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Shelby County |
Home 1915 History Index |
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Shelby County |
Home 1915 History Index |
CHAPTER XX. (CONT'D)SHELBY COUNTY MUSICAL UNION.
The first meeting called for the purpose of organizing a musical association in Harlan was held March 1, 1875. An address was given by Professor Hotchkiss. Thereupon the Shelby County Musical Union was organized with the following officers: J. V. Brazie, president; vice-president, Mrs. D. D. Downs; conductor, George D. Ross; first assistant, Mrs. Sharp; second assistant, Annie Burke; secretary, Emma Smith; assistant secretary, Cicily Chatburn; treasurer, Ella Robinson. Among the early members elected were J. B. Swain, Miss Fannie Worts, Miss Ida Doleman and others.
The duties of the conductor were interesting. It was provided that "it shall be the duty of the conductor to select the music and to assign such parts to the members of the association as in the judgement will contribute most to the welfare of each. He shall criticise all performances and decide what shall, and what shall not, be sung." The object of the association was stated to be "the cultivation of all that pertains to vocal music." The membership fee was one dollar.
From the very earliest times, apparently, singing schools were highly popular in Shelby county. People met at the school houses in the country and in either the school houses or other public buildings in the towns. It is likely that most of the members of the schools were young people, bent on having a good social time as well as interested in singing. For a number of years singing masters conducted singing schools in Harlan, and it is true that there was a singing school organized in Harlan at about the same time that the first literary or debating society began its existence there. These singing schools greatly helped the singing of church choirs and at public meetings generally.
Of course, in the early days as now, band music especially appealed to the people and the pioneer towns of Harlan and Shelby, and later other towns as they were established, such as Earling and others, took much pride in their local bands and patriotic young men interested in music readily volunteered to play in such bands. It has, however, with the single exception perhaps of the famous German Cornet Band of Earling, been very difficult for a band to maintain a continuous existence for any great length of time, owing apparently to the fact that our population, especially the young and ambitious men, has been rapidly shifting in this western country.
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