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1852-1853
Chapter 4 Part 1
On Monday, May 24, the Alleghanians gave their first concert in San Francisco at the Adelphi. According to one newspaper, the "highly respectable" audience included many of "our most lovely and intelligent ladies." Later, another paper said the next few entertainments "were very brilliantly attended."
After the Alleghanians' third concert, which was held on Friday, May 28, San Francisco's Daily Evening Journal said,
Last evening their songs elicited more enthusiastic expressions of delight and approbation than even had greeted them on former occasions. Their selection of songs, the harmonious voices, sweetly blended in expressing
It is interesting to think of these Alleghanians concerts as stirring up the "memory of joys which are past" for these Californians who left their childhood homes to come here from all different parts of the country and from various corners of the world. Philip D. Jordan and Lillian Kessler explained in their book, Songs of Yesterday, that "Sentimental songs of home and
Children's author and Hutchinson Family biographer Carol Brink was a simply delightful writer, and the quote from her used in Voice and Spirit, about Jesse Hutchinson and the Alleghanians leaving for "the almost unimaginable West of California," is included largely for that reason. But while what Brink wrote may be quite true from a mainstream point of view, very much the opposite was the case for members of the Alleghanians party. The troupe's tours went surprisingly far afield, starting early in the company's history, and these singers appear to have been not just willing but eager to carry their music anywhere on the globe to any spot they could. The lure of the Gold Rush for them is perfectly obvious. Jesse, for his own part, started enthusing about California and its prospects when that region first became big national news following the thoroughly publicized discovery of Califoria gold. Jesse lived for great spectacles. Splashy spectacles do not run much bigger than the California Gold Rush which, in 1852, happened to be in its peak year.
"According to one newspaper, the highly respectable": Quoted in Philip D. Jordan, Singin' Yankees (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1946), 180.
"Later, another paper said the next few": "Review of Mining Intelligence," New York Daily Tribune, June 29, 1852, p. 5 col. 4. Copied from the Sacramento Union, n.d.
"Last evening their songs elicited more enthusiastic": "The Alleghanians," San Francisco: Daily Evening Journal, May 29, 1852, p. 2 col. 2.
"Philip D. Jordan and Lillian Kessler explained": Philip D. Jordan and Lillian Kessler, Songs of Yesterday: A Song Anthology of American Life (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1941), 241.
Page 2
On the 31st, Jesse convinced a "brother Printer" at the San Francisco Herald to let him use a press to hurriedly compose a circular to family and friends at home. In his circular, Jesse spoke of the hazards of the trip. "Yet my hope and my heart is above all our difficulties and dangers, and so are we all, happy, hopeful and harmonious, winning the good and golden opinions of the Californians." By this time the Alleghanians had given four concerts "to crowded and delighted audiences," and their success seemed all but certain. "I am delighted with the country," Jesse added, "and this city is yet to be the Jerusalem of our land. Here, already, do we see perambulating the streets, men from every
Though Jesse enthused about California, he found, and would continue to find, much in its moral climate to criticize. "This is decidedly a dangerous and uninviting country to many thousands who come hither without fixed principles. Every nook and corner of the land is lined with bar-rooms and gambling
The Alleghanians gave a series of four concerts at the Jenny Lind Theatre. Then they went to Stockton for an engagement on June 18. Next they visited Sacramento.
Thomas Moore's "Last Rose of Summer" was among the songs the Alleghanians sang on this trip.
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"The Last Rose of Summer" 'Tis the last rose of summer left blooming alone, |
It had been Jesse's plan from the early going to concentrate on the mining regions, where the group sang during the month of July.
While Jesse marveled at the splendor of California and its great potential, he found himself surrounded by gambling houses and bars and mixing with people who seldom if ever bathed or laundered their clothes. Healthy food was scarce.
In all our travels since leaving Sacramento, [wrote Jesse,] I have not seen or heard of a loaf of unbolted wheat bread, nor in the mining districts are there yet many vegetables. Plenty of meats and rich pastries, sausages and mince pies, coffee and poor tea, tobacco and alcoholic drinks, (the latter the best of the catalogue, often,) while following in their train come fevers and agues by thousands, and almost all manner of diseases, (in spite of the sweetness and purity of the climate, and cool nights for refreshing
And Jesse was attracted to scenes of lawlessness, decadence, and death. He attended the funeral of a man named Tanner, who was hanged at Marysville for theft. That night two men were arrested while attempting to steal Tanner's body from its shallow grave.
"Yet my hope and my heart is above all our difficulties": Jesse Hutchinson [Jr.], "Jesse Hutchinson's Private Circular to Friends at Home," San Francisco, CA, May 31, 1852.
"I am delighted with the country, Jesse added, and": Jesse Hutchinson [Jr.], "Jesse Hutchinson's Private Circular to Friends at Home," San Francisco, CA, May 31, 1852.
"This is decidedly a dangerous and uninviting country": Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., "Interior of California," New York Daily Tribune, August 31, 1852, p. 6 cols. 2-3. Dateline: Foster's Bar, CA, July 28, 1852. Cf. "The Moral Condition of California," New York Daily Times, November 1, 1851, p. 1 cols. 5-6; "California," New York Daily Tribune, February 1, 1853, p. 6 cols. 3-4.
"Thomas Moore's Last Rose of Summer was among": "The Last Rose of Summer,"
Those who are particularly interested in the contributions of Thomas Moore's songs to the early development of American music would likely want to read the chapter, "Erin, the Tear and the Smile in Thine Eyes," in Charles Hamm, Yesterdays: Popular Song in America, 1st ed. (New York: Norton, 1979), especially pages 42-59. On page 46, the author briefly discusses the possibility that "'Tis the Last Rose of Summer" may have been the first song to sell over a million copies in America.
"It had been Jesse's plan from the early going": Concentrating on mining regions: Jesse Hutchinson [Jr.], "Jesse Hutchinson's Farewell," Musical World and Journal of the Fine Arts, New York, March 1, 1852, p. 189 cols. 1-2; dateline: February 25, 1852. Alleghanians' July 1852 activities, whereabouts: Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., "Interior of California," New York Daily Tribune, August 31, 1852, p. 6 cols. 2-3. Dateline: Foster's Bar, CA, July 28, 1852.
"In all our travels since leaving Sacramento": Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., "Interior of California," New York Daily Tribune, August 31, 1852, p. 6 cols. 2-3. Dateline: Foster's Bar, CA, July 28, 1852.
"He attended the funeral of a man named Tanner": Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., "Interior of California," New York Daily Tribune, August 31, 1852, p. 6 cols. 2-3. Dateline: Foster's Bar, CA, July 28, 1852. Cf. "Execution of Tanner," New York Daily Tribune, August 31, 1852, p. 6 col. 2.
Page 3
Jesse, though, had not forgotten his business. He visited the office of the Marysville Express to report that the Alleghanians had been singing to excellent houses in Nevada City.
At Downieville, Jesse was greeted by the scene of a young man named Taylor who, in a fit of passion, killed his own brother.
On July 28, Jesse traveled along the banks of the Yuba for more than six miles and observed that "almost every foot is in process of fluming and nearly complete." "Should the dry season continue as usual, the amount of gold taken out from the bed of the rivers will probably amount to more than has ever been taken out in any one season from all sources whatever."
"The Spiritual Rappings and Writings have commenced in California," announced Jesse. "Many a bereaved heart has already found comfort here, which the world can neither give nor take away." Jesse's wife and the last of their six children died only a few months before he signed on with the Alleghanians. His faith in spiritualism comforted him as he grieved.
At this same time, Andrew Jackson Davis - one of the biggest names in the field of spiritualism - was a tenant at Stone Cottage, Jesse's Lynn, Massachusetts, home. While at Stone Cottage, Davis had a grand, elaborate vision of a great congress of those in spirit life.
Communication with the spirit world was very much on Jesse's mind these days.
Jesse thought the Isthmus route from the East to California was unnecessarily risky. Now that he was on the Pacific shore, he met many people who had tales to tell about suffering on the overland passage. He heard stories of death by cholera, mass graves, and children who were orphaned along the way. While needing to work through his own grief, Jesse seemed unable or unwilling to escape the heartbreak and misery of others. He reported acts of suicide by people who lost their jobs, suffered business failures, or experienced other trials. "All these things must needs be in a country so overcrowded with unnatural excitements of profits and losses, fortunes and failures." Neither did Jesse's encounters with lawlessness and decadence stop. "Crime in California still rules and reigns in many localities. Yesterday I saw a street-fight in the neighborhood of our hotel." This brought Jesse to one of his main themes.
The more I see of glorious California the more am I delighted with the land; yet the more do I see the need of incessant labor in her
"True and noble and self-sacrificing, humane and wise reformers are needed in California."
"On July 28, Jesse traveled along the banks": Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., "Interior of California," New York Daily Tribune, August 31, 1852, p. 6 cols. 2-3. Dateline: Foster's Bar, CA, July 28, 1852.
Whether or not Jesse got his prediction right in its particulars, this year, 1852, did turn out to be the peak year of the California Gold Rush.
"The Spiritual Rappings and Writings have commenced": Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., "California," New York Daily Tribune, October 19, 1852, p. 6 cols. 1-2. Dateline: San Francisco, August 30, 1852.
"At this same time, Andrew Jackson Davis - one of": Andrew Jackson Davis is understood to have stayed at Jesse Hutchinson's Stone Cottage from August 7, 1852 to March 8, 1853.
"All these things must needs be in a country": Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., "California," New York Daily Tribune, October 19, 1852, p. 6 cols. 1-2. Dateline: San Francisco, August 30, 1852.
"The more I see of glorious California the more": Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., "California," New York Daily Tribune, October 19, 1852, p. 6 cols. 1-2. Dateline: San Francisco, August 30, 1852.
"True and noble and self-sacrificing, humane and wise": Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., "Interior of California," New York Daily Tribune, August 31, 1852, p. 6 cols. 2-3. Dateline: Foster's Bar, CA, July 28, 1852.
Page 4
All the while, Jesse was traveling about the mining country, scheduling and advertising engagements for the Alleghanians. "Since I last wrote you, I have twice visited this city,
That the Alleghanians have been very successful, is already established beyond all doubt or failure. They will realize more solid golden profit this year, in California, than in a life-time almost in the States. Their music was just what the heart of the poor miner needed; thus have they carried blessings to thousands, and been blessed by thousands in return. I did hope to have been able to return this fall, but the party are already engaged here till into the winter, and every fresh round they make only increases their fame and public favor.
"Miss Goodenow has become almost an idol in California, and many are the 'lumps of glittering 'gold' she has received from the gallant miners. I think it well
Miriam Goodenow was the Alleghanians' chief attraction and the key to the group's success. "'What everybody says must be true'," said Jesse, "and everybody here says Miss Goodenow will never return to the States, except to the State of Matrimony, towards which, to say the least, there is a strong tendency."
The Alleghanians worked the northern mines, planning to tour through the southern ones starting about the middle of September. But now the future of their California enterprise was put into question by the success of competing entertainments. "Booth and the Bakers," said Jesse, "and Starks, and Mrs. Woodward and hosts of theatricals, are all doing well here and in Sacramento. There is no unoccupied room fit for a concert in this city. A Hall or Theater will soon be built, and the Alleghanians will then return." But Miriam Goodenow is said to have become ill at Columba.
In the first half of September, Jesse left San Francisco and returned to the mining country by way of Sacramento. During this trip, he came in contact with 100 people who were sick with chills and fever. While he was visiting Rose's Bar, fifteen or more sufferers died within a mile of his lodgings.
Jesse thought that keeping physically active, getting plenty of fresh air, drinking cold water, and eating lots of fruits and vegetables were some of the keys to healthful living. By now, he had decided that one way he could work toward the betterment of California would be to promote dietary and health reform. He was distributing whole-grain foods.
I carried my wheat in our wagon, and preached bread and water and bathing and good air to the sufferers. In most cases the poor fellows have never been advised by the quack doctors to ever bathe at all, and often would they lay days in their filthy clothes, and partaking of poisonous drugs, luring them slowly but surely to their graves.
"Since I last wrote you, I have twice visited": Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., "California," New York Daily Tribune, October 19, 1852, p. 6 cols. 1-2. Dateline: San Francisco, August 30, 1852.
Regarding Miriam Goodenow's contributions to the Alleghanians' success in California, Jesse wrote, "The boys will not now complain, though they lose the bird from her nest, for she has 'feathered their nest' richly, and they can each hie to their own nests at home, laden with the rich trophies of their mission. I am glad of their success, and am not unrewarded myself." Source: Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., "California," New York Daily Tribune, October 19, 1852, p. 6 cols. 1-2. Dateline: San Francisco, August 30, 1852.
"What everybody says must be true, said Jesse": Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., "California," New York Daily Tribune, October 19, 1852, p. 6 cols. 1-2. Dateline: San Francisco, August 30, 1852.
It seemed curious at first that Jesse was writing so very early about Miriam Goodenow's inclination toward matrimony. At California tour stops, months later, this was still a closely-guarded secret. News reports of her wedding were delayed several days because concerts had been booked already and she had been billed for those shows as "Miss Goodenow." It is funny to think that some West Coast folks may have gotten early word of this California news story from a copy of the New York Tribune sent to the Pacific shore. Be that as it may, Jesse probably knew lots more than he was saying in this New York Tribune correspondence. Toward the end of his paragraph, he declared, "Thus far deponent saith, and no farther." The very success of this California trip was enough to prompt Miriam Goodenow's retirement from the life of concert tours. Miriam's obituary in the Chicago Tribune said, "Her sole object was to aid her parents and procure means to give her sisters a liberal
"Booth and the Bakers, said Jesse, and Starks": Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., "California," New York Daily Tribune, October 19, 1852, p. 6 cols. 1-2. Dateline: San Francisco, August 30, 1852.
Benjamin A. Baker was then managing the Metropolitan Theatre in San Francisco. Junius Brutus Booth, and his sons Edwin and Junius Jr., were active in San Francisco at the time.
"But Miriam Goodenow is said to have become ill": Philip D. Jordan, Singin' Yankees (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1946), 185.
It would be great to know Professor Jordan's sources regarding Miriam Goodenow's illnesses during the Alleghanians' travels in California. This project turned up no such information from primary sources. Miriam was only in her 20s when she died, so information about illnesses during the California tour, if well founded, could be medically and biographically significant.
"I carried my wheat in our wagon, and preached bread": Jesse Hutchinson [Jr.], "Letter From Jesse Hutchinson," New York Daily Tribune, December 6, 1852, p. 6 col. 4. Datelines: San Francisco, September 13, 1852; and September 15, 1852.
Page 5
Apparently there was indecision, or a difference of opinion, among the Alleghanians about when they should return to the East. The singers may have tired of touring through the mines, and it is quite possible that Oakley, Boulard, and Dunning wanted to go home or elsewhere. Yet the voice and presence of Miriam Goodenow was key to the group's success, and it looked certain that she would remain in California. Jesse seemed game either way. Then he managed to find a hall for a concert in San Francisco - finally.
September 13, 1852, was a big day for the Alleghanians. "I arose this morning," said Jesse, "with a light and buoyant heart under the hope that in a few weeks more I may again set sail for home." But that night at Armory Hall, the quartet gave one of its most successful California concerts. Hutchinson Family biographer Philip D. Jordan said, for instance, that sales of the Alleghanians' 1852 songster, which cost twenty-five cents, were stronger at this event than at any previous engagement. This triumph must have turned a few heads among group
At this same time, Jesse Hutchinson's New York Tribune correspondence was reporting oppressive weather followed by the arrival of the "sickly season" and a high mortality rate which he said was very alarming in many places. "You will observe by the California exchanges," he wrote, "a great increase in the bills of mortality by cholera; and I presume the half is not told, as the local papers very naturally desire to suppress the alarming facts."
A San Francisco newspaper said, "In theatrical and musical matters, the times are dull, flat and unprofitable." The same paper reported that the Alleghanians troupe was singing at Sacramento.
California's season of sickness coinciding, as it did, with a general slowdown in the entertainment business must have added greatly to the appeal of the return trip home. Oakley, Boulard, and Dunning positively decided to leave for the East - as an all-male trio - as soon as they could.
"I am now en route to the Northern mines for the last time," wrote Jesse. "While the Alleghanians will go on their way rejoicing into the Southern mines, and probably closing their concerts in California within a very few weeks." Though Jesse planned to go home, he was talking about returning later to promote reform.
"I arose this morning, said Jesse, with a light": Jesse Hutchinson [Jr.], "Letter From Jesse Hutchinson," New York Daily Tribune, December 6, 1852, p. 6 col. 4. Datelines: San Francisco, September 13, 1852; and September 15, 1852.
"Hutchinson Family biographer Philip D. Jordan said": Philip D. Jordan, Singin' Yankees (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1946), 185-186.
"You will observe by the California exchanges": Jesse Hutchinson [Jr.], "Letter From Jesse Hutchinson," New York Daily Tribune, December 6, 1852, p. 6 col. 4. Datelines: San Francisco, September 13, 1852; and September 15, 1852.
"A San Francisco newspaper said, In theatrical": "Two Weeks Later From California," New York Daily Tribune, November 9, 1852, p. 5 col. 4. This comprehensive set of news items, which ran under a single main headline, actually begins in column 3 and contains reports brought by the steamship, Star of the West, from California newspapers to October 16, 1852 inclusive. Evidently the two brief passages noted here are from the Alta California.
"I am now en route to the Northern mines for": Jesse Hutchinson [Jr.], "Letter From Jesse Hutchinson," New York Daily Tribune, December 6, 1852, p. 6 col. 4. Datelines: San Francisco, September 13, 1852; and September 15, 1852.
"Though Jesse planned to go home, he was talking": "I intend, ere long, to return again to this country, and for the next five years work for California." Source: Jesse Hutchinson
Page 6
Jesse's writings about California reflect a shaky balance between the wonders of nature and the vast potential he saw, on the one hand, and the unhealthy living conditions and moral climate, on the other. There seemed to be an interplay between this situation and his own emotional state. He was experiencing the Gold Rush at its peak, while at the very same time he was grieving over the loss of his beloved wife and children. The Lowell Vox Populi observed that "during the last few months he spent in California it was apparent to his friends that he was laboring under a kind of monomania which rendered him quite as miserable as he believed that society to be, for whose reformation he professed a willingness to devote the labors of his life."
Jesse's letter of September 15 is the last commonly known correspondence from this trip. After this, details of events and circumstances come strictly from scattered sources. The quartet continued giving concerts through November.
The Alleghanians sang at Sonora's Methodist Episcopal Church, the last scheduled concert there being a benefit for Miriam Goodenow. At Sonora, she married Thomas P. Robb - a member of the Sacramento Common Council. The wedding is said to have taken place around the first of December, though an earlier date, sometime in November, looks to be a very strong possibility. Oakley, Boulard, and Dunning subsequently left for New York on the Pacific. The bride and groom stayed in California for a time. Miriam's brother, George V. Goodenow, remained on the West Coast, possibly to the end of his days.
Miriam Goodenow was among the most popular American vocalists of the early 1850s, and no doubt fans wished her a long and happy life. She and her husband blissfully started raising a family.
By about the time of the Goodenow-Robb wedding, Jesse had become a flour dealer, in partnership with James Duhig. One newspaper correspondent wrote:
Jesse Hutchinson has gone into the flour business, and says he is fully impressed that it is his duty to endeavor to persuade every man, woman and child in California that they should eat unbolted (or Graham) flour bread which he calls the "Bread of Life," and is so eager to fulfill his mission, that I have repeatedly met him on the street with a fifty pound bag on his shoulder, on his way to some convert.
Meanwhile on January 9, 1853, the Alleghanians arrived in New York on board the Northern Light, without Jesse, their most successful publicist, and without Miriam Goodenow, their chief attraction. The New York Tribune said, "Among the passengers by the Northern Light, yesterday, we notice the names of Messrs. Boullard, Oakly and Dunning, (of the Alleghanian troupe,) who have returned home after a very successful tour through California. Miss Goodenow, who accompanied them, remains in California with her brother. Jesse Hutchinson, their business agent, has gone into the flour business in San Francisco."
"The Lowell Vox Populi observed that during": "Recent Deaths," New York Daily Times, June 3, 1853, p. 2 col. 6. Copied from the Lowell (MA) Vox Populi, n.d.
Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., went through a gloomy period that may have begun not long after his correspondence in the New York Tribune stopped - perhaps even before. He seems to have been pulling out of it early in 1853, before he left San Francisco for home. In between times, his writings were often dark; and, as far as is known, very little of it was published in any form.
"The Alleghanians sang at Sonora's Methodist": The most interesting, humorous, and likely most accurate report of the Goodenow-Robb wedding is "The Marriage of Miss Goodenow, the Alleghanian," New York Daily Times, January 14, 1853, p. 6 col. 6. For a few details missing from the New York Times article, see "Tuolumne County History," www.calarchives4u.com/history/tuolumne/1882-2.htm, accessed September 4, 2006.
It is often said that Miriam G. Goodenow and Thomas Patten Robb were wed at San Francisco on December 15, 1852. At least a couple reports, though, had them married around the first of December at Sonora. Genealogy records which are readily available on the Internet say the couple was married at San Francisco in 1854. This would be real news to the happy bride and groom, who believed they were married in 1852. Those who claim the event took place at Sonora around December 1, 1852, talk the best game.
The January 14, 1853, New York Tribune wedding announcement is quite interesting because it gives the date, the city, the names of the marrying parties, and the name of the officiating clergy member. See "Married," New York Daily Tribune, January 14, 1853, p. 6 col. 3. But contradictory information ran in an earlier issue of the paper. "A correspondent from Sonora states that Miss Goodenow, of the Alleghanians, was privately married, while in that place, to Mr. Robb, of Sacramento." Source: "A correspondent from Sonora," New York Daily Tribune, January 10, 1853, p. 6 col. 3.
It seems about certain that Miriam Goodenow married T. P. Robb on or likely before December 1, as reported in a handful of sources. The January 14, 1853, Tribune item is detailed enough, though - and it is hard to imagine that anyone made up these details - that one might surmise that the Robbs may have renewed their wedding vows, for some reason, on December 15 at San Francisco.
Members of the Alleghanians and Jesse Hutchinson had family, friends, and prior acquaintances in California at this time. Some of these people where definitely in California during the Alleghanians tour, while others are known to have arrived around this time but we don't have firm dates. Members of the Alleghanians party also had friends from among their companions on the trip from New York to San Francisco, and Thomas P. Robb must have had many friends and associates in the San Francisco and Sacramento areas. The Robbs may have renewed their wedding vows at San Francisco so loved ones could be present for the occasion.
As for the Alleghanians and Jesse having family and friends in Gold Rush California, to the very best of my knowledge not a word of this comes from well-known Alleghanians sources. Sources of this information, instead, include numerous modern genealogists and even more numerous Web postings.
Future Alleghanians, as well as friends and family connections of future Alleghanians, also were in California at this time. It would be interesting to know, if we had any way of knowing, whether the original Alleghanians became acquainted with any of their future colleagues or future counterparts. Jesse Hutchinson would have had a hard time not meeting
D. G. Waldron wrote a memoir of his trip to California and of his early days there. It exists today as a manuscript which is owned by the University of California at Berkeley: Daniel G. Waldron, Journal of a Life in California, MS (S.l.: s.n., 1851-1852).
Someone called J.B. Packard - evidently a Massachusetts man - has been named as one of the California Gold Rush's 49ers. Whether this is the same person as Jesse Bullock Packard, a known connection of the Alleghanians, would be hard to say based on commonly available evidence. But Jesse Bullock Packard's brother, Major W. Packard of Bloomington, Illinois, was definitely in Gold Rush California from 1850 to 1851 and, I suppose, possibly beyond. It is difficult to know how to cite Major Wellman Packard's article on this topic because of its complicated reprint history, but I think most readers will easily get all the information they need, for starters, from this: M.W. Packard, Early Emigration to California (Bloomington, IL: McLean County Historical Society, 1899); in Transactions of the McLean County Historical Society, 1899, evidently Vol. I, pages 437-450. Regarding the full name of Major W. Packard, see the related footnote at Chapter 7 Part 1 Page 4.
An Ezra Durgin was in San Francisco in 1850. Quite likely, from what little is presently known of him, he traveled to California from the U.S. East Coast. Whether he was the same person as Mary E. Durgin's father, Ezra S. Durgin, is not commonly known. Mary, at this time, was a future Alleghanian.
"Oakley, Boulard, and Dunning subsequently left": Philip D. Jordan, Singin' Yankees (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1946), 186; "Married," New York Daily Tribune, January 14, 1853, p. 6 col. 3.
The Alleghanians arrived in New York on board the Northern Light; it was carrying California news up to December 15, 1852. See New York Daily Times, January 10, 1853, p. 8 col. 4.
It would be interesting to know for certain whether this ship, the Pacific, on which the Alleghanians sailed down the California coast, is the same vessel that sank in 1875 in one of the era's greatest maritime disasters, though I am fairly sure of it already. Several of Agatha States' closest relatives died in this terrific tragedy. More information about Agatha States is needed; but according to one source, later she would be a featured vocalist in the Alleghanians.
"The bride and groom stayed in California for a time": Information, at present, is contradictory as to when the Robb family left California.
"Miriam's brother, George V. Goodenow, remained": Apparently George Valleau Goodenow died sometime before the 1900 United States Census was taken. Census records do not entirely agree as to his wife's given name, though Lena is reported most often. When and where did George V. Goodenow and his wife die and what became of their children? Some of this information is available from United States Census sources and by way of the Social Security Death Index. 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.
"She and her husband blissfully started raising": Miriam Goodenow Robb may have dropped totally out of the public eye following her wedding. Her Chicago Tribune obituary gives the impression that she did.
One of our e-mail correspondents has an exceptional scanned image of a Meade Bros. photograph of Miriam that makes her look livelier and a good deal younger than the picture in Singin' Yankees, though this likeness comes from a publication dated 1851 which would have been about as close to the end of her professional singing career as to the beginning. It gives a far better idea of why she was considered, in her day, to be very attractive. Miriam Goodenow had a distinctive look and - modern readers have much reason to understand - she had considerable romantic and sex appeal. References to her sex appeal, though, were written between the lines. Clearly she had a kind of star quality.
Henry W. Meade and his brother, Charles R. Meade - as the Meade Brothers - were well-known daguerreotypists; and evidently they remain highly regarded to this day. If you know of an original copy of their daguerreotype of Miriam G. Goodenow and you would be willing to share your information, please e-mail us by way of the contact link by the bottom of the Web page.
Miriam Goodenow Robb died in April 1856. During their short marriage, the Robbs had two daughters. One has no living descendants. This much can be learned from United States Census sheets.
The other daughter, whose name is generally given as Ella A. Robb, seemed to simply vanish from available records. It is easy to surmise, in an instance of this sort, that such a disappearance may indicate an early death. Ella Robb, though, married and forever after, or at least until divorce did them part, when operating in anything like a public capacity, went by her husband's name instead of going by her own personal name. This has fantastically obscured matters for those interested parties who do not know who she married or even that she married. From there, the plot thins even further.
During their marriage, Ella and her husband, George S. Welles, appear to have given census takers the slip. Or possibly they are recorded on semi-legible census sheets. This study has found Ella in the United States Census before her marriage and has located her first husband in the census both before this marriage and after the divorce. Ella's second husband had a very common surname, and sources, alas, do not agree on his given name.
George S. Welles' second wife, suffragist Clara Barck Welles, was quite well known in the art and teaching of silversmithing. In very recent times, Clara B. Welles and her Kalo Shop of Chicago and Park Ridge, Illinois, have resurfaced in the academic world as topics of research interest. For a current case in point, see Carolyn Kelly, The Kalo Shop: A Case Study of Handwrought Silver in the Twentieth Century (M.A. Thesis, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and Parsons School of Design, 2006). Photographs of Clara Welles may be viewed via the Library of Congress' American Memory website.
A number of people, such as obituary writers, had an opportunity to write about Ella or at least to name her but did not do it. Her daughter's obituary in the New York Times makes not even a passing reference to either parent.
This problem of lack of information is not common to Ella's family line nor to her generation of the Goodenow-Robb family: it is specific to Ella. Who knows why. So, tracing this family through her - our only option - comes with great built-in difficulties.
The family of Ella Robb Welles resurfaces briefly, later in this booklet.
"By about the time of the Goodenow-Robb wedding, Jesse": Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., and James Duhig, "Graham Flour Depot," San Francisco: s.n., December 22, 1852, in Item 50r, Ludlow Patton's Hutchinson Family Scrapbook, Wadleigh Memorial Library, Milford, New Hampshire.
Research about James Duhig and members of his family would take us quite far from our topic, the Alleghanians. But it may be worth noting here that an e-mail correspondent says the Duhig family was quite important in the history of Napa, Napa County, California. Stewart Morton Duhig, in a 1980 interview, made at least some reference to James Duhig. Worldcat categorizes the record of that interview as a book, which is titled Stewart Duhig: An Interview. The copy I have heard of is in California at the St. Helena Public Library.
"Jesse Hutchinson has gone into the flour business": "California," New York Daily Tribune, February 1, 1853, p. 6 cols. 3-4.
According to published reports from California, a handful of dealers were restricting flour supplies so they could raise their prices to the limit. It was becoming a public-policy issue. This is the situation Jesse stepped into.
"Meanwhile on January 9, 1853, the Alleghanians arrived": "Fifteen Days Later From California," New York Daily Times, January 10, 1853, p. 3, col. 1; "Passengers Arrived," New York Daily Times, January 10, 1853, p. 8 cols. 5-6.
"The New York Tribune said, Among the passengers": "City Items," New York Daily Tribune, January 10, 1853, p. 7 col. 3.
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It was probably about this time that Jesse wrote:
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Brothers! I hear your voices sweet, |
Jesse's career as a flour dealer was brief. In January he made arrangements to go home.
Jesse was well-known for his generosity, which at this time evidently exceeded his means.
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I gave to the poor and needy, and great was my reward, |
Jesse planned to take Vanderbilt's Pacific to San Juan del Sur, cross Nicaragua, and board the Pampero for New Orleans. He left on Tuesday, February 1, 1853. Once on land, his party took mules up to Lake Nicaragua and boated across to the other side, where they would float down the San Juan River.
Then Jesse encountered a familiar problem: low water hindered the progress of boats coming to pick up the travelers, who waited three days in uncomfortable and unhealthy conditions. According to John W. Hutchinson:
When part way on his journey some one of the company discovered that a trunk, containing twenty thousand dollars in gold, had been left behind on the isthmus. He
Jesse sailed on the steamship Daniel Webster, disembarking at New Orleans on March 12. He took the Wm. Noble to Cincinnati, where he arrived on Saturday, April 2, 1853.
The Alleghanians took part in the celebration of Benjamin Franklin's birthday, put on at Niblo's Saloon by the Typographical Society of New York on Monday evening, January 17, 1853. Among the group's songs identified by title were "The Printer's Boy" and "Yankee Doodle Dandy."
"Brothers! I hear your voices sweet, Re-echoing": Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., "Last Poetry Written by Brother Jesse, at San Francisco, California," appended to Abby Hutchinson Patton, "Impromptu Lines From Sister Abby: Orange, New Jersey, near New York, to Judson, John, and Asa in New Hampshire, White-Washed Cottage, July 27,
Abby Hutchinson Patton never intended her little doodle, "Impromptu Lines," for publication; but for a time, printed copies were folded and tipped in to Hutchinson Family songsters, as a bonus for purchasers. Thus, it was distributed at concerts and at other points of sale.
I personally do not recall ever seeing a Hutchinson Family songster which was still complete with its original copy of "Impromptu Lines From Sister Abby." But the most likely songster edition, based on publication year, would seem to be Asa B. Hutchinson, Book of Words of the Hutchinson Family,
Jesse's verses beginning, "Brothers! I hear your voices sweet," could be taken to mean that John and Asa Hutchinson wanted Jesse back as their business agent (and lyricist). This, in turn, could suggest that Jesse would no longer be looking out for the business interests of the Alleghanians. But, of course, this is a matter of conjecture and not a thing which is known. Members of the Hutchinson Family vocal group were not Jesse's only brothers, and the brothers addressed in these verses are not actually identified by name. Joshua, Judson, John, and Asa, though, do seem quite likely.
"I gave to the poor and needy, and great was": Jesse Hutchinson [Jr.], "Farewell to California," MS, 1853, in Item 111r, Ludlow Patton's Hutchinson Family Scrapbook, Wadleigh Memorial Library, Milford, New Hampshire.
"Then Jesse encountered a familiar problem: low water": Philip D. Jordan, Singin' Yankees (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1946), 187-188.
"When part way on his journey some one of the company": John Wallace Hutchinson, Story of the Hutchinsons (Tribe of Jesse), 2 vols. (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1896), 1:317.
"Jesse sailed on the steamship Daniel Webster": "Latest News by Telegraph," New York Daily Tribune, March 15, 1853, p. 4 col. 6; Philip D. Jordan, Singin' Yankees (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1946), 188-189.
"The Alleghanians took part in the celebration": "The Franklin Festival: Printers' Ball and Supper at Niblo's," New York Daily Times, January 18, 1853, p. 8 cols. 1-2.
This study, so far, has not turned up information as to whether the Alleghanians sang on this occasion as an all-male trio or, perhaps, recruited a female vocalist to take the part formerly held by Miriam G. Goodenow. Of course, there are other possibilities.
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What happened next is anyone's guess. Public appearances by the Alleghanians may have stopped altogether. The group made out very well in California, and there could have been thought of taking their earnings from this successful trip and retiring from the concert-tour business.
What is known is that after this company sang at Niblo's on January 17, the Alleghanians timeline used in this project has no further entries for concerts or for the group singing at public meetings until way off in July 1855. In the months following the group's return to New York, advertisements, event listings, and announcements of William H. Oakley's solo appearances often referred to him as the former leader of the Alleghanians. Nothing at all in print, from the same period, has been found promoting public appearances involving Boulard or Dunning.
The Alleghanians look to have gone on hiatus or to have disbanded altogether with or without specific thoughts of reuniting later.
"The group made out very well in California, and there": Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., wrote, "That the Alleghanians have been very successful, is already established beyond all doubt or failure. They will realize more solid golden profit this year, in California, than in a life-time almost in the States." He added, referring to Miriam Goodenow, "The boys will not now complain, though they lose the bird from her nest, for she has 'feathered their nest' richly, and they can each hie to their own nests at home, laden with the rich trophies of their mission. I am glad of their success, and am not unrewarded myself." See Jesse Hutchinson, "California," New York Daily Tribune, October 19, 1852, p. 6 cols. 1-2. Dateline: August 30, 1852.
It was uniformly reported that this was a lucrative trip for the Alleghanians. Reports, though, differed as to how Jesse ultimately made out.
"In the months following the group's return": For an early example, see "Grand Temperance Demonstration," in "Special Notices" column, New York Daily Times, April 28, 1853, p. 1 col. 1.
"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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