Singing Was Enjoyed By All

It appears that my great-great-grandfather, William Carleton Lancaster, was a singer. In the newspaper, The Dublin Progress, there were many articles about singing at W.C. Lancaster’s home.[1]

Singing at WC Lancaster Saturday night was enjoyed by all present.[2]
It seemed there were singing events at least once a month. At least, that was how often they were reported or maybe the singing was at the Lancaster house only once a month.
What kind of singing was it? Church singing? Singing where someone played the guitar, banjo, violin, or harmonica? It was not clearly stated in the newspaper.

Singing at W.C. Lancaster’s Sunday was well attended and enjoyed by all. The singing class has bought new books, and we now have one of the best singing classes in the county. We sing every first and third Sunday evenings. Everybody invited to come and sing with us.[3]
So this article said the singing was twice a month but did not state where, though it could have been at W.C. Lancaster’s. Because of the singing being on Sunday, it could be church music that they sing. Of course with Sunday being the “off” day of work, they could have been singing other types of songs as well.

In August of 1913, there was a singing convention and W.C. Lancaster was the president.

The central singing convention of Erath county will meet at Hickey school house Aug 31st, the fifth Sunday. Dinner will be served on the grounds. W.C. Lancaster is president of the convention.[4]
Sometimes W.C. Lancaster went to other locations to sing.

WC Lancaster and Omer Bost attended singing at Alarm Creek Sunday afternoon.[5]

Now, if the singing had to do with church or religion, I haven’t figured out yet which church the family attended.  A hint though could be found in researching the minister who married Lancaster family members. R.L. Smallwood married W.C.’s son, George Warren in 1912.[6] Census records for 1900-1920 listed his occupation as farmer. He lived in Stephenville in 1930 and his occupation was listed as preacher. On his death certificate, he was listed as a preacher for the Baptist Church.[7] So perhaps the church they attended was the Baptist church. The next step is to find out if there are any records of the Baptist church.

As for the singing, I have not heard any stories about this. My grandparents never sang. None of my siblings got the musical talent either, although we all love to sing-along to records, radio, and musicals. Maybe it’s enough that we love music.

Group of men, women and children singing to piano accompaniment
New York Public Library Digital Collections[8]



[1] All of these newspapers were accessed 26 Nov 2016 on The Portal to Texas History (https://texashistory.unt.edu).
[2] “Hickey,” The Dublin Progress, 13 November 1914, digital image, The Portal to Texas History.
[3] “Hickey,” The Dublin Progress, 16 May 1913, digital image, The Portal to Texas History.
[4] “Personal Mention,” The Dublin Progress, 13 Aug 1913, digital image, The Portal to Texas History.
[5] “Hickey,” The Dublin Progress, 17 September 1915, digital image, The Portal to Texas History.
[6] Texas, Erath County, Marriages, Book M, p 278, GW Lancaster-Lela Loveless; FHL Film #1428410.
[7] "Texas Deaths, 1890-1976," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K3M7-V9F : 5 December 2014), Robert Lee Smallwood, 17 Jun 1938; citing certificate number 27568, State Registrar Office, Austin; FHL microfilm 2,117,696.
[8] "Group of men, women and children singing to piano accompaniment," Art and Picture Collection, The New York Public Library, New York Public Library Digital Collections (http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e3-3cf5-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 : Accessed December 7, 2016).

Copyright © 2016 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, Mam-ma's Southern Family

Comments

  1. Denise Hibsch RichmondDecember 10, 2016 at 8:01 PM

    Lisa, what a wonderful glimpse into your gg-grandfather's life. I love using newspapers in my research also but so far I've only learned who's visiting who! I hope you learn more about his singing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lisa S. GorrellDecember 10, 2016 at 11:10 PM

      Thanks for your comment. I know what you. Normally I find the visitors or what parties they were invited to.

      Delete

Post a Comment

All comments on this blog will be previewed by the author to prevent spammers and unkind visitors to the site. The blog is open to other-than-just family members particularly those interested in family history and genealogy.

Popular posts from this blog

Happy Blogiversary & Happy 100th Blog Post!

Image
Today is a big milestone. This is the 100th blog post I have written and the 6th anniversary of the beginning of this blog. I began the blog on January 15, 2011, through a blog writing class I took at California Genealogical Society, taught by Craig Siulinski. It was something I wanted to do but wasn’t really sure what I would focus on. I finally settled on writing about my grandmother, Pansy Louise Lancaster’s family and this was my first post . In the beginning it was hard to get started. I learned from the Geneabloggers website, that there were blogging memes I could use and I have done that off and on, especially at the beginning. But I finally learned that what worked best was to write about my discoveries as I researched my grandmother’s family. So what have I written in six years? I discovered I have only written four posts specifically about my grandmother: “Mam-ma was a Tomboy” “Fearless Females – Day 12” “Mam-ma 1913-2013” “My Grandpar
Read more

John Coor of Copiah County Made an Agreement with Joel Hoggatt

Image
This week at RootsTech 2024, FamilySearch announced a new feature that an every-word search was available for U.S. deeds and probates. It is still in the trial mode and can be found at https://www.familysearch.org/en/labs/ . This is the search screen. It clearly states it is for US land and probate records and Mexico notary records. You can do a keyword search or if you click on the “more options” you can add a name. My Find I immediately gave it a try and searched first for records of the COOR family using the keyword search. Up first came deeds from Wayne County, North Carolina.  At the top, you can filter using record year, record type, record place, and collection. For the past few days, I have mainly filtered by record place. I filtered down to Mississippi. You can even filter to the county. The first entry was a document I had not seen before. It was an 1826 agreement between John Coor and Joel Hoggatt to build a set of grist and sawmills. John Coor is my 4x-great-grandfath
Read more

Using the Attendees at Lela Ann (Loveless) Lancaster’s Funeral to Discover Residences

Image
Lela Ann Lancaster, my maternal great-grandmother, died on 17 May 1951. [1] She had died in Wichita Falls, Texas, at the state hospital. The doctor’s handwriting is nearly illegible so the cause of death is difficult to determine. She was conflicted with Parkinson’s Disease which probably contributed to her death. Her funeral was three days later. [2] Lela Ann (left) with Warren, daughter Pansy, granddaughter Lela Nell, and son Wayne, c. 1935 Obituary Tells Story of Life Two obituaries were published on the same day in the Stephenville Empire-Tribune on two different pages. One gave information about her life and the funeral, and the other was about who attended her funeral. The transcription of the first is here: "Mrs. Warren G. Lancaster"    Funeral services for Mrs. Warren G. Lancaster, 55, who died at 4:30 a.m. Thursday at a Wichita Falls Hospital, were at 3 p.m. Sunday at the First Baptist Church with the Rev. Felix Gresham and the Rev. Ernest Rippetoe officiating
Read more