The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1937-03-04

Tioga Point, not far away. But
the boy was homesick at Athens
and spent much of his time with
his brother at Towanda, attend
ing the Towanda academy as
well as the one at .Tioga Point.
He was not a particularly apt
student and about the only i'm
portance there is to this period
in his career is that during this
time he composed his first music,
"The Tioga Waltz" arranged for
four flutes and written for the
commencement exercises at
Athens. On that occasion Stephen
played the leading part himself,
while three other students played
the remaining parts.
In 1841 Stephen entered Jeffer-
son college at Canonsburg, Pa,
Is miles from his home at Pitts
burgh, and stayed in this institu-
ton just seven days. Then, over
come by inconsistencies, he left
college, never again to seek a
formal education. A year later
he composed the music of his
first song "Open Thy Lattice,
Love-" poem written by George
P. Morris which had appeared in
a supplement to the New Mirror.
AS a gay young blade of nine
teen in Pittsburgh, Foster had
a half dozen boon companions,
: youths of his own age, who met
regularly twice a week to sing
at Stephens home. They brought
their banjos and guitars wit h
them, and called themselves
knights of the Square Table"
1t was for this group that Ste
phen wrote many of his finest
and earliest songs, including
Louisiana Belle" "Uncle Ned"
and "Oh, Susannah." The latter
was Immediately taken up by all
the minstrel shows, of which
there were a great number then
on the road.
For this song Foster received
$500, an event which determined
his. career for him. Imagine my
delight in receiving 500 in
CASH." he wrote later. Though
this song was not successful,
yet the two $50 bills I received
for it had the effect of starting
me on my present vocation"
Disputed Authorship.
Then E. P. Christy, head of
Christy's Minstrels, asked him to
write a song for him to sing be-
fore it was published and the
result was the world-famous "Old
Folks at Home" or, as it is more
Familiarity known, "Suwanee
River" By permitting Christy
to sign his name instead of Fos-
ter's to this song, the composer
obtained an advance of SIS. Later
he received more than $4,000 in
royalties from it's sales but he
had a great deal of difficulty in
establishing his authorship for
Christy copyrighted it in his own
name.
The decade 1850 to 1860 was
Stephen Fosters heydey. In 1850
he was married to Jane Nc
Dowell. In 1852 he wrote
"Massa's in de Cold, Cold
Ground; began efforts to have
himself acknowledged tn e
rightful author of "Old Folks at
Home" and with his wife took
that memorable steamboat trip
to New Orleans, the rich fruit
of which was to be the song, "My
Old Kentucky Home" copy
righted in 1858.
But Fosters married life was
not happy one. He and
his wife lived for few years
with Stephens family in Pitts
burgh, then moved to New York.
There the composer yielded more
and more to the temptation of
strong drink until at last his wife
left him, mainly because she had
to earn a living for herself and
their child, Marion.
Foster died on January Is, 1864,
in Bellevue, charity hospital
in New York City. In his clothes
they found the small purse con-
tanning 38 cents and a slip of
paper with five pencilled words
on it. They were Dear friends
and gentle hearts," Says John
Tasker Howard in his biography
of Foster:
''No doubt this was to have
been the title of an unwritten
song, but whatever its intent, the
phrase describes quite perfectly
the dear friend and gentle heart
who added old Folks at Home
and dozen other immortal songs