The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1911-02-06
SKETCH OF DANIEL D. EMMETT

After his career in negro minStrelsy,
he settled down in Ohio, about five miles.
south of F'redericktown. in lonely lit
tie hermitage, and passed away the last
days of his eventful life.
Mr.. Albert G. Hatfield is known to all
theatregoers the world over as AL G.
Field, the king of minstrel men, a gen.
tleman who through his great efforts
and painstaking attention to duty has
placed his name on the top round of the
blazoned ladder of fame, a good pinnacle
of manhood, respected by all competitors
as the proper Snowman criterion to emu
late and it was to this gentleman that
the public should be grateful in granting
the legion of American friends the chance
of once more seeing good Uncle Dan EN-
NETT. Mr.. Field found him living there
in little inland Ohio town in utter OBJ
security when in his S1st year and took
him touring with his Greater Minstrel
company. Dan Emmett was one of the
four members who comprised the first
minstrel organization in 1S43. He lived
to see minstrelsy in all its many phases
from the Original four to the famous
forty; the various "Campbels," the
mutitudinous "Christys,'' Happy Cal
Wagner's "Pontoons" Sam Sharpley's
"Ironclads.'' Haverley's ''Mastodons."
Hooley and Emerson's "Megatherians,
and Mike Leavitt's "Gianteans." So you
can well see that Dan Emmetts star of
greatness eclipsed them all.
September 10, 1859, was the precise date
when Dixie was first produced, at Me-
chanics hail. by Bryant's Minstrels, as
a walk around in their first part.
Dan Emmett was only II years old when
he left his little Buckeye home to join
a circus as musician and comic singer.
Before the birth of modern minstrelsy
he used to play banjo in some of the
New York city theatres at night. This
was as early as 1912. 1t was in the next
year that Dan" Emmett, Billy Whit
lock, Frank Bower and Dick Pelham
organized the first minstrel company in
history. BILLY" Whitlock always claimed
to have conceived the idea, but the or
ganization itself was completed in EN-
NETS room in Catherine street board
ing house, kept by Mrs. Brooks. Their
debut was at the Chatham theatre, Feb
ruary II, 1913, for "Dick" Pelham's ben
eft They were ALI end men and interloc-
uters-the dignified Mr.. tombstone"
who nowadays sits in the middle of the
crescent and soemnly repeats the queries
of Mr.. Bones and Mr.. Tarnbo being a
later evolution. This original minstrel
quartet did The Essence Of Old Virginia
and the Lucy Long Walk Around. They
called themselves. the Virginia Minstrels,
and afterwards appeared in other Amer
lean cities, and even in Europe, so you
see that the present day Ministries do
not have any call coming upon these in
fants of the burnt-cork reign.
Emmett composed his other famous song
of Old Dan Tucker, also his Boatman's
Dance, Walk Along John, and Early, in
the Mornin', but none of these ever a.
tanned to the popularity Of Dixies Ranki x
as 1t does with the more classical Sc
lections of the masters, this song peren-
NAL in favor is, still, and ever will be
regarded as a relic of the Civil war. Be
it in the metropolis of the north, the
town of the west, or village in the SOUTH
its melody never fails to thrill the heart
of the patriotic American. Perhaps no
other melody has been SO frequently used
emblematic ballad.
Mr.. Emmetts tour with AL G. Field
Greater Minstrels in 1S97-9S was the last
he ever made. Mr.. Field always treated
Emmett with the greatest respect and
kindness, and at all times spoke in the
highest praise Of the character and in
nate modesty of this old-time Ethiopian
limpersonator, who never sought notori-
ely as the author of his universally sung
masterpiece.
Among Mr.. Fields treasures is an orig
inal program of the 1859 Mechanics Hall
entertainment, when Dixie was first
played and sung by Bryant's dusky COM
edians. AS an incidental matter of his
| tory, 1t may be here recorded that Bry-
| ants Mistrels at that time comprised
Dan Neil and Jerry Bryant, T. Prender-
CAST, Dick Carroll. Tommy Pell. G. w.
Griffin, Charles Fox and Dan Emmett.
At that time Bryants Minstrels led them
all. Their closets rivals were George
Christy's Minstrels and Pell's Serenaders.
| The original manuscript of Dixie was
through some unexplained reason either
stolen or lost in 1897 or 1898.
| After leaving the Field Ministries, EN-
| nett was then 81 years old, but was re-
| markedly strong for one of that age,
but he never appeared in public again.
He owed his remarkable health to. his
| temperate life
| Should he have chosen to travel again.
he would have been a great minstrel idol
all over the United States, but he had
enough of 1t, and came back to his little
home near Fredericktown to live and die
| in the vicinity Of his boyhood years. and
never left Knox county again.
Thus ended truly wonderful and USE
full life.