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1869-1872
Chapter 8 Part 1
By the early 1870s, James M. Boulard and D. G. Waldron split up, with Waldron calling himself the "proprietor" of the Alleghanians while Boulard was leading similar groupings of singers and bell-ringers, importantly including Carrie Hiffert. The timing of this split is of critical importance; and, of course, we are left to guess when it happened. In or around 1871 seems quite likely.
If in the course of the next seven or eight years these Boulard-Hiffert ensembles performed under any particular group name, information about it appears to be scarce. At times, they were described as a company of vocalists and Swiss bell ringers and the names of individual members were listed, occasionally along with names of supporting players and singers. At other times, Boulard and Hiffert may have traveled as a duo, a sort of "Jim and Carrie Show." Perhaps they recruited local singers and musicians in various cities and towns.
Nothing known to us at all suggests that this parting was unpleasant, complete, or even permanent, and it could be that Boulard and Waldron simply decided to seek their fortunes along separate paths. Nonetheless, this must have been confusing for many long-time fans of the old Alleghanians. It is worth considering that Waldron and company retained those highly expensive Swiss-made handbells which apparently were acquired during the 1865-1866 European tour. Evidently a good deal of money was involved, and Waldron may have simply bought the rights to the name, Alleghanians. It would be my guess.
Back in the years 1856 to 1858, the original Hutchinson Family trio of brothers - Judson, John, and Asa - came undone; and by the 1858-1859 concert season, the two main Hutchinson Family acts were companies made up of, or built around, the marriage families of John and Asa Hutchinson, respectively. John W. Hutchinson, as the years and decades passed by, showed an increasing fondness for singing the old songs in the old way. Asa B. Hutchinson, by contrast, while continuously drawing from the early Hutchinson Family repertoire, was also quite quick to add new popular songs to his concert programs and to set to music verses he lately encountered.
Something similar may have happened in the Alleghanians camp, though we only know - or think we know - one side of the story. Little if any information is generally understood to exist regarding James M. Boulard's ideas, in the early 1870s, about the group's membership and repertoire. But if we may judge D.G. Waldron's circa-1871 views, as I believe we can, from his actions taken by the time of the 1872-1873 concert season, then he saw a need for new music, in keeping with changes in popular taste, performed by decidedly younger singers and players.
"By the early 1870s, James M. Boulard and D.G. Waldron": Daniel G. Waldron gave the impression that he took full control of the Alleghanians right after the group returned from Europe in the spring of 1866, though available documentary evidence does not support the obvious reading of his account. Source: Alleghanians, The Alleghanians, Vocalists and Swiss Bell Ringers' Songster: Sketches and Travels
The cataloguer - at Brown University, one would imagine - who created what has become the standard library catalog record for this 1873 Alleghanians songster thought it would have been printed/published in New York. This is not at all likely. For all practical purposes, the group was based in southern New Hampshire in and around 1873, and a southern New Hampshire city (Portsmouth would be a good bet) or Boston would be a far more likely place of publication.
In a March 28, 1874, note that Daniel G. Waldron added to a poster promoting upcoming shows, he identified himself as "D.G. Waldron, Manager Alleghanians' Concerts." A capsule obituary for James M. Boulard said that he had been a concert director for many years. There does not seem to be a huge difference between manager of concerts and concert director. Available 1870s Alleghanians information, as far as it goes, indicates that the role of concert manager shifted from Boulard to Waldron early in the decade and switched back from Waldron to Boulard in the late 1870s.
"If in the course of the next seven or eight years": The paragraph, which the sentence being footnoted here leads off, should not be taken to mean that Alleghanians scholars have a lot of information to go on about the Boulard-Hiffert music groupings of the 1870s. Apparently in this case once again, advertisements, bills, announcements, and notices have never been collected. I am making the best judgments I can, based on what little data is currently available. The possibility could not be totally ruled out that these James M. Boulard and Carrie Hiffert music ensembles also may have used the group name, Alleghanians, just as the Hutchinson Family had two high-profile companies, respectively headed by John W. Hutchinson and Asa B. Hutchinson, touring widely, simultaneously, for many years under the Hutchinson Family name. In the mid-1890s, once again, the Hutchinsons had two troupes singing for the public and billing themselves as the Hutchinson Family: one headed by Asa's son, Oliver Dennett Hutchinson, and the other led by John's daughter-in-law, the former Lillie C. Phillips. However, regarding the Boulard-Hiffert outfits, to date I have not seen a single example of one of the 1870s lineups going by the name, Alleghanians, until late in the decade, by which time it seems likely
"It is worth considering that Waldron and company": Alleghanians, The Alleghanians, Vocalists and Swiss Bell Ringers' Songster: Sketches and Travels
Based on the typically sketchy information at hand, it is at least possible that these new Swiss bells were made during an early 1870s tour of Europe, though this seems a lot less likely and it would not be my first thought. Evidence generally points to the new Swiss handbells being made at the time of the 1865-1866 European tour, during which period it is known that the Alleghanians troupe was active on continental Europe.
"Evidently a good deal of money was involved, and": In the mid-1840s, P.T. Barnum worked with an early company of handbell musicians, the Swiss Bell Ringers. This outfit was actually based in Lancashire, England. William Peak, the American patriarch of the Peak Family music group, said he bought out the Swiss Bell Ringers. My thought is that D.G. Waldron may have similarly purchased the rights to the name, Alleghanians, from James M. Boulard and company when he, Waldron, became the proprietor of this concert company. This would have bought Waldron the right to present new music performed by younger musicians which, in fact, he did by 1872.
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In February 1870, a vocal and bell-ringing outfit, under the direction of James M. Boulard, played a reunion of New York's Free Church of the Redemption at the 23rd Street Young Men's Christian Association. Also on the program was organist Henry Eyre Browne. The Church of the Redemption was an Episcopal congregation, which was led by the Rev. Uriah Scott. If we may judge by the familiar surnames we are given, this quartet was made up of Boulard, Walter Field, Carrie Hiffert, and George S. Weeks: Alleghanians, one and all. We are not told whether this quartet was billed as the Alleghanians nor whether D.G. Waldron served as the group's manager and/or agent.
At some point, Waldron presented a new group of musicians as the Alleghanians, "with an entire change of programme." The early 1870s seems to fit the bill. The performers during the 1872-1873 concert season were notably younger than their predecessors. But while the repertoire may have been considerably changed, the word, "entire," is definitely an exaggeration. Verses written by Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., as well as the songs, "Goodbye, Sweetheart," "A Sweet Face at the Window," "Where Shall the Soul Find Rest," and maybe a scattering of other old familiar pieces, were still featured in Alleghanians concerts well into the 1870s and possibly beyond.
Frank L. Benjamin was an important part of the Alleghanians new breed. When he signed on with this company, he would have been a well-educated and capable musician in his twenties. At some point, Benjamin became the Alleghanians music director.
We have not a single concert date, at present, from the Alleghanians' early 1870s West Coast tour, nor do we have a news item reporting their departure or return. John W. Hutchinson and Samuel B. Spinning both recalled that Frank Benjamin left the Hutchinson Family, signed on with the Alleghanians, and went to California. The most obvious reading suggests that the trip west quickly followed Benjamin's joining the troupe. While this could be true, it does not help a lot since we still do not know quite when Frank Benjamin became a member of the Alleghanians. Sometime during the 1871-1872 concert season or the first few months that followed seems most likely as the time Benjamin was recruited into this company.
Frank Benjamin, out of Connecticut, appears not to have been enumerated in the 1870 United States Census. It is anyone's guess as to where he may have been at census time. One thought is that he had to get his Paris music education some time: why not in and around 1870. No matter, his apparent absence from the 1870 census is data worth thinking about. Other information to be considered is that a small but significant number of songs from the Alleghanians' 1870s repertoire was published in San Francisco in the years 1870 to 1872. If group members picked up this music in San Francisco, as seems quite possible, it would have been after the scores were issued. So the later publication dates could be of particular interest and help, making a California tour around 1872 seem to be a reasonable guess.
"In February 1870, a vocal and bell-ringing outfit": "Local News in Brief: New York," New York Times, February 19, 1870, p. 8 cols. 1-2, at col. 1.
"Also on the program was organist Henry Eyre Browne": Widely available information about Henry Eyre Browne seems to be limited, at the moment, to relatively minor details from his career. Going entirely on memory, it seems to me he became the organist at the Brooklyn Tabernacle during the time of a popular but controversial Presbyterian minister, Rev. Thomas DeWitt Talmage. If you have information about Henry Eyre Browne and you would be willing to share what you have learned, please e-mail us by way of the contact link toward the bottom of the Web page.
"The Church of the Redemption was an Episcopal congregation": Very little information about Rev. Uriah Scott, D.D., seems, at present, to be readily available. If you have information about Rev. Dr. Uriah Scott that you would be willing to share, please e-mail us by way of the contact link toward the bottom of the Web page.
"If we may judge by the familiar surnames we are given": If you know anything about this Walter Field and you would be willing to share your information, it would be great to hear from you. Please e-mail us by way of the contact link near the bottom of the Web page. At this point, widely available information about Walter Field seems to be pretty much limited to his name.
In the early 20th century, a very close Hutchinson Family inlaw wrote a book with a Walter Field. This latter Walter Field was born in 1861, so it seems extremely doubtful he would be the Walter Field who was giving concerts with James M. Boulard and Carrie Hiffert by 1870. Nonetheless, it would be interesting if these two Walter Fields should prove to be related, say, father and son. It does not seem likely; but at this point, who
"We are not told whether this quartet was billed as": Daniel G. Waldron was recorded twice at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in the 1870 United States Census. On one page, he was listed as an agent for bell ringers. On the other, he was said to be an agent for minstrels. These could be as descriptive of the Alleghanians as not. It seems possible, no matter how the advertising reads, that the 1870 James M. Boulard group may have actually still been the Alleghanians. I am returning to this, my original point of view.
"At some point, Waldron presented a new group of": Alleghanians, The Alleghanians, Vocalists and Swiss Bell Ringers' Songster: Sketches and Travels
"The performers during the 1872-1873 concert season": "This lady
Mary E. Packard was born in November 1842 according to 1900 United States Census information that she may have supplied herself. So at the time this 1873 Alleghanians songster was published, it seems she would have been age 30 or possibly age 31. In the sketch which heads her capsule artist profile on songster page 11, she looks no older than age 30 and arguably younger. By contrast, Oakley, Boulard, and Dunning were age 30 and over the very first time, as a group, they stepped onto the concert stage way back in 1846. These singers did not get any younger as the years passed by. Until Waldron brought in an assortment of young musicians, probably in the early 1870s, the Alleghanians - with veterans James M. Boulard and Carrie Hiffert at the the group's core - was a band of relatively senioritous vocalists.
So though the quote which heads this footnote may seem like a strange thing for the Alleghanians to be saying to a fan who bought a songster or who is reading a friend's copy, nonetheless it probably was quite important to Daniel G. Waldron to put out the message that Marie Packard was not very old and everyone else in the group was even younger. It is a way of saying that an Alleghanians appearance will have youth appeal. This youthening of the group, no doubt, is a good part of what Waldron meant when he said he has "presented new artists, with an entire change of programme."
An 1867 New York Times, review which spoke of Alleghanians concerts as "among the pleasant recollections of long ago" and which went on to praise "their old-fashioned ballads," could possibly have seemed like music to the ears of James M. Boulard - it was, after all, a positive notice in the New York Times - but it is really doubtful that this is what D.G. Waldron wanted to be reading about his group. For the quoted passages in the original context, see "Amusements," New York Times, June 11, 1867, p. 5 col. 4.
"Verses written by Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., as well as": As deep into the group's career as I have been able to track the Alleghanians in any detail, this company sang Jesse Hutchinson, Jr.'s "The Good Old Days of Yore" and "Right Over Wrong" (they called the latter "Behold the Day of Promise Comes").
"Frank Benjamin, out of Connecticut, appears not to": There are, of course, other possible reasons Frank Benjamin has not been located so far in census searches. His name could have gotten garbled somehow or it might appear on a census sheet that, for some reason, is only semi-legible.
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Around 1871 seems like a good time to look for evidence of Boulard and Waldron splitting up, and 1872 appears to be a good point to start when looking for details of an Alleghanians return to California. D.G. Waldron's writings could be taken to suggest that the Alleghanians California tour happened around 1870. Intending heavy emphasis on the word, "guess," my own educated guess would be that it took place early in the 1872-1873 concert season. It would be delightful to be proven wrong, in the sense that, in regards to these years, it would be delightful for anything at all to be proven.
Always allowing of course for the fact that available information is far from complete, it appears that Albert H. Fernald may not have published much if any of his new music during his years with the Alleghanians. It even could be that his composing efforts came to a standstill by the time he joined the group. Either way, by 1870 he was once again in the business of getting his music issued to the public in the form of printed sheet music. Albert H. Fernald titles dated 1870 include "Irish Air Castles: Ballad" and "Mille Fleurs (Million Flowers): Polka Redowa." In 1871, he was back with "Life Dreams: Waltzes." It would be very interesting to learn whether the Alleghanians sang any of Fernald's songs or played his melodies on their pricey Swiss handbells.
In 1871, Frank L. Benjamin, then based in Connecticut, was singing in a male quartet with some member of the musical Spinning family. Mary Packard was teaching school in Exeter, New Hampshire. D.G. Waldron may have been in a New Hampshire divorce court in 1871 or not many years later. If there was a lot of Alleghanians concert activity in the first half of 1871, we must admit to knowing nothing of it.
Information is not exactly stacked to the ceiling, but what evidence there is could be read to suggest an increase in concert business for the Alleghanians by the start of 1872 and probably beginning weeks if not a few months earlier, including Midwest tours that are known to have passed through Chicago and other points in Illinois. The Schuyler Citizen of Schuyler County, Illinois, reported a densely packed house for the Alleghanians in its January 25 issue. It went on to say, "Their voices are good and well trained. 'The Good Old Days of Yore' was worth the admission fee of itself. Their programme was chaste throughout and gave entire satisfaction. The bell music was splendid."
"All Among the Barley" is an interesting song the new-look Alleghanians sang in the 1870s.
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"All Among the Barley" Come out, tis now September, the hunters' moon's begun, |
"Either way, by 1870 he was once again in the business": One could easily get the impression from a late Boston Globe article that Albert H. Fernald was particularly known for "Cowslips in the Lane," though I have found nothing to date about this piece. Source: "Reaches Three Score Years," Boston Daily Globe, March 22, 1895, p. 5. If you have details about Albert H. Fernald's "Cowslips in the Lane" 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.
"In 1871, Frank L. Benjamin, then based in Connecticut": "Farewell of the Neptune Yacht Club," lyrics: Violet Fuller, music: Frank L. Benjamin, first line of text: "Farewell, friends, the tie that bound us, Now, alas! must severed be" (New York: Charles W. Harris, 1871). Title on the first inside page: "The Neptunes' Farewell."
Theodore A. Spinning, who is known to have sung with Samuel B. Spinning, would seem to be a strong candidate for a match with the Spinning listed here. If you can better identify the Disbrow and Wilcox named in the score citation above or if you have information about the lyricist, Violet Fuller, and you would be willing to share your information, please e-mail us by way of the contact link near the bottom of the Web page.
"It went on to say, Their voices are good and well": "Schuyler County, Illinois Excerpts from The Schuyler Citizen Newspaper, January 25, 1872, www.rootsweb.com/~ilschuyl/SchuylerCitizen/SCJan251872.html, accessed November 19, 2006.
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The music is by Elizabeth Stirling, while the lyrics are credited in the 1871 score to
Tours through Indiana in the 1872-1873 concert season suggest that the Alleghanians - possibly as the result of the partnership of D.G. Waldron and Frank L. Benjamin - scored a major acquisition by 1872 in the person of Indiana native and resident
It is only recently that Mershon's collected papers have surfaced and even more recently that word has circulated about this collection by way of chance encounters with Web-posted news articles from the Times-Union out of Warsaw, Indiana. Those researchers who first tried to use Mershon's records reported that his papers concentrate frustratingly on himself. This is a thing that any Alleghanians scholar ought to gladly accept. Something is often judged to be better than nothing. In decades of Alleghanians history and through probably countless personnel changes, William Henry Mershon is the only known group member who could be classed, alongside the posterity-minded Hutchinsons, as a "keeper." It is a quality in an Alleghanian to be treasured.
Mershon's time with the Alleghanians is given mere mention in known published capsule biographies of him, though it probably should be given far greater prominence. According to the 1870 United States Census, he was working as a bricklayer prior to signing on with the Alleghanians. It is likely that the talent-scouting of D.G. Waldron or possibly of Frank Benjamin was the main thing that allowed Mershon to get into full-time work as a musician and got him started on a career in music which lasted for the rest of his life.
And then along comes
Mary E. Packard continued working at the Robinson Seminary in her hometown of Exeter, New Hampshire, into 1872 - as she put it, "until my health failed." Though no details are provided, obviously Mary rebounded and in excellent voice.
The Washington Post said, referring to Mary in Exeter at just this time, that "Twenty-five years ago, she was soprano of the First Church choir here, then one of the best in the State." The Post went on to report, "It so happened that Daniel G. Waldron, then proprietor of a company of bell ringers, chanced to hear Mrs. Packard and her sister, Belle Durgin, sing, and he immediately engaged them at a good salary to travel with the company." This, probably more than anything else, gave the Alleghanians new life.
"But his main talent was for drumming, and his": Alleghanians, The Alleghanians, Vocalists and Swiss Bell Ringers' Songster: Sketches and Travels
"According to the 1870 United States Census, Mershon": William H. Mershon's father was a mason, so Mershon's work as a bricklayer was in something of a family tradition.
"Mary E. Packard continued working at the Robinson": Mary P. Waldron to Florence E. Chipman, San Francisco, June 1, 1895.
"The Washington Post said, referring to Mary in Exeter": "His Second Wife a Singer," Washington Post, August 18, 1897, p. 3.
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It is totally unknown to present-day Alleghanians scholarship whether D.G. Waldron had musical talent of his own as a performer, but clearly he knew talent when he heard and saw it. These Durgin sisters had diverse musical abilities, good educations, and delightful personalities. They were also very attractive looking young women. Mary, according to her own account, ordinarily destroyed the mail she received soon after reading it; but since some of her relatives kept a few of her delightful and informative letters, she has become, in spite of herself, one of this project's main information sources.
By the 1872-1873 concert season, the Alleghanians had become a versatile, musically ambitious, and exciting outfit.
What is known of the Alleghanians' travels at this time is mostly very general in nature. Concert tours took the company around the United States, into Canada, and, for a highlight, on a voyage across the sea to the United Kingdom. Whether these Alleghanians trips went further, say, to continental Europe, like so much else, is yet to be seen. The Washington Post said that the Alleghanians, during Mary's time with the group, "met with great success from Maine to California." It does not specify, though, when it was that the company toured through California. It remains my guess that the Alleghanians returned to the West Coast early in the 1872-1873 concert season.
The Alleghanians gave concerts at Marion, Indiana, on Friday, December 20, and Saturday, December 21, 1872. A member of the Friday night crowd afterwards got a message to D.G. Waldron saying that if it is true, as is sometimes said, that a sound, once uttered, never ceases, then the never-ending echoes of the Alleghanians' sweet sounds would perhaps be wafted into the spirit land. This was followed by well-wishes, along with a context-appropriate request that, on Saturday evening, the company repeat Jesse Hutchinson's "The Good Old Days of Yore."
"The Ship on Fire," one of the Alleghanians' crowd-pleasing songs, was also a big in-concert hit, starting decades earlier, for the Hutchinson Family. In the case of the latter, John W. Hutchinson took the lead, while his brother Asa's cello produced fire-engine sound effects and high tenor Judson ventriloquially shouted the alarm, "Fire!" perfectly fooling the senses as to the origin of his scream. Years later, high tenor Frank L. Benjamin sang for a spell with John Hutchinson, in whose company performances of "The Ship on Fire" were probably as similar as possible to those of the original Hutchinson Family grouping.
It may have been during his brief tenure with the Hutchinson Family's Tribe of John that Benjamin perfected his "Ship on Fire" alarm cry. D.G. Waldron told of a first-ever advertised concert in some unnamed western town, at a Methodist church evidently in late 1872 or early 1873, when Benjamin, in the course of a performance of this song, shouted "Fire!" with such force and ventriloquial deception that the church sexton suddenly and emphatically sounded the fire-alarm bell, prompting men, women, and children to take up the cry of "Fire!" and sending chaos and alarm throughout the neighborhood. Waldron said it took a full half-hour to restore quiet.
"Concert tours took the company around the United States": There is not a huge problem reconciling Mary P. Waldron's account of her term of teaching at the Robinson Seminary with D.G. Waldron's references to her early touring days with the Alleghanians, but still these tellings are less than a perfect fit. If the early 1870s Alleghanians songster was published in 1873, as a Brown University library cataloguer thought and as I believe, then, according to the time scheme it suggests, Mary could not have taught at the Robinson Seminary quite as long as she recalled. As further details emerge, some timing adjustments in this part of the story may be needed. Nonetheless, it does not appear at all likely that this Voice and Spirit account can be far wrong. Meanwhile, what we are specifically told is that Marie Packard, as D.G. Waldron liked to give Mary E. Packard's name, sang "Come Where the Fountains Play" and "What Shall I Say" in concert at home in the United States, into Canada, and through the "British Provinces." Source: Alleghanians, The Alleghanians, Vocalists and Swiss Bell Ringers' Songster: Sketches and Travels
"The Ship on Fire, one of the Alleghanians' crowd-pleasing": "The Ship on Fire!: A Descriptive Scena," lyrics:
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Apparently word of this incident rapidly made the rounds, and night after night audiences wanted to see and hear repeat performances.
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And the smoke, in thick wreaths, mounted higher, and higher, - from "The Ship on Fire" |
"What Shall I Say" is one of Mary E. Packard's featured songs from her Alleghanians heyday.
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"What Shall I Say" Jamie has long been a courting me, Never was lover more true; But if he asks me to marry him, What in the world shall I do? Lovers are tender and thoughtful, Husbands their tempers display; So if he asks me to marry him, What shall I, what shall I say? |
Very little if anything is commonly known of this piece, and it is a suitable subject for future research.
A printed item about D.G. Waldron from this time gives an idea as to what a manager/agent might do on behalf of a touring artist or company. Waldron was said to have a thorough knowledge of geography and means of transportation, an exhaustive mental file of concert halls and popular hotels, and an easy, amiable business style.
"Waldron was said to have a thorough knowledge of": Alleghanians, The Alleghanians, Vocalists and Swiss Bell Ringers' Songster: Sketches and Travels
"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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