"Lorena": Part 8: Family and Death

Joseph and Joanna had four children and their three sons had middle names of composers: Joseph Haydn, Louis Beethoven and Frederick Handel.  However, they were not inclined to music.  Only their daughter Mary Huse became a musician.

Webster's mood and health declined after the Chicago Fire, as did his songwriting.  He died in Elkhorn at age 56 on January 18, 1875, and is buried at Hazel Ridge Cemetery under a boulder with a brass plaque with a musical score and the words "Joseph P. Webster.  In the Sweet By and By We Shall Meet."  The graves of the rest of his family surround it.

Quite An Interesting Story.  --Old Secesh

"Lorena": Part 7: Webster After the War, "By and By"

After the war, Joseph Webster returned his focus on writing ballads and hymns.  He opened a saloon and one of of its patrons was Sanford Fillmore Bennett, the local pharmacist. who would later write the lyrics for "In the Sweet By and By."

According to local legend, Webster walked into Bennett's pharmacy in a despondent mood, but had his violin with him.  When Bennett asked what was wrong, Webster responded that he would be alright "by and by."

Picking up on the phrase, Bennett began writing verses and a chorus, and Webster began to work out a melody on his violin.  In a short time, they had written "In the Sweet By and By."  The original words are on display at the Webster House Museum in Elkhorn, Wisconsin.

The song was published in "The Signet Ring" and later in numerable hymn and songbooks.

The Chicago Fire in 1871 destroyed many of Webster's manuscripts, instruments and possessions where he had stored them in the offices of his Chicago publisher, Lyon and Healey.  As a result, Webster and his family suffered substantial royalty losses and his heirs filed suit in 1906, but didn't receive settlement money until 1921.

--Old Secesh

"Lorena" Songwriter-- Part 5: Gen. Morgan Wants Joseph Dead

Even though his military career didn't bring him to the front lines, Joseph Webster's best weapon in the war was his songwriting.  He established a singing school in Elkhorn and it was there that he met Henry DeLafayette Webster, who was a teacher and principal of the Elkhorn schools.  This other Webster, a minister collaborated with Joseph as lyricist for several songs, notably "Lorena," Webster's first hit.

I was not able to find anything about Henry Webster being in Elkhorn.  Also, Find A Grave does not have his final resting place.

The mournful and sorrowful song was sung by the soldiers of both North and South who would sit around their campgrounds at night and sing it.  It is also sometimes blamed for causing desertions because of homesickness.  Confederate General John Hunt Morgan was reported as saying, "I will pay a bounty to the man who kills the scoundrel who wrote that song."

--Old Secesh

"Lorena" Songwriter-- Part 4: Civil War: "Who Is Walking, There Across the Street?"

During the Civil War, Joseph Webster taught and composed a variety of songs related to the war.  He also was captain and drill sergeant for the local home guard, the Elkhorn Wide-Awakes.  He attempted to enlist but was told his eyesight was not good enough.

Then, a good story as told by Webster: "I protested, insisting that my vision was most certainly sufficient.  He said then, 'All right, Webster, take off your spectacles and tell me who is walking there across the street.'  I removed my eyeglasses, and took my best guess at who might be at that place at that time 'Why, it's Mr. ____,' I asserted.  At his short bark of laughter, I put my eyeglasses back in place, and realized that no one at all was across the way."

He did, however, serve in the local militia, the Elkhorn Wide Awakes, training them using his previous learning of military.

--Old Secesh

"Lorena" Songwriter, Joseph Webster, Lived in Elkhorn, Wisconsin-- Part 3: Abolitionist Views Force a Move

As Joseph Webster was doing business in Kentucky, he saw slavery and didn't like what he saw and became an abolitionist.  Madison, being located on the Ohio River, directly across from Kentucky, also had strong pro-slavery views (as well as abolitionist).

Once Webster's views were known, he began receiving threats on his life.  One incident where Webster was called upon to fix a church's organ on a late Saturday night, he was attacked by a man with a dagger, but able to defend himself.

That was the final straw.  The family moved north to Chicago in 1855 and a short time later to Racine, Wisconsin.  The lake air aggravated Webster's chronic bronchitis and 1859, they moved away from the lake to Elkhorn, Wisconsin, where they settled permanently.

--Old Secesh

"Lorena" Songwriter Lived in Elkhorn, Wisconsin-- Part 1

From the February 2014 Spirit of Geneva Lakes Magazine "Songs of Elkhorn Composer Still Ring Out 150+ Years Later" by Jean Van Dyke.

Joseph Philbrick Webster wrote songs that are still played today, and he wrote them in a tiny house that used to stand in the Elkhorn, Wisconsin downtown square where it had once before served as a land office and courthouse.  The house was moved to 9 East Rockwell Street and today houses the Webster House Museum and Walworth County Historical Museum.

Elkhorn is about thirty miles from where we live in Spring Grove, Illinois.

One of his three biggest songs were his 1857 ballad "Lorena," often considered the most-popular song during the Civil War on both the North and South.  Another was "I'll Twine 'Mid the Ringlets," written in 1860 and now known as "The Wildwood Flower," June Carter Cash's last recorded song.  The last is one of the better-known Christian hymns in America's history, "In the Sweet By and By," written and published in "The Signet Ring" in 1868.

Sing Me a Song.  --Old Secesh