The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-12-16
STEPHEN FOSTER MEMORIALS

I'll ousdnlla, Onuef the WILLOWS Sne i
Sleeping, . Uncle Ned" Virginia Belle,
willie. We Have Missed You" and
When This Dreadful War Is Over"
Gustav Kobbe, who probably knowsI
more about Foster than any man aliveA
outside the songwriter's own family
gives us the following history of "Oldl
Kentucky Home" probably Fosters mas
terpiece:
My Old Kentucky Home phe saysH
was written as a musical souvenir of thdI
picturesque homestead of his relativeII
Judge Cater U. S. senatoD John Rowal
of Bardstown, Ky. 1t is said that thd!
song was written by Foster while he and
his sister were on visit to the Reward
home. One morning while the slaves werd1
at work and the darky children rompins !
the two young visitors were seated on al
bench In front of the homestead. In all
tree overhead mocking bird was warb-E
ling. From bush nearby came the song
of a thrush.
According to the story, Foster wrote
and composed the song, then and there,
and when enough of it was jotted down.
for his sister to obtain an idea of thei
melody of the first stanza, she took the
sheet from his hand, and in sweet, mel
low voice, that chimed in with the sur
rounding, sang:
The sun shines bright in the Old Ken-
lucky home,
'Tis summer, the darlies are gay:
The corn-top's ripe and the meadows inI
the bloom,
While the birds make music all l. e,
day!
zone Sunday afternoon, in the home oil
one of his brothers, he sat with one legI
over the arm of the chair, whistling.
After while he went to a table and be 4
gan writing some words and music.
Then he called his niece to the pianol
and together they tried over what he
had first whistled and then put down onl
paper Later in the day he arranged i'll
for quartet, and in the evening he, hsI
niece and his brother, went to a neigh-
boris, where the lady of the house sang
soprano, and tried over the quartet
Thus his most ambitious composition,
Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming, /
was written; it was next to Kentucky
Home, perhaps the best known of his
works"
Stephen Collins Foster. Kobbe relates,
came of good family. His father was a.
general merchant in Pittsburg, Dispatch
ing goods on flat boats down the river to-
New Orleans. OF the other children in
addition to the songwright, one died as
recently as 1904. man of no little MEANS
Another was the first vice president Of
the Pennsylvania railroad, while a daugh-
married brother of President Buchanan,
and her own daughter is the wife of the
pi esident of another great American rail-
way. Henrietta Crosman, whose full
name is Henrietta Foster, is another d.
rect descendant, being a grand niece of
Stephen Foster, the author of the songs.
July 4, 1896, while the band outside the
Foster home at Lawrenceville, now a
part of Pittsburg was playing for the
national holiday, stephen Foster was
born. At two he would pick out harmon
les on his sisters guitar, at eight he
played the flute, and soon after. piano.
At 16 he had published song.
Passing from the school days, Foster
entered his brother Dunning's office in
Cincinnati as clerk, and while there he
wrote his "Oh, Susanna!" He had not yet
turned to music professionally, and so
we find that he gave this and another
song to a friend who cleared $4,000 from
them and laid the foundation of mis- bust
ness upon them
Foster was a small man, proud and
sensitive. but brave when need be. Soon
after his marriage. In 1850 to the daugh-
ter of a Pittsburg physician. a flatter-
ing offer from publishers took him to New
York. HomesclSness. however, carried
him back, and only after the separation
from his wife did he return anew to the
metropolis
BY that time, according to the biogra-
phers the bad habits had taken their hold
and the beginning of the end had come
The tragedy OF his death, just a half GEN.
tury ago, however, seems not to have
dimmed the luster of his glory in the
slightest, and so Foster day is being ex-
plotted the country about, and so soon
as 1914 will have come well in. We may
expect a revival of the good old songs"
such as we have not witnessed for de-
cades and more.