by Sandra Jean Graham
Web Table 4.1. Original Hampton Institute Singers, 1873,
directed by Thomas P. Fenner
|
First soprano |
|
|
Carrie Thomas |
Lead
soprano. Only student with previous formal training, and only northerner by
birth. |
|
Alice M. Ferribee |
Born
1855 in Elizabeth City, VA. Class of 1875. Later married Reverend Peyton
Lewis (class of 1875), a pastor in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and served
as organist in several churches and Sunday schools after studying
instrumental music in Baltimore. |
|
Rachel Elliott |
Born
1854 in Portsmouth, VA. Class of 1874. |
|
Second soprano |
|
|
Lucy A. Leary |
Born
1855 in Fayetteville, NC. Class of 1877. Cousin to alto Maria Mallette.
Before the war lived at Harper’s Ferry, where her father died in the John
Brown raid. |
|
Mary Norwood |
From
Wilmington, NC. |
|
Alto |
|
|
Maria Mallette |
Born
1857 in Wilmington, NC. Class of 1877. Cousin to soprano Lucy Leary. Turned sixteen
during the first year of touring. Died 1880. |
|
Sallie Davis |
From
Norfolk, VA. After graduation, briefly continued her singing career with two
other Hampton singers (Joseph Mebane and James Monroe Waddy)
in the Virginia Choristers,
then became a teacher. |
|
First tenor |
|
|
Joseph Mebane |
Born
1853 in Mebanesville (now Mebane), NC. After
graduation, continued his singing career with two other Hampton singers
(Sallie Davis and James Monroe Waddy) in the Virginia Choristers and at
least one other traveling company. In 1880s opened a “Gentleman’s Bar-room”
in Ohio. |
|
Hutchin(g)s Inge |
From
Danville, VA. Class of 1872. |
|
Whit Williams |
Born
1857, Danville, VA. Class of 1876. After graduation taught in Washington Co.,
VA (1878–82), where he started a church choir and taught vocal music. |
|
James A. Dungee (or Dungey) |
Born
1842 in King William’s County, VA. Class of 1872. Traveled with the Hampton
Singers for two years after graduating, then became a teacher. Died 1883. |
|
Second tenor |
|
|
William Gaston Catus |
Born
1853 in Hertford Co., NC. Class of 1875. Became a teacher and then a preacher
after graduating. |
|
G. E. Collins |
Toured
for seven months with the troupe (dates not available). |
|
Joseph B. Towe |
From
Blackwater, VA. Class of 1875. The troupe’s shouter. Wrote his commencement
essay on slave song. Became a teacher after graduating. Married his pupil
Anna Taylor. Died 1880. |
|
First bass |
|
|
James Henry Bailey |
Born
1852, Danville, VA. Class of 1876. After graduating, attended Shaw University
for a year to further his studies in science and music, then became a
teacher. |
|
Robert H. Hamilton |
Born
a slave in Louisiana. Class of 1877. After graduating taught at Hampton for
seven years and had charge of the music program, drilling of the choir, and
teaching singing, especially spirituals, to the entire school. In 1880
married Sarah E. Weaver, who died after a few months. In 1884 led and sang in
a male quartet from Tuskegee Institute. Married Altoona Killian in 1886
(member of the Hampton 1886 middle class) and directed a troupe from Norfolk
Mission College in the summers of 1886 and 1887 (see Norfolk Jubilee Singers). In fall 1887 went
to Tuskegee, where he taught and also led the choir. |
|
Second bass |
|
|
James Monroe Waddy |
From
Richmond, VA. Class of 1875. Married Grace McLean (class of 1874) after the
original Hampton singers disbanded in 1875. After graduation, continued his
singing career, in one case with two other Hampton singers (Sallie Davis and
Joseph Mebane) in the Virginia
Choristers; he also sang with the Hyers sisters; a Chautauqua
choir; the Boston Colored Ideal Opera Company (Redpath Lyceum Bureau); and Slavin’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin jubilee singers (see chapter
7), among other groups. He made an extended tour of Europe. He also gave solo
concerts with piano accompaniment, unusual at the time for black performers.
In 1882 he was a member of the Exodusters, a drama
troupe organized by the Northwestern Lyceum Co. (KS) to perform Exodus, a three-act moral musical drama. |
|
John Holt |
Born
1848, Hickory Hill, Onslow Co., VA. Class of 1875. Became a teacher and
farmer. |
Note: Biographical information on the singers compiled from Mary Frances Armstrong and Helen W. Ludlow, Hampton and Its Students (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1874), 127–50; Helen Ludlow, “The Hampton Student Singers,” Southern Workman (May 1894): 72–77 (Hampton University Archives); and Twenty-Two Years’ Work of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute at Hampton, Virginia (Hampton: Normal School Press, 1893); and on Collins and Waddy: “The Colored Exodus” (Leavenworth [KS] Times, 6 Aug. 1882: 5).