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1853-1855
Chapter 4 Part 2
On April 6, 1853, members of the Hutchinson Family got news that their brother Jesse was sick. He was in Cincinnati, being cared for by the family of a maternal uncle, Daniel Kendrick Leavitt. Jesse's brother Judson hurried there and sent back discouraging reports. Soon John, Fanny, Asa, and Lizzie Hutchinson all left for Cincinnati. They stopped for a few days in New York, where they met Joshua, an older brother, on his way home from Philadelphia. Not much later, they got word from Joshua that Zephaniah, yet another older brother, had died on the 19th of April.
Zephaniah Kittredge Hutchinson stood out among his brothers as the pioneer of the family, having early taken to farming in rural Illinois. He was the Hutchinson Family quartet's business manager during their first couple years of prosperity.
After they arrived in Cincinnati, the Hutchinson brothers showed little outward sign of alarm over Jesse's illness. They decided to mix family obligations with business and advertised concerts to begin on May 17. Yet late in life John W. Hutchinson recalled, "Our brother Jesse was cheerful, but dangerously sick. Some days he would rally and we would begin to hope. His three brothers would take turns in caring for him."
On Sunday, May 15, 1853, Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., is said to have died at the water-cure establishment of Dr. E.A. Pease at Carthage, Ohio. "He died easily," said John, "retaining his faculties to the last."
"After they arrived in Cincinnati, the Hutchinson": It is a mystery why John and Asa Hutchinson took so long getting to Cincinnati. The Hutchinsons were remarkably mobile and their movements were usually quick. Only Judson, at the time, gave evidence of being greatly troubled by Jesse's condition.
"They decided to mix family obligations with business": "The Hutchinson Family," Cincinnati Daily Gazette, May 14, 1853.
"Yet late in life John W. Hutchinson recalled": John Wallace Hutchinson, Story of the Hutchinsons (Tribe of Jesse), 2 vols. (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1896), 1:318.
"On Sunday, May 15, 1853, Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., is said": Location: Philip D. Jordan, Singin' Yankees (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1946), 189. Date: "Cincinnati, May 16," Amherst, NH: Farmers' Cabinet, May 19, 1853, p. 2 col. 6; "The Cincinnati Forgeries - Death of Jesse Hutchinson, &c.," New York Daily Times, May 18, 1853, p. 1 col. 3, dateline: Cincinnati, Monday, May 16; 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,
The name, Dr. E. A. Pease, has never checked out in my research as the name of a water-cure practitioner in the Cincinnati, Ohio, area. I suspect the name Dr. E.A. Pease is not correct. The name, Dr. Leavitt A. Pease, is given by many genealogists for a man who appears to be identical to Dr. Leavitt Thaxter Pease. Some garbling, then, of the name of Dr. Leavitt Thaxter Pease, a known abolitionist, or the name, Dr. Leavitt A. Pease, seems to be a distinct possibility.
"He died easily, said John, retaining his faculties": John Wallace Hutchinson, Story of the Hutchinsons (Tribe of Jesse), 2 vols. (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1896), 1:318-319.
John W. Hutchinson (p. 1:319), speaking of Jesse as he lay dying, said, "He spent much time from day to day in making verses and rhyming." Brother-in-law Ludlow Patton copied a number of Jesse's unpublished writings into his Hutchinson Family Scrapbook, evidently in the mid-1890s. One piece is clearly marked as having been found in Jesse's portfolio. See Jesse Hutchinson
Sir, I have to write upon my port-folio, resting the same upon my knee while I stand upon one foot and try to breathe from a small six inch porthole from my cabin.
Source: Jesse Hutchinson [Jr.], "Acapulco: Sufferings on Board the Monumental City," New York Daily Tribune, June 15, 1852, p. 5 cols. 4-5. Dateline: Monumental City at sea, April 27, 1852, with a postscript, Acapulco, Mexico, May 1, 1852.
It seems most likely that Jesse started traveling with his writing portfolio, or with something similar, and using it no later than 1848. The location of its contents - if they have been preserved - is not commonly known. However, if these contents have been saved and, better yet, are still collected together, it seems quite likely that valuable information regarding the Alleghanians could be found among them.
Jesse left behind much material that was quite suitable for singing. It is a mystery why his brothers did not set his remaining verses to music. It took brother-in-law Ludlow Patton, decades later, to recover a good many of Jesse's little-known writings. One is left to wonder whether there may be more.
If you know what became of the contents of the writing portfolio of Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., or if you know of other writings by him which may not be part of the main Hutchinson Family collections, and you would be willing to share your information, please e-mail us via the contact link near the bottom of the Web page.
Jesse Hutchinson, Jr. (1813-1853)
Zephaniah Kittredge Hutchinson (1810-1853)
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On the 17th, this announcement appeared in the Cincinnati Times: "Owing to the sudden demise of one of the brothers of the Hutchinson Family, the concert announced for this (Tuesday) evening will be indefinitely postponed." The published program for the canceled show was full of Jesse's songs.
Tributes to Jesse's character began pouring in.
On May 20, Jesse's funeral was held at his Stone Cottage home in Lynn, Massachusetts, and he was interred at the nearby Eastern Burial Ground.
On June 2, 1853, William H. Oakley sang solo in a temperance meeting at New York's Greene Street Methodist Episcopal Church. It seems likely this was one of his first advertised public appearances - if not his very first - after news arrived of the death of Jesse Hutchinson, Jr. At this gathering, Oakley sang "The Good Old Days of Yore" and "Right Over Wrong," along with other unnamed selections. Since all the songs which were named in published reports were written by Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., it is easy to imagine that this was Oakley's tribute to the passing of a temperance co-worker and personal friend. "The Good Old Days of Yore" is a fine song - one of Jesse's best - but it is hardly a temperance anthem. It was appropriate to this occasion as a shared song of personal parting.
Miss M. E. Durgin will give one of her musical entertainments at the Temple, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Thursday evening, October 14, 1852, on which occasion she will be assisted by Miss H.M. Mitchell, Mr. J.B. Hill, Mr. E.S. Durgin, Isabelle the Gipsey, and Miss E.M. Hadley, pianist.
New Hampshire was the ground on which a lot of the nation's musical talent was raised, in the 1840s and 1850s, for the purpose of entertaining and enriching the lives of respectable and even fashionable audiences. The Hutchinson Family singers, for instance, were famed as Granite State natives.
By the early 1850s, a very young southern New Hampshire girl named Mary E. Durgin was giving concerts in her home area and possibly well beyond. A bill for an October 14, 1852, appearance presented her, a soprano, in company with tenor Ezra S. Durgin, her father, and a certain Isabelle the Gipsey. It would be a guess, but an educated one, that this gypsy named Isabelle in many ways resembled Mary's younger sister, Isabelle A. Durgin. Belle Durgin, who evidently was a well-rounded and versatile musician, would later be noted as a singer of comic songs.
"On the 17th, this announcement appeared in the": "Postponed," Cincinnati Daily Times, May 17, 1853, p. 2 col. 2.
"The published program for the canceled show was full": "We're With You Once Again at Smith and Nixon's Hall!" (Cincinnati, OH: Cincinnati Commercial Print
"On May 20, Jesse's funeral was held at his Stone": Alonzo Lewis and James R. Newhall, History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts: Including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscott, and Nahant, 2 vols. (Lynn: G. C. Herbert, 1890), 1:437; John Wallace Hutchinson, Story of the Hutchinsons (Tribe of Jesse), 2 vols. (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1896), 1:318.
A photograph, copies of which seem to have circulated to some degree, is said to show Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., in his coffin at Stone Cottage, High Rock, in Lynn, Massachusetts. If you know the whereabouts of this picture and would be willing to share the information you have about it, please e-mail us via the contact link which appears near the bottom of the Web page.
John W. Hutchinson said it was the "work of many weeks" to settle the estates of brothers Zephaniah and Jesse Hutchinson. According to Hope Cushing et al., Jesse's estate was left to his mother and his sister Rhoda. Source: Elizabeth Hope Cushing and others, Historic Landscape Report: High Rock Reservation, Lynn, Massachusetts (Boston: Boston Univ., American and New England Studies Program, 1986), 7. Asa B. Hutchinson served as the administrator. The debts against Jesse's estate were reported to be
Later when Jesse's High Rock property was sold at public auction, evidently John and Asa Hutchinson paid
"Miss M. E. Durgin will give one of her musical": Though this is accurate information, it is not a direct quote drawn from any one particular source.
"A bill for an October 14, 1852, appearance presented": "Vocal and Instrumental Concert" ("Miss M.E. Durgin will give one of her musical entertainments at the
Ezra S. Durgin may have been a widely traveled singer on the New England circuit. Decades later, in an April 16, 1896, letter to niece Florence Ednah Chipman, Mary said that her father "knew every body within the limits of New England who could have heard me sing at that time, or any other."
Letters addressed to Florence Ednah Chipman were saved and kindly made available by her descendants.
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Mary's youth at this time is worth considering. According to the 1900 United States Census, for which she herself was likely the informant, Mary was born in November 1842. Thus the October 14 show at a significant concert hall in Portsmouth - a substantial production which was built around her singing - took place when she was age nine.
Mary Durgin, not much later, was the featured singer in a group called the Excelsior Vocalists. On the occasion of a Thursday evening, January 27, 1853, concert - again at the Temple in Portsmouth - group members, in addition to Mary, are identified as Mr. E.S. Durgin, tenor; Miss A.W. Robinson, contralto; and Mr. J.B. Packard, basso. Mr. D.S. Pennell was named as the accompanist.
Though the Excelsior Vocalists featured ten-year-old Mary Durgin, J. B. Packard - who had quite a diverse career in music - may have been the best known member of the group. Mary, late in life, said that she had no vocal training except for lessons she received in payment for singing performances. This is interesting because both Packard and D.S. Pennell taught singing schools. One of Pennell's schools is known to have been in Portsmouth: not far from Mary's Exeter home. Possibly Ezra S. Durgin, Mary's father, was an advocate of "natural singing" - as opposed to the vocal techniques commonly taught, say, in music academies - and perhaps he believed that payments for voice lessons would be money poorly spent or that lessons would do harm to his daughter's natural gifts. He did pay, in Mary's early days, for her piano and organ lessons.
Evidently the Temple in Portsmouth was a hotspot for Mary's youthful concert performances. Circumstantial evidence suggests strongly that she sang there in a Thursday, July 24, 1856, production of the "Festival of Beauty: A Cantata in Five Parts." The full name of this piece is often given as "The Festival of Beauty; or, An Evening in Fairy Land." The bill for an 1854 staging gave the title as "Festival of Beauty: A Floral Oratorio of the Seasons."
The career of the Excelsior Vocalists may have ended by the time of the July 24, 1856, "Festival of Beauty" show. Published music of the Excelsior Vocalists includes "Just Try To Cut a Swell; or, What's the Use of Talking" and "What Sounds So Sweet Awake Me; or, The Spirit's Serenade."
On April 28, 1853, William H. Oakley had a scheduled solo appearance at the opening of the Dry Dock Temperance Society's new hall on 4th Street in New York. A New York Times announcement of this event presented Oakley as the "late leader of the Alleghanians." Listings, announcements, and reports of public appearances of Oakley, singing by himself, continued through the summer and fall of 1853, possibly thinning out a bit in 1854. His activities were heavily weighted toward support of the temperance cause.
"According to the 1900 United States Census": In the 1860 United States Census, Mary was recorded as age 18. According to birth information in the 1900 census, age 17 would have been the correct figure for 1860. In 1870, Mary was recorded as age 30. She was age 35 in 1880, having aged at just half the usual rate over the past ten years. Amazing. In 1900, she was age 57. Mary died long before the 1910 United States Census was taken.
Since United States Census ages for Mary are not consistent with one another, one might doubt that Mary was as young as age 9 at the time of the Thursday, October 14, 1852, concert in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. But even if Mary was older than age 9 when that show took place, it is unlikely she was much older. All available evidence points to Mary Durgin getting off to an uncommonly early start in the music field.
"Mary Durgin, not much later, was the featured": Henry W. Longfellow wrote a poem named "Excelsior" which proved to be phenomenally popular. A musical setting of these Longfellow verses by the Hutchinson Family, in the 1840s, was treated by many journalists as a major work. The word, "excelsior," was used to represent the state of New York. And Walt Whitman aspired to be the "excelsior" poet. These things and much more combined to put the word in very common use in the mid-19th century. Nonetheless, it seems to be a potentially interesting coincidence that another entertainer with an Alleghanians connection used "excelsior" in his stage name. He was Cal Mandeville, the Excelsior Comique. He was a member of Agatha States' birth family. One of the songs Cal Mandeville was known for is still a familiar title: "You'll Never Miss the Water Till the Well Runs Dry."
"On the occasion of a Thursday evening, January 27": "At the Temple, Portsmouth, on Thursday evening,"
"Mary, late in life, said that she had no vocal": This is my interpretation. "But I never had a lesson in singing, except what I sang for" is the way the relevant passage in her letter reads. Source: Mary P. Waldron to Florence E. Chipman, San Francisco, July 9, 1896. I take this to mean, "But I never had a lesson in singing, except those which I sang in payment for." Mary was quite particular in saying that she most wanted voice instruction but what she actually got was piano and organ lessons.
Letters addressed to Florence Ednah Chipman were saved and kindly made available by her descendants.
"He did pay, in Mary's early days, for her piano": Mary P. Waldron to Florence E. Chipman, San Francisco, July 9, 1896.
"Circumstantial evidence suggests strongly that she": "A thing of beauty is a joy forever." - Keats. This seems to have been something like a motto for "The Festival of Beauty."
"Published music of this group included Just Try": "Just Try To Cut a Swell: Song and Chorus, or Quartette," lyrics: "My Pen," music: "The Holder," first line of text: "Why, what's the use of talking, If things don't go right well?" (Buffalo: J. Sage & Sons, 1855). "Sung with great applause by the Amphions & Excelsior Vocalists."
"What Sounds So Sweet Awake Me; or, The Spirit's Serenade" (New York: Horace Waters, 1854). "As sung by the Excelsior Vocalists." Cf. "The Child's Vision" which begins, "What sounds so sweet awake to me."
"A New York Times announcement of this event": "Grand Temperance Demonstration," in "Special Notices" column, New York Daily Times, April 28, 1853, p. 1 col. 1.
Some William H. Oakley announcements and notices from this time spoke of him as the former leader of the Alleghanians, while others called him the leader as though the writers of those pieces may have understood the group to be currently active. For an example of the latter, see "Special Notices," New York Daily Times, May 30, 1853, p. 1 cols. 1-2, at col. 2. So the available evidence is a great deal less than perfectly clear. Yet it is nearly unthinkable that a journalist would have referred to Oakley as the ex-leader of the Alleghanians in, say, 1848 or 1851. So it seems clear enough that these scattered 1853-1855 references to William H. Oakley as the former leader of the group marks a significant change of some sort in the career of the Alleghanians.
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Oakley sang in a June 2, 1853, gathering at the Greene Street Methodist Episcopal Church sponsored by the Division of Eastern New York of the Sons of Temperance. His selections, as noted earlier, included "The Good Old Days of Yore," and it was reported that he accompanied himself on melodeon when singing "Right Over Wrong" ("Behold the Day of Promise Comes") - "an admirable temperance ode."
After a September 1853 appearance at the great World's Temperance Convention and singing in March 1854 at Knickerbocker Hall on behalf of the
Several figures connected with the Alleghanians are quite shadowy, and there may not be a stronger example than J.B. Packard. This ought not to be. From the early 1840s to just after the Civil War, Jesse Bullock Packard published musical works on a reasonably steady basis, wrote arrangements for others, taught singing schools, compiled songbooks and hymnals, sang in concerts, and probably did nearly everything else on the educational, creative, performing, and publishing sides of the music business. Yet as far as is commonly known, a significant collection of information about his life and career has never been compiled, not even a capsule biography has been located, and we know far too little about him.
A similar lack of compiled information is a very great problem in connection with a long-term, pivotal figure in Alleghanians history, Carrie Hiffert.
Caroline E. Hiffert, a singer and an actress, was associated with some of the same people as the Alleghanians, going all the way back to 1846 and the first few months of the group's existence. In probably 1849, when Miriam G. Goodenow joined the Alleghanians, she is said to have replaced a soprano called "Fanny Hiffert," who no doubt was actually Carrie Hiffert. Later, Carrie often entertained in New York City at the same times as the Alleghanians. She would sometimes sing in the same building the same week as the group. And on at least one mid-1850s occasion, she sang in the same building on the same day. After this, Carrie Hiffert's name would often disappear from the New York City show listings at the same times the Alleghanians' name would vanish from those same listings. Circumstantial evidence, at present, points strongly to an ongoing connection between the Alleghanians and Carrie Hiffert. But efforts to pin down Carrie's comings and goings as a member of the group have not been conspicuously successful. Why? With luck, time will tell.
"Oakley sang in a June 2, 1853, gathering at the": "Demonstration by the Sons of Temperance - Welcome to Hon. Judge O'Neall, of S.C.," New York Daily Times, June 3, 1853, p. 1 col. 6.
"After a September 1853 appearance at the great": "World's Temperance Convention," New York Daily Times, September 9, 1853, p. 7 cols. 4-6; "Chelsea T. B. Society," Advertisement, New York Daily Times, March 13, 1854, p. 5 col. 6.
If you have information about the Chelsea T. B. Society and would be willing to share what you know, please e-mail us by way of the contact link toward the bottom of the Web page. An 1851-1980 New York Times Archives "Articles, Advertisements and Listings" search, on what is given as the name of this organization, produced no hits at all: not even a hit on the New York Times classified ad which is cited here. Numerous and widely-varied followup searches produced nothing relevant.
"Caroline E. Hiffert, a singer and an actress, was": An item or passage about the Alleghanians in The Knickerbocker; or, New York Monthly Magazine, August 1846, p. 188, makes reference to someone named Corbyn. More information on this association between the group and Corbyn would be welcome, but reason exists to connect the Alleghanians with both theatrical promoter Wardle Corbyn and music publisher William Corbyn. Documentary evidence exists to connect Carrie Hiffert professionally, as far back as 1846, with a man whose name was commonly given as "W. Corbyn." He seems likely to have been the same person as Wardle Corbyn.
Carrie Hiffert has been described variously as a mezzo-soprano or contralto singer. Possibly she sang toward the lower end of the soprano range and, having broad compass, she could take the part of a contralto. In his Hutchinson Family history, John W. Hutchinson juxtaposed two Lillie C. Phillips notices published a week or less apart, the first calling her "a very fine soprano" while the second spoke of her as a "contralto of remarkable quality and range." Source: John Wallace Hutchinson, Story of the Hutchinsons (Tribe of Jesse), 2 vols. (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1896), 2:77. Carrie Hiffert sounds to have had a similar voice.
I have never seen a captioned picture of the Alleghanians, and all I have is a personal opinion as to which of the men is which - which opinion I indulged elsewhere in this booklet. There are two commonly known sets of pictures: one shows individual likenesses of the Carrie Hiffert 1847 and 1848 lineup of the group and the other shows the 1850 to 1852 Miriam G. Goodenow lineup. The very next Alleghanians likeness known to me is a mid-1860s photograph, which I have not yet seen but I know where it is, showing George Galloway and the group's long-time agent, D.G. Waldron. There is also a CDV of Carrie Hiffert and George Galloway, said to be from the Civil War years, which in the past month or so (i.e., in May/June 2007) sold by way of eBay.
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On the other hand, Carrie Hiffert is named in numerous concert advertisements and show listings, and we could possibly be one compilation project away from knowing her better. She may be found in several United States Census years as well as in some limited genealogy records.
Though Carrie was commonly called Miss Hiffert, it is highly likely that Hiffert was a married name and that she was the widowed mother of one child. As Alleghanian Marie Packard, a widow, was called Miss Packard in the early 1870s, so Carrie Hiffert was called Miss Hiffert.
The 1881 United Kingdom census professionally paired the name, Caroline Hiffert, with a wonderfully garbled rendering of the name, James M. Boulard. But the age given for this Caroline Hiffert is off by a generation. Since, later still, Carrie Hiffert was enumerated in the United States census as the widowed mother of one child - a child who, by that time, was no longer living - it seems sensible to consider that Carrie Hiffert may have had a daughter, a singer, who was also called Carrie Hiffert and that, at one time, the daughter sang professionally with James M. Boulard. Thus the "two Carrie Hiffert theory" is born.
Carrie Hiffert was engaged in theatrical performances, evidently most often in supporting roles, through much of the early 1850s. These activities show up in New York City theater histories but not necessarily in general circulation daily newspaper advertisements and notices. Clearly Carrie's singing and acting services were in substantial demand, but starring roles may have been elusive. In the summer of 1854, for instance, she had a low-profile part in a high-profile production of Faustus; but we might not even know about it if not for T. Allston Brown's A History of the New York Stage.
William H. Oakley's New York City engagements thinned out dramatically, as far as is known, after his singing appearance at the World's Temperance Convention on Thursday, September 8, 1853. Perhaps in the months that followed he was teaching, though he could just as easily have been on a cross-country concert tour. One of the most striking things about recorded Alleghanians history is how little of it has been gathered together.
We are left to wonder - and wonder we should - whether a January 1855 William H. Oakley appearance at an old Alleghanians haunt, the annual Benjamin Franklin celebration of the Typographical Society of New York, is to be taken as a reemergence or an attempt at one. It was Oakley who founded the Alleghanians in the spring of 1846; and if we are to look for a reconvening of the group, he is the first figure to watch. Oakley delivered to the typographic throng a work called "Progress," as well as "I'll sing you a song of a printer boy."
"But the age given for this Caroline Hiffert": Ancestry.com estimates the year of birth of the Caroline Hiffert who is enumerated in the 1881 United Kingdom census to be about 1854. According to the FamilySearch.org record for this same Caroline Hiffert in the same 1881 United Kingdom census, she was age 27. If this FamilySearch.org posting is correct, I get a birth-year of 1853/1854: a match with Ancestry.com. FamilySearch.org also reports the Caroline Hiffert in the 1881 UK census to have been born in New York. The well-known Caroline Hiffert of the Alleghanians was a generation older and born in Germany. She was a New York resident from 1840 to the early 20th century. If generally accurate, to me this collection of information adds up to a mother and daughter of the same name, both of whom performed in professional music groups with James M. Boulard.
We hardly need a "two Carrie Hiffert theory," but available evidence, as far as it goes, supports just such a notion. Since a principal goal here is to get at the truth about the Alleghanians, the group's membership and its history, being proven wrong would be every bit as good as being proven right.
"William H. Oakley's New York City engagements": "World's Temperance Convention," New York Daily Times, September 9, 1853, p. 7 cols. 4-6.
"Perhaps in the months that followed he was teaching": If you know the membership of a mid-1850s music group, the Bohemian Trio, if you know songs in the group's repertoire, or if you know other details of the group's music and career, and you would be willing to pass along what you have learned, please e-mail us by way of the contact link near the bottom of the Web page. This query makes more sense in the context of the book-length second edition of Voice and Spirit, which is currently in first rough draft form.
"We are left to wonder - and wonder we should": "The Press: Birthday of Franklin," New York Daily Times, January 18, 1855, p. 8 cols. 2-3 at column 2.
"It was Oakley who founded the Alleghanians": Mid-to-late 1860s classified advertisements refer to James M. Boulard as founder of the Alleghanians. By that point, of course, he was the only original or founding member who was still with the group, so sense may reasonably be made of this claim. But enough earlier printed matter casts William H. Oakley as the central figure such that he ought to be singled out as the group's founder if anyone should.
"He delivered to the typographic throng a work": William H. Oakley's professional activities as an entertainer and as a singing temperance reformer appear not to have been numerous in the first half of 1855, and the Alleghanians vocal group appears to have been inactive for the most part. But Alleghanians-releated research for the year has produced one surprise of moderate size, and there is no telling whether 1855 has other surprises in store. More research is needed.
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The arson fire that destroyed Metropolitan Hall in the winter of 1854 brought that great, earlier New York City room, the Broadway Tabernacle, back into a starring role. A few songs there from Oakley probably went a long way, as his temperance friends held a June 1, 1855, rally.
For many months, the New York press seemed to be of two minds as to whether this Alleghanian troupe was a going concern. So at least city journalists got that much right. Descriptions of William H. Oakley as the former leader or a former member of the group alternated with references to the Alleghanians in the present tense: the latter just as the company would have been covered four or five years earlier. Odds are that Boulard, Dunning, and Oakley, even a short time before this, were no clearer than were the city reporters as to whether the Alleghanians was a working professional vocal group. But it was probably a knowing use of the present tense, in late June, when the Thirteenth Ward Temperance Alliance announced "Singing by William H. Oakley, of the Alleghanians." The singers were likely holding rehearsals by this date if not already appearing as a group in public.
"A few songs there from Oakley probably went": "Great Temperance Demonstration," New York Daily Times, June 2, 1855, p. 8 cols. 1-2 at col. 2.
"For many months, the New York press seemed to be": Extensive searches of the online New York Times Archives - an historical database drawn from an important Alleghanians' hometown newspaper - produced nothing that suggests anything like concert-giving activity on the part of this group from after the 1852 California trip to the early summer of 1855. It bears repeating that my Times-related research made exhaustive use of a ProQuest device for searching the New York Times Archives. The ProQuest search engine allowed for far, far better narrowing of one's searches, and I had extraordinary success using it. Negative findings noted here should not be construed as the fault of the New York Times own current search device, which is markedly inferior and which I have seldom used. Negative results reported here are negative results and only negative results.
It is worth knowing, for future reference, that the Alleghanians' base of operations shifted, probably in the late 1860s or certainly not much later, from New York City to southern New Hampshire. So my reference to the New York Times as an Alleghanians hometown newspaper is important but time-limited information.
"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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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. |
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Brattleboro, Vermont: Published by the author. 2007.
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