Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-10-16
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
PROF. JAMES B. HARRY

To the Editor Of the Tclcgrdph:
Prof. James Brown Harry, for
many years a resident of Harrisburg,
and very prominent here in the
work of musical culture, died at
Laurium, Mich, Sept. Is, at the age
of eighty-nine. During the seventies
and eighties of the last century he
conducted maany singing classes in
Harrisburg and hundreds of the men
and women who read this tribute
were then his pupils.
With Professor Harry music was
more than a science or an art.
During a very long life it was with
him a passion,-his whole being. He
believed that music was one of the
great means by which society might
be elated and ennobled, and to it
he dedicated his whole life.
Naturally with such a father, all
his children were musical experts al
most from infancy. During the years
of his Harrisburg residence, the
singing of the bright group of Harry
children was a special feature of
many entertainments. And, oh,
how those Harry children could
sing? OF that brilliant quartet
but one is living to-day, Miss Emma
Viola Harry, musician and linguist
of rare ability, and a prominent
member of the faculty of the Calu-
met, Mich, high school. 1t was at
her home in the adjacent town of
Laurium, that Prof. Harry died, he
having gone to his daughter in the
Michigan copper belt, three years
ago when the advance of old age
prevented him from longer conduct
ing the work of his avocation.
A native of York, a defendant on
both his father and mothers side
of illustrious families of the era of
the American Revolution, Prof.
Harry became a musical missionary
very early in life. His greatest work
was done in the years prior to the
Civil War. He organized schools of
musical instruction throughout York,
Adams, Cumberland and the lower
half of Dauphin counties, the princi-
pal centers of his activities being
Shrewsbury, Dillsburg, Hanover,
Gettysburg, New Oxford, York
Springs, Fairfield, Littlestown, Car
Isle, Mechanicsburg, MELVILLE and
Middletown. At the conclusion of
each year of musical instruction he
would have. a mammoth picnic of
all his classes which was generally
HSlu III Tie WOOuS along the Cone
WACO Creek near New Oxford, Ad-
ans county, and which was some
times attended by as high as ten
thousand pupils and their friends.
Travelling for years by horse and
buggy from town to town, he knew
every road of the four counties.
When, in June, 1863, he encountered
| u column of Confederate troops
swiftly approaching Wrightsville, he
FASTENED, amid many dangers, to
| drive to Harrisburg, and commune
Gated his observations to General
Couch, Commanding the Depart
ment of the Susquehanna, whose
headquarters were in the Brady
House, Third corner of State street,
| where now stands the Masonic Tenn
! pie. In consequence of his informa-
ton orders were sent for the des-
truction of the Columbia bridge to
prevent Lees army from gaining a
foothold east of the Susquehanna.
For this act he was nightly COM
| plimented by President Lincoln
when the National Cemetery at
Gettysburg was dedicated, Nov. 10,
1853; and the professor and his
aged mother were invited by the
President to seats on the rostrum
during the delivery of his immortal
speech. His daughter brought Prof.
Harry's body to his old locality for
burial at Mt. Holly. The Rev.
George Edward Reed being the Of
| ficiating minister.
j, HOWARD VERT