GERMANNA_COLONIES-L Archives

From: John Blankenbaker <>
Subject: [GERMANNA] (944)Germanna Colonies, History of
Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 05:39:16 -0400

The nine hundred and forty-fourth note in a series on the Germanna Colonies

[Amendments, corrections, and additions: The last note had the wrong
numeric on it. It should have read 943. The text described it correctly.
Joy Watkins filled in the vacancies in my mind and gave us the names of two
of her uncles who were governors of Arkansas. These were James Sevier
Conway and Elias Nelson Conway who were great-great-grandsons of John Jacob
Rector, the 1714 immigrant.]

In going through these names of German immigrants and their descendants who
made contributions to American life, we tend to overlook the ones who have
acquired an English name or an English spelling. The two Conway governors
of Arkansas show this effect.

The next group on the list is the doctors. There is no dearth of names here
but public recognition is low. Therefore, I am going to skip over the group
and go on to the musicians. The selection of musicians has 247 names of
which 82% were European born. This merely shows that the contributions of
the second, third, and later generations were not on the same level as the
immigrants. In turn, this shows their talent arose from the training they
received, not from the genes.

Fifty-two composers made the list. The contributions ranged from hymns
(Johann Kelpius), popular songs (Jerome Kern), to symphonic works (Arnold
Schoenberg). Among conductors, another fifty-two are listed. Of these
fifty-two, forty-eight were foreign-born, two were second generation, and
two are unknowns. In no other field or even sub-field is this attribute
shown so strongly. However, composers and instrument makers are close
behind the conductors.

Among the instrument makers are David Tannenberg who built the organ in
1802 for the Lutheran Church (Hebron) outside Madison, Virginia. This organ
and about seven others that he built in the eighteenth century are still
playable. As the leading organ producer of the eighteenth century, he
produced about sixty. The Hebron instrument is used regularly. Henry
Engelhard Steinweg made pianos. Before he went into production, he changed
his name to Steinway which means the same. Then we have the Wurlitzer
organs. Two particular units are well known, the theater organ and the
jukebox.

Recently, the United States Postal Service issued twelve stamps honoring
Hollywood composers and Broadway composers. The men honored were Max
Steiner, Bernard Herrmann, Alfred Newman, Dimitri Tiomkin, Franz Waxman,
Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Ira and George Gershwin, Lorenz Hart, Meredith
Willson, Lerner & Loew, Rogers & Hammerstein, and Frank Loesser. Are there
any names in these combined lists which are not German? Hart could have
been Hardt and Newman could have been Neumann.

John Blankenbaker

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