Musical Madison County

Lovejoy Piano

This little square pianoforte fit neatly into a home. With the lid down, it looked and functioned just like a side table. It was just the thing in the mid-to-late 18th century for dinner parties. The trendiest hostess amused her guests by playing an accompaniment while everyone joined in singing the latest hits.

The decorative nameboard identifies the manufacturer as Astor & Co. at 79 Cornhill, London. Under the lid, additional markings indicate piano importer George Schetky sold it in his Philadelphia music store. This information narrows the date of manufacture to circa 1796-1824.

"One old small piano"

When Jesse Walton of Alton died in 1866, his estate included "one old small piano." The estimated value of Walton's personal estate, including some boxes, trunks, shelving, chairs, and a clock in addition to the piano, totaled $50. By comparison, a good secondhand piano alone cost about $150-$200 at the time. People considered square pianos old-fashioned.

Willard Flagg of Moro purchased the little old piano. It eventually ended up with his daughter Mary. The Madison County Historical Society received the piano through Mary in 1938.

A Lovejoy connection?

The story that the piano once belonged to Elijah P. Lovejoy surfaces in an unidentified 1875 newspaper article. The article describes the piano's provenance as follows: Lovejoy owned the piano in 1837 when he was killed by the mob attacking his Alton press. The piano was next acquired by Jesse Walton (also an abolitionist). Upon Walton's death, Willard Flagg obtained the piano for a pittance at the estate auction.

The story grew legs over time. When another piano owner sold a "Lovejoy piano" in 1885,^† Willard Flagg's widow (Sarah Smith Flagg) contested the claim with two affidavits. (Unfortunately Lovejoy's widow couldn't settle the dispute, having died in 1870.)

Affidavit 1

One of Jesse Walton's daughters (Julia Walton McConnel) attested that the Flagg piano was the same piano she had grown up playing, and that her father had purchased it from Lovejoy's widow (Celia).

Affidavit 2

A piano tuner (V. Walter) attested that the Flagg piano was the same piano he tuned for Jesse Walton in 1861. He further attested that Walton told him the piano had been owned by Lovejoy. (Later sources elaborate that V. Walter was blind.)

What do you think?

The connection to Lovejoy is hard to prove with objective evidence. Both affidavits rely on secondhand information.^‡ No receipts, letters, or other documentation has been found containing a firsthand account of ownership of the piano being transferred from Celia Lovejoy to Walton. No evidence has been found that the Lovejoys even owned a piano.

As a hero and martyr, Elijah Lovejoy's fame and fascination rivaled that of any celebrity. Just like celebrity fans today, some Lovejoy enthusiasts prized anything he touched. Maybe Jesse Walton obtained this piano from Celia Lovejoy. Or maybe the story grew around this old small piano because people, then and now, want to feel close to their heroes.

Whether or not Elijah and Celia Lovejoy owned this piano, today we benefit from the fact that Madison County residents treasured it. Either way it remains a lovely example of a popular instrument from a bygone era.

Listen to Kelly Nivison play Clementi's Sonatina No. 3, Op. 36, Spiritoso on a similar Astor & Co. square piano.

Footnotes

†Mary Gere of Upper Alton sold her "Lovejoy piano" to an A.M.E. church official representing northern Missouri. The bishop planned to present the piano to Wilberforce University, a private black university in Ohio.

‡In a letter to Sarah Flagg, Julia says that her father purchased the piano from Celia Lovejoy "a few years after the murder of her [Celia's] husband." Since Julia was born in 1841, four years after Elijah Lovejoy's death, she was too young to have firsthand knowledge of the piano purchase.

Sources

• Alton Telegraph. Various articles.
• Cole, Michael. Square Pianos. Accessed February 5, 2020. squarepianos.com
• Jesse Walton probate documents. Accessed January 31, 2020. ancestry.com (subscription required).
• Kickapoo, Volume 1, Number 23 (October 10, 1928). Available at the Madison County Archival Library.
• Palmieri, Robert, editor. The Piano: An Encyclopedia. New York: Routledge, 2003.
• Scharf, J. Thomas, and Thompson Westcott. History of Philadelphia: 1609-1884. Philadelphia: L.H. Everts, 1884. Available online at the HathiTrust Digital Library hathitrust.org
• Simon, Paul. Freedom's Champion: Elijah Lovejoy. Carbondale, Southern Illinois University Press, 1994. Available at the Madison County Archival Library.
• United States census records and other public records.

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Melodeon Organ

James Messick's father bought him this melodeon organ in 1857 or 1858, when James was about fourteen years old. The Messick family lived in Macoupin County, but they probably purchased the melodeon in Alton. Emil Trenchery, a blind French musician, owned a music store in Alton for several decades beginning in the early 1850s. Trenchery stocked his store with melodeon organs for sale or rent.

A melodeon organ is a type of reed organ that produces sound by drawing air in (versus expelling it out) via pedal-operated bellows. The melodeon shown above features the "divided swell" improvement patented by Prince & Co. in 1855. The divided swell gave the performer the option to open the swell only halfway and thus vary the tone.

After serving with the 133rd Illinois Infantry in the Civil War, James Messick married Susan Kelly and became a music dealer. James continued to sell pianos and organs in Macoupin County until his death in 1922. The melodeon ended up in Alton with his only child, Nellie, who donated it to the Madison County Historical Society in 1974.

Listen to Rodney Jantzi play the hymn "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus" on a similar portable melodeon.

Sources

• Alton Telegraph. Various articles.
• Alton Weekly Courier. Various articles.
• Musical World: A Literary and Fine-Art Paper. Various articles.
• Pump Organ Restorations. Accessed February 5, 2020. pumporganrestorations.com
• Illinois State Archives. Illinois Civil War Muster and Descriptive Rolls (database). Accessed January 31, 2020. cyberdriveillinois.com
• United States census records and other public records.

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Zithers

Zithers take many forms, but fundamentally they are all strings stretched over a resonating box. The zither shown below is a 4-chord fretless zither. It has a bank of fifteen melody strings open-tuned to the C-scale and also four groups of four strings each for playing chords.

The finish, tuning pin arrangement, and inside label indicate this zither dates to circa 1900-1901. It probably cost about $2.00 brand-new.

The instrument shown below is a ukelin (a ukulele-violin hybrid). It has two levels of strings. The top sixteen melody strings fasten to loops on the long sides of the body and to tuning pegs at one end. These strings are played with a bow. The strings in the lower level comprise four chord groups and run along the length of the body. Ukelins come in rectangular or guitar-shaped versions. Music taxonomies classify the ukelin as a type of fretless zither.

The maker of this ukelin only produced rectangular ukelins circa 1930-1940. The inside label has a price tag of $35.00. This was a marketing ploy: traveling salesmen selling ukelins door-to-door routinely offered buyers a half-price "discount."

It is believed that these zithers belonged to Irma Frey (née Schmidt) and/or her son Herbert Frey. Irma was born in 1886 near Highland. She married Arthur Frey of St. Jacob in 1906. The couple ran the Frey family farm until the 1930s. Their son Herbert was born in 1912.

Listen to Michael Garvin play the hymn "Amazing Grace" on a ukelin.

Sources

• The 1902 Edition of The Sears Roebuck Catalogue. New York: Bounty Books, 1969. Available at the Madison County Archival Library.
• Bob's Ukelin Homepage. Accessed February 5, 2020. studiobobo.com
• Collinsville city directories. Available at the Madison County Archival Library.
• "Fretless Zithers." Pick Away Press. Accessed February 5, 2020. pickaway.press
• Miner, Gregg and Kelly Williams. "Fretless Zithers." Miner Music. Published May 2003, updated May 2015. Accessed February 5, 2020. minermusic.com
• St. Jacob, Illinois, 1875-2000: Gem of the Prairie. Shawnee Mission: Printed by KES-PRINT, [2000]. Available at the Madison County Archival Library.
• United States census records and other public records.
• Williams, Kelly. "Friederich Menzenhauer." The Guitar-Zither Clearinghouse. October 14, 1998. Accessed February 5, 2020. fretlesszithers.net

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The Schwarz Family

Christoph M. Schwarz

Ten-year-old Christoph emigrated from Prussia with his parents and four younger siblings (including Charles) in 1844. The family settled on a farm near Edwardsville. As a young man, Christoph earned his living as a violinist, playing gigs and giving music and dance lessons.

The Civil War broke out in April of 1861. In August, Christoph joined up as a musician with the Fremont Hussars, a Union cavalry unit organized in St. Louis. He left behind a wife and 8-month-old daughter. After the war, Christoph purchased Oak Hill Farm near Edwardsville. There he and Charlotte raised five children, among them sons William, George, and Elmer.

William C. Schwarz (son of Christoph Schwarz)

William was born while his father was away serving in the Civil War. He began his music career at age ten playing cornet in the Joseph Brendle band. William organized the Edwardsville Enterprise Band in 1885 and led the band as its director. Band members included William's brothers George and Elmer.

William never married. The 1900 census of Edwardsville shows the 38-year-old music teacher living with his widowed father on Schwarz Street (named for his family). In 1907, William partnered with Edward Ballweg to open a retail drugstore. He patented a design for a 4WD automobile transmission the same year (the Madison County Archival Library holds the original patent document).

William lived on Schwarz Street for the rest of his life. In his later years, he tuned and rebuilt pianos.

Charles Schwarz and the Schwarz Sister Orchestra

Charles was six years old when his family emigrated from Prussia in 1844. He grew up on the family farm near Edwardsville. By 1870, Charles had a wife and an infant daughter. Over time, Charles and Frances raised nine daughters and a son.

Charles, who played in his nephew's Enterprise Band, passed a love of music on to his children. Eight of them formed a band called the Schwarz Sisters Orchestra in the late 1890s. In the 1899 photograph above, the band members range in age from 29-year-old trombonist Jessie to 6-year-old Ruth on the bass drum. Jessie's husband William Thomas served as band director.

Only Jessie reported her occupation as a band musician to a census-taker, in 1910. Minnie is listed as a music teacher in the 1900 census. The band played for dances and other social functions until the early 1910s.

Sources

• "City has long been noted for musical organizations," Edwardsville Intelligencer, 75th anniversary edition, November 14, 1937. Available at the Madison County Archival Library.
• Edwardsville Intelligencer. Various articles.
• Edwardsville Intelligencer. Madison County centennial edition. 1912. Various articles. Available at the Madison County Archival Library.
• Find A Grave. Accessed February 5, 2020. findagrave.com
• "From Missouri: Competent and Experienced Officers; The Attraction of Gen. Fremont's Name Organizing the Army; Gen. Fremont's Body Guard; &c," New-York Times, September 3, 1861. Accessed February 5, 2020. nytimes.com
• Illinois State Archives. Illinois Civil War Muster and Descriptive Rolls (database). Accessed January 31, 2020. cyberdriveillinois.com
• National Park Service. The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Database. Accessed February 5, 2020. nps.gov
• Springer, Jessie. Music in Edwardsville: Early-1900. Manuscript. December 1959. Available at the Madison County Archival Library.
• Travous, Rachel Louise. [Notes on band history from information gained from W.C. Schwarz]. Available at the Madison County Archival Library.
• United States census records and other public records.

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Cordelia Jones

In the early 20th century, people threw dance parties for entertainment. They would gather a hundred of their closest friends, book the hottest local musician, and dance all night. The best parties in Madison County had a live soundtrack by pianist Cordelia Jones.

The Jones family moved to Alton when Cordelia was small. Cordelia taught piano lessons and played area gigs by the time she turned twenty. If a venue required a bigger sound, she rustled up some fellow musicians to form a band.

In 1903, Jones wrote, produced, and starred in Jolly Octoroons. (The 19th-century word describes a person who is 1/8 black. The dated term is considered offensive today.) The play premiered at Alton's Temple Theater. Jones was in her early twenties and expected the production to bring her fame and fortune.

Although Jones didn't achieve the fame she hoped for as a playwright, she dominated the local music scene for the first two decades of the 20th century. Her story as an African American woman bandleader is unusual in Madison County recorded history. The Cordelia Jones Orchestra provided dance music at private parties and office picnics. They played regularly on steamboat excursion cruises to St. Louis.

In the mid-1920s, when the public's appetite for jazz music decreased demand for her waltzes and two-steps, Jones joined the travelling Pantages vaudeville circuit. But vaudeville too was on its way out. Competition from the motion picture industry gained momentum when feature-length "talking pictures" premiered in 1927.

Jones returned to Alton. She lived in her childhood home at 519 Easton Street until her death in 1930.

Sources

• Alton city directories. Available at the Madison County Archival Library.
• Alton Telegraph. Various articles.
• Bell Telephone News, Volume 3, Number 4 (November 1913).
• Edwardsville Intelligencer. Various articles.
• Statt, Daniel. "Pantages, Alexander (1876-1936)." HistoryLink. HistoryLink.org essay 2999. Posted March 5, 2001. Accessed February 5, 2020. historylink.org
• "Motion picture (sound film)." New World Encyclopedia. October 25, 2018. Accessed February 5, 2020. newworldencyclopedia.org
• United States census records and other public records.

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Anita Ellsperman

The only child of divorced parents, Anita Ellsperman started playing the cornet when she was in grade school. "Nitz" graduated from Edwardsville High School in 1939, joking that she was leaving in order to compose music for Benny Goodman. In reality she enrolled at the James Millikin Conservatory in Decatur.

Anita earned a chair in Phil Spitalny's All-Girl Orchestra in 1943. The group performed a live radio show broadcast by CBS from Detroit, Michigan. The show, which aired on Sunday afternoons, was called the "Hour of Charm." Spitalny and his orchestra also performed at venues across the country. It was a glamorous life.

"Anita Ellsperman … was my idol when I was a kid — I wanted to be in show biz — she traveled all over the USA and came to Edwardsville High School while the orchestra was in St. Louis. She played her trumpet & I was so excited to meet her. She visited her relatives & then hit the road again."
— Pauline Meyer, October 17, 1994, letter accompanying her donation of the Favorite Melodies from the Hour of Charm record set.

Anita continued playing with the All-Girl Orchestra even after marrying Joseph Wechsler, a bakery equipment designer, in 1948. Fellow band members served as bridesmaids in the Temple Rodeph Sholom ceremony in New York City.

This four-record set features sacred and patriotic pieces like "Ave Maria" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." It is the group's second album. The Hour of Charm All-Girl Orchestra and Choir recorded at least one subsequent album, a collection of Christmas carols.

Listen to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" on Favorite Melodies from the Hour of Charm.

Sources

• Alton city directories. Available at the Madison County Archival Library.
• Anita May Ellsperman guardianship documents. Available at the Madison County Archival Library.
• The Billboard, Volume 57, Number 28 (July 14, 1945).
• Decatur Daily Review. Various articles.
• Discogs. Accessed February 5, 2020. discogs.com
• Edwardsville Intelligencer. Various articles.
• The Tiger 1939: Yearbook of Edwardsville High School. Available at the Madison County Archival Library.
• United States census records and other public records.

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Joey James Hlavsa

Joey Hlavsa gave his first live performance at age nine, playing the accordion with "Polka King" Frankie Yankovic in St. Louis's Casa Loma Ballroom. Hlavsa was born in Glen Carbon in 1942 and attended Edwardsville High School and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Although he eventually made his living as an insurance broker, the band he formed in high school continued playing gigs for over fifty years.

Hlavsa used the name "Joey James" for show business. He played bass, accordion, and keyboard in the four-member Joey James Orchestra. A trumpet, saxophone, clarinet, and drums rounded out the band, with James and other members taking turns on vocals. They specialized in dance music: polka, Latin, waltz, swing, foxtrot, and country.

Joey's widow Becky Hlavsa donated this record to the Madison County Historical Society. The photo image on the record sleeve is Joey's 1960 high school senior year picture.

Sources

• Alton city directories. Available at the Madison County Archival Library.
• Discogs. Accessed February 5, 2020. discogs.com
• Edwardsville Intelligencer. Various articles.
• [Obituary]. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 24, 2010.

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A Funeral Organ

John G. Tate's father, a Civil War veteran, died at age 49. He left behind a widow and six children. Seven-year-old John was the youngest.

John moved with his mother Sarah to Madison County in the late 1890s. They settled in Granite City, where John worked first at the steel mill an then as a tin worker at the National Enameling and Stamping Company (NESCO) factory.

John married Leona Whaley and went to school to learn the embalming trade. In 1920, John had just started his own business as an undertaker. He was 36 years old. The childless couple owned, operated, and lived at Tate Funeral Home on State Street until the 1950s. John also directed the Granite City Municipal Band.

Professional embalming in the United States resulted in part from the desire to send slain Civil War soldiers home for burial. Prior to the Civil War, a deceased person's family simply washed and dressed their relative's body for burial. The visitation and service were held at home. Many 19th-century houses had special rooms and features expressly designed for this purpose.

Even after it became common to enlist a professional undertaker, services continued to be held in private homes. John used this portable 4-octave reed organ to supply music at home funerals. The lid latches closed over the keyboard, forming a suitcase-like carrying case. A collapsible combination support stand/pedal frame fits inside.

Sources

• Faber, Homo. Folding organ. United States patent number 944,483. Patented December 28, 1909. Accessed January 31, 2020. patft.uspto.gov
• Find A Grave. Accessed January 31, 2020. findagrave.com
• Granite City: A Pictorial History. St. Louis: G. Bradley Publishing, 1995. Available at the Madison County Archival Library.
• Granite City city directories. Available at the Madison County Archival Library.
• "Granite City Progress Edition." Magazine supplement. Granite City Press-Record. March 14, 1924. Accessed February 5, 2020. history.smrld.org
• Illinois State Archives. Illinois Civil War Muster and Descriptive Rolls (database). Accessed January 31, 2020. cyberdriveillinois.com
• Skovronek, Terry. "The History of Home Funerals: From Family Tradition and Back Again." National Home Funeral Alliance (NHFA). Accessed February 5, 2020. homefuneralalliance.org
• United States census records and other public records.

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Blue Stars

Clarence "Tabby" Stocker, a lifelong citizen of Highland, was thirty years old when he was first elected as the city's mayor in 1931. He remained in the office through the Great Depression and World War II. Tabby and his brother also owned and operated their late father's construction and gravel business.

Stocker was a born musician, able to play virtually any instrument without instruction. He formed a dance orchestra called the Oriole Serenaders when he was about twenty years old. Later, as mayor, he conducted the municipal band's weekly concerts in the city plaza.

Stocker also composed music, including "The Blue Stars in Your Windows." The song celebrates the blue star service flag displayed in wartime by soldiers' families. The official banner consists of a white field bordered in red and decorated with one or more stars. The number of stars indicates the number of family members serving in the armed forces. A blue star represents active service, a silver star stands for a wounded soldier, and a gold star means the service member has died. The banner is displayed inside the front window, facing outward.

Sources

• "About the Service Flag." Blue Stars Mothers of America, Inc. Accessed February 5, 2020. bluestarmothers.org
• Harris, Roland. "A Thought to Remember: Clarence 'Tabby' Stocker was Highland's mayor for 14 years," Highland News Leader, September 24, 2015.
• Highland, Illinois: 1810-1987. Highland: Highland Sesquicentennial Association, 1987. Available at the Madison County Archival Library.
• [Obituary]. Highland News Leader, September 1, 1971.
• "The Service Flag of the United States." Chamber of Commerce. Accessed February 5, 2020. chamberofcommerce.org
• United States census records and other public records.
• Who's Who in Madison County. Edwardsville: Edwardsville Intelligencer, 1939. Available at the Madison County Archival Library.

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Ballad of the ERA

Music can motivate as well as entertain. Illinois-born singer-songwriter Kristin Lems was a graduate student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign when she got involved in the Equal Rights Amendment ratification effort. She performed her "Ballad of the ERA" at rallies across the country.

"So no more debate because we can't wait
We demand equality today
And it's fight we must to make the law just
ERA — ERA — ERA!"
— Chorus lyrics for "Ballad of the ERA" by Kristin Lems.

The ERA had a long path to passage. Congress voted it down every year from 1923 until 1972. Finally both houses passed it. The amendment went to the states for ratification. But even after a deadline extension until 1982, the ratification effort fell three states short of the 38 required to amend the Constitution.

Lems's "Ballad of the ERA" was included in the 2019 Smithsonian Folkways 4-CD compilation The Social Power of Music. Avid ERA advocate JoAnn Nabe of Edwardsville donated the original 45 rpm single to the Madison County Historical Society.

Despite the efforts of Kristin Lems, JoAnn Nabe, and others, Illinois never ratified the ERA.

Listen to Kristin Lems sing "Ballad of the ERA."

Sources

• Equal Rights Amendment. Accessed February 5, 2020. equalrightsamendment.org
• "Kristin Lems." Veteran Feminists of America. Interviewed by Chris Riddiough at the UCI Richard J. Daley Library, Chicago IL, June 15, 2019. Accessed February 5, 2020. veteranfeministsofamerica.org
• "Lems, Kristin." Oral history interview. Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Accessed February 5, 2020. illinois.gov

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