MJ Oct 2020 Full

Maturity Journal
and then sloped toward the river
to provide easier accessibility both
to and from boats. Only then did
the city establish a wharf that could
dock the boats from which passengers
could depart and visit the city
with some ease.
So, despite being on the Ohio
River, Evansville experienced few visiting
entertainers in its early decades.
In the earliest of times the settlers
entertained themselves in community
settings: house-raising and
barn-raising, log-rolling, wood-chopping,
and bean-picking, corn-shucking
and apple-paring after harvest. It
sounds like work, and it was work,
but not so much when people got
together and sometimes made a
contest of it. At the corn-huskings,
men and women competed against
each other. Whoever found a red
ear would be kissed by their competitors
of the opposite sex. Often
dances followed the log-rollings and
corn-huskings, and they were strictly
for fun and enjoyment.
During the day, while the men
were away at work, the women had
quilting parties, meeting at someone’s
house to stitch quilts and enjoy
conversation (in some cases, gossip).
Younger folks enjoyed spelling bees
as well as the aforesaid dancing. Guns,
being necessary for hunting in many
of the households, were occasionally
used in contests of marksmanship,
but using up the gunpowder and lead
for a marked target (rather than an
animal that could feed a household
for several weeks) was considered
wasteful. In such contests, prizes of
sheep, calves, or full-grown cows or
steers were offered. The top five winners
were awarded a portion of the
animal being offered. The first place
winner got the hide and taller(?);
European magician Herr Alexander
was a young man when he came to
Evansville in the 1840s. He lived
long enough to meet another great
magician of the 20th century, Harry
Houdini.
second, hind quarters; third, fore
quarters; fourth, head and legs; and
fifth, lead in the trees.
As the village grew and added
such institutions as the church and
courthouse, the idea of being entertained
became a reality. Around
1832 music came to the Presbyterian
meeting house, also known as the
“Little Church on the Hill,” at what
is now Second and Main. Daniel
Chute, who ran the tavern (inn)
between Sycamore and Vine on First
Street, played the flute and “Daddy”
Knight played the bass viol (?) as
they accompanied the choir. The
women of the church raised funds
through church fairs, selling products
that they had canned, knitted,
or sewn. In a few years they had
earned and saved enough money to
buy the church a melodeon. It’s worthy
to note here the names of Col.
Cyrus K. Drew, choir leader, and
his son, C.K., Jr., who became the
church’s first organist. They would
feature prominently in Evansville’s
entertainment history.
The Methodists, whose church
was on nearby Locust Street, were
not early adopters of instrumental
music in their church, which they
claimed “disrupted the congregation.”
In time they would change
their minds. In the meantime, the
Little Church on the Hill became an
assembly hall for non-church-related
public gatherings.
In 1837 J.S. Baker organized the
first town band. He was also arranger,
conductor and librarian for the
band, and copied the band’s music
by hand. Later he became the first
engineer of the Evansville and Terre
Haute Railroad. His early band
featured instrumentalists playing a
B-flat bugle, two B-flat clarinets, a
French horn, triangle, trombone and
bass trombone.
Around the same time the
Evansville Hotel at First and Main
provided a dance floor and became
the town’s venue for large social
events.
Mary French Reilly, who was
educated at the best schools in
Albany, New York, had studied and
excelled in playing the piano for two
years. She brought the first piano to
Evansville and became the center of
the first music circles in Evansville.
It’s not really surprising, since she
was one of the sisters of Mrs. Calvin
Butler (the other sister was Mrs.
John Shanklin). Mr. Butler was actually
the Rev. Calvin Butler, minister
of — wait, wait, wait; ah, you guessed
it — the Little Church on the Hill.
(The piano is now displayed at the
Evansville Museum of Arts, History
& Science.)
By the 1840s Evansville
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Page 4 October 2020