Omaha daily bee., 1908-08-15
COMPOSER OF LINCOLN MARCH
Edward Cox Davis, Famous Author
Visits Daughter in Omaha.
ROUNDING OUT NINETIETH YEAH
Though Bent with Age and Addiction
He Play the March Dedicated
at Funeral of the Great
EmancipatOr.

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Edward Cox Davis. 90 years of age, close
personal frien4 Of Abraham Lincoln. COM
poser Of the famous Lincoln Funeral
March" and of other pupular musical selec-
lions. veteran Of the civil war, author and
newspaper corresoondent, Is in Omaha
I visiting at the home Of his sister. Mrs.
John Evans. Twenty-fourth and Ohio
streets. Mr.. Davis arrived the fore part
of the week and expects to stay several
weeks. His home is in Des Moines and this
Is the first time he has visited his sister in
fourteen years.
Bowed with the weight Of his 30 years
and bent with rheumatism, but retaining
his faculties, the veteran composer still
plays the piano and every month writes
an article for the newspapers or a maya
zine, most of his. articles dealing with
musical matters. He is today the oldest
composer in the United States, but the
pride of his heart is the march played at
the funeral Of the martyred president and
played simultaneously on that day by bands
throughout the nation. Thousands Of copies
have been printed and sold and the famous
composition is generally played in later
years on Decoration day or at the funeral
of a military officer.
II wrote the Lincoln Funeral March
when General Lyon. whom / greatly ad-
mired, was killed while trying to bring
order out of chaos In Missouri" said Mr..
Davis. 9TH was in 1852 and while l was
living in Quincy. Ill. l sent the manuscript
to my publishers, Balmer & Weber, in st.
Louis, and asked them to look Il over and
tell me II 1t was worth while bringing 1t
out. Their presses were crowded at the
time and soon afterward 1 went into the
army and the march was not published.
March IL Picked Out.
Then, In 1866, President Lincoln was
shot. The then famous Silver band of st.
Louis was going to Springfield to attend
the funeral, and Mr.. Balmer, my publisher,
was a member of the band. Music of the
old famous authors was sorted over, but
my little march which 1 had written three
years before and named after General Lyon
was picked out as the most appropriate and
was hurriedly published under the title of
the Lincoln Funeral March, .Not only did
the Silver band play it at Springfield, but
Il was played throughout the nation on
that day, as II has on other lays since.
II was always a great admiter Of Mr..
Lincoln-knew him well-and the fact that
my march was selected as the one to be
played at the funeralsof that great man
has always been a source of much pleasure
and comfort to me. Though there has
been so much said about Il In the papers
and I have been heralded as such an un-
usual man land l am just a common sort
Of a person like yoursel) that ] begin to
feel as did Sherman about the Marching
Through Georgia song-it becomes a bore
sometimes"
Though his fingers are cramped with
rheumatism, the veteran composer offered
to play his famous march and he did with
-.1uao.f,I matthias and aypraQsiOn. He
played It from memory in excellent time,
but. as he finished, a tear trickled down
his wrinkled cheek as he told the reporter
that II was wicked for him with his bent
fingers to try to play the piano. In his
4 home at Des Moines he has an old organ
which his publishing house gave him fifty
D years ago as partial reconpense for the
3 great composition and Mr.. Davis says he
can play much better on that old instru-
ment, with which he is familiar. The com.
poser was never paid for his march.
S Memorial DirEe.
= Years after he composed the LIN
d coin Funeral March" Edward Cos
t Davis composed the Garfield Memoir
s Dirge,' which was played at the funeral Of
y that other martyred president. Word!
: have since been set to this dirge and 1t Il
z sometimes sung under other names thar
r that originally given It by its composer.
OF popular songs Mr.. Davis considers hi
< "Oniy Waiting as his best work. Thi
h piece had a great run in its day. Othe
compositions to which he points with prid,
are, when Youth is Gone" "Egyptial
Girls Song and Song of Night"
y Mr.. Davis was born in Philadelphia Nc
n vember %. 1918, and will therefore be 9
years of age next November. He lived II
Philadelphia during the early years of hi
life and there saw a number of great men
He says that in those days PHILADELPHIA
was the center of everything and tina
when anyone went on a trip he invariabl
went to the Pennsylvania metropolis. H
distinctly recalls seeing General Jackso
and the famous Indian chiefs, Black Hawi