John William Boone
Channel: all the knowledge of the universe PRINCIPIA
Date: 2022-01-07

John William Boone, by Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10026296 / CC BY SA 3.0

#1864_births
#1927_deaths
#Ragtime_composers
#Composers_from_Columbia,_Missouri
#Musicians_from_Columbia,_Missouri
#Burials_at_Columbia_Cemetery_(Columbia,_Missouri)
#African_Americans_in_Columbia,_Missouri
#African-American_pianists
#People_from_Saline_County,_Missouri
#Blind_musicians
John William "Blind" Boone （May 17, 1864 – October 4, 1927） was an American pianist and composer of ragtime music.
Boone was born in a Federal militia camp near Miami, Missouri, May 17, 1864, to a contraband slave, Rachel, who used the surname, Boone, on the 1870 Federal Census.
On John W. Boone's 1927 Missouri Death Record, Rachel's maiden name is said to be Carpenter.
His father was a bugler in the 7th Missouri State Militia Cavalry （Union）.
At six months Boone fell ill to "brain fever" and to release the swelling of the brain a radical surgical procedure was performed, removing both of his eyes.
This is how he became "blind" Boone.
He grew up in Warrensburg, Missouri, where Camp Grover was the headquarters of the 7th MSM at the end of the Civil War.
Boone's mother, Rachel Boone Hendricks （when she married Harrison Hendricks in 1871, she used the Boone surname）, worried that her son would find life too difficult without some sort of education.
Because of this, his hometown of Warrensburg decided to make sure that Boone received an education and paid for him to attend the Missouri School for the Blind where he played the piano for first time.
After growing bored with his experience there （they tried to teach him to make brooms）, Boone's habitual rule breaking （sneaking off at night to listen to piano music at the local barrooms） got him expelled.
He returned to Warrensburg where he began to wander, playing with local musicians.
He was actually kidnapped for a time by a gambler and sometime showman, Mark Cromwell, until his step-father, Harrison Hendricks caught up with them in Mexico, Misso...