probably written by Jesse, but we are not told so explicitly. Concert programs from these days also often included the title, "Going to California." Other verses are known to have been written by Jesse around this time, but information at hand is nowhere near complete enough for us to be able to tell for sure whether the Alleghanians sang these pieces. There is much we are left to guess.
"Jesse Hutchinson wrote that The Alleghanians, who": "Farewell Concerts at Metropolitan Hall,"
"The Alleghanians, now about to embark for California": "The Alleghanians," New York Daily Tribune, February 27, 1852, p. 5 col. 5.
"The height was six stories, though the Concert room": "Another Conflagration," New York Daily Times, January 9, 1854, p. 1 cols. 4-6.
If you know of photographs of Tripler/Metropolitan Hall, inside or out, and you would be willing to share your information, please e-mail us by way of the contact link toward the bottom of the page. This was such an important music hall that it seems to me it must have been photographed often, and copies of many pictures must still exist. But I personally have never seen a likeness of Metropolitan Hall.
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"No building in New-York was so richly adorned with frescoes," recalled a New York Times reporter. "The paintings in distemper, representing Apollo and the Muses in the centre, with the Four Seasons in the corners, and emblematic devices, tastefully arranged under the guidance of skillful artists, presented an air of peculiar richness. Above the stage was painted, in medallion, an exquisite portrait of Jenny Lind, which gave occasion for sundry eloquent apostrophes from oratorical gentlemen whose vocation led them thither."
Right after the hall first opened, a journalist judged that Jenny Lind's "frescoed portrait is the genius of the place."
On Wednesday, March 3, 1852, when Boulard, Dunning, Goodenow, and Oakley stood on the Metropolitan Hall stage beneath the familiar portrait of the beloved Swedish Nightingale, gazed out through the gas-light glare at the huge audience, and glanced up at a classical-age depiction of the heavenly arts in the fields of space and time, the singers may well have imagined returning from a successful California tour to triumph once again in this same grand hall. When they finished their last song and were greeted by a final burst of adoring applause, it was more final than they had any way of knowing.
In its initial report of the fire that destroyed Metropolital Hall in January 1854, the New York Times said, "The semi-annual meeting of the American Temperance Union was announced to take place this evening, in the Hall." Instrumental and vocal music was planned as seasoning for the night's events. William H. Oakley, evidently quite the temperance enthusiast, sang so often at these gatherings that it seems highly likely he would have taken part in the Monday, January 9 program, had the building not burned to the ground beforehand.
The Alleghanians made a swift farewell tour through the principal cities of the East. Jesse booked them on a tight schedule, as he had once done for the Hutchinson Family. The Alleghanians returned to New York from Boston on the 18th, not surprisingly a little behind schedule.
"The Alleghanians, accompanied by our friend Jesse Hutchinson, leave for California, in the steamship Daniel Webster, this afternoon at 3 o'clock," said the New York Daily Tribune. "We wish them a prosperous voyage and a speedy return." And thus the Alleghanians, with Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., and Miriam's brother George V. Goodenow, departed for what Hutchinson Family biographer Carol Brink called "the almost unimaginable West of California."
"No building in New-York was so richly adorned": "Another Conflagration," New York Daily Times, January 9, 1854, p. 1 cols. 4-6.
"Right after the hall first opened, a journalist": Unnamed writer quoted in "Another Conflagration," New York Daily Times, January 9, 1854, p. 1 cols. 4-6.
"In its initial report of the fire that destroyed": "Another Conflagration," New York Daily Times, January 9, 1854, p. 1 cols. 4-6.
"The Alleghanians made a swift farewell tour through": A quick search of the online Hartford Courant Article Archive shows items about the Alleghanians in that newspaper in the issues dated March 6, 8, and 9, 1852, which at least offers another hint at the timing of this short tour. According to a Worldcat record, the Alleghanians gave a second and last concert at the Melodeon in Hartford on Monday, March 8, 1852.
"The Alleghanians returned to New York from Boston": "These singers arrived last night from Boston, after a successful fare well tour in the principal Eastern cities. They will sail for California in the Daniel Webster to-morrow afternoon." Source: "The Alleghanians," New York Daily Tribune, March 19, 1852, p. 5 col. 6.
The Alleghanians were to have assisted William B. Bradbury with a Broadway Tabernacle choir concert on Wednesday, March 17, 1852. Source: "Choir Concert," New York Daily Tribune, March 17, 1852, p. 5 col. 4. But according to the short item cited at the head of this footnote, the group did not actually get back to New York until Thursday, March 18. So by all appearances, the last-ever time this famed Alleghanians lineup sang in a regular New York City show was at Metropolitan Hall on March 3.
"The Alleghanians, accompanied by our friend Jesse": "The Alleghanians," New York Daily Tribune, March 20, 1852, p. 5 col. 4.
"And thus the Alleghanians, with Jesse Hutchinson": Carol Brink, Harps in the Wind: The Story of the Singing Hutchinsons (New York: Macmillan, 1947), 153.
George Goodenow is listed in "Passengers Sailed," New York Daily Tribune, March 22, 1852, p. 7 col. 2. We are not told in what capacity he was traveling with the Alleghanians. The quartet originally had planned to bring a pianist along with them to California. Did George Valleau Goodenow play piano? There is much at present we do not know. If you have information about George Goodenow's life and his family that you would be willing to share, please e-mail us by way of the contact link near the bottom of the Web page.
Jesse Hutchinson made reference, in his news correspondence, to a "Mr. S" as "One of our own party." See Jesse Hutchinson
Over the next few months, Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., wrote correspondence for the highly prestigious newspaper, the New York Daily Tribune. Henry James, the father of famed novelist Henry James and equally famed psychologist William James, was then making regular contributions to the New York Tribune. Karl Marx was the paper's European correspondent.
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California, to the Alleghanians, may have looked more like the unattainable West. The party was to sail to Nicaragua, cross the Isthmus overland, then sail up the coast to San Francisco. Meanwhile, their steamship the North America - which was being used on the San Juan to San Francisco leg of this route - ran aground on a sunken reef. This was after the group's departure was delayed evidently by a combination of factors including troubles, actual or anticipated, with the steamship Prometheus, which was involved in at least two newsworthy international incidents on its prior voyage. The group also had a last-minute change of tour management. Clearly, in the early going, the Alleghanians West Coast trip was not going according to plan.
"Forty first-class passengers fought their way into cabins built to accommodate half that number," wrote Hutchinson Family biographer Philip D. Jordan. "Jesse had difficulty in finding the cramped, box-like staterooms that he had reserved as 'luxurious, spacious accommodations for gentlemen and ladies.'"
Not much farther along this route, Jesse wrote, in New York Tribune correspondence, "The press and public of New-York, and indeed of all the States, should frown upon the attempts of ambitious capitalists to crowd their ships so uncomfortably."
On the bright side, Philip Jordan added that "The Alleghanians, to the great delight of the other passengers, made the tiresome trip pleasant with song."
"Meanwhile, their steamship the North America": "From the Isthmus: Total Loss of the Splendid New Steamship North America," New York Daily Tribune, March 31, 1852, p. 5 cols. 2-3. Copied from the Panama Star, March 18.
"Forty first-class passengers fought their way": Philip D. Jordan, Singin' Yankees (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1946), 175.
The chapter, "Jesse Sees the Elephant," in Singin' Yankees, Philip D. Jordan's Hutchinson Family biography, is the seminal work on the trip of the Alleghanians and Jesse Hutchinson to California. Phil Jordan's chapter, no doubt, was named for an 1852 reference by Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., to an 1849 hit song, "Seein' the Elephant."
Hutchinson Family records are vast by nearly any standard. But they are especially so by comparison to records of the scantily documented Alleghanians. It ought to become readily apparent to the reader that the 1852 California trip is better recorded by far than any other period in Alleghanians history. Credit for this mainly belongs to Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., his brother-in-law Ludlow Patton, and Hutchinson Family biographer Phil Jordan, with John W. Hutchinson also notably figuring in. This level of detail, at present, cannot be achieved for any other period in the Alleghanians' long career. Unfortunately, this is especially true for Alleghanians history through an extended period following the visit to the California Gold Rush.
"Not much farther along this route, Jesse wrote": Jesse Hutchinson
"On the bright side, Philip Jordan added": Philip D. Jordan, Singin' Yankees (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1946), 175.
"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
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We've roamed over mountain, We've crossed over flood, We've traversed the wave rolling strand. Though the fields were as fair And the moon shone as bright, Yet it was not our own native land, No no no no oh It was not our own native land. |
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Brattleboro, Vermont: Published by the author. 2007.
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