In the late 1800s, the Fork— the area between the French Broad and Holston rivers in Knox County—buzzed with singing schools that brought music, community, and faith together. Dr. Swancey Kennedy (1844‑1923), a local physician, recorded his experiences in a diary that now offers a window into this once‑thriving tradition.
What were singing schools?
Singing schools were short‑term music courses, often lasting from a few days to two weeks, and typically ending with a public concert at a local church. Lessons ranged from ten to twenty sessions and were advertised in Knoxville newspapers. Costs varied: children could attend a 24‑lesson series for $1.50 using the book The Young Melodist, while some classes for young women were offered free on Saturday mornings.
Local instructors and venues
Before the Civil War, instructors such as Miss F.M. Clark and Henry M. Butler led classes in Knoxville. One notable demonstration concert took place at Butler’s Seminary, promising comfortable seating for 300‑400 attendees at 23 cents per adult and 15 cents per child. Attendees could travel on Mr. Coleman’s omnibus, a horse‑drawn carriage that ran along Gay Street.
In January 1888, Dr. Kennedy wrote that he took his children to the Salem Seceder Presbyterian Church on Wayland Road for a singing school, possibly led by Professor James E. Bassett of Strawberry Plains, a minister who later taught at Salem in 1899 and at Asbury and other Fork churches. Other teachers included Professor John C. Wilson of Hampden‑Sydney College, A.E. Sherrod, N. Fagan, Wade Gentry, and George W. Henry. Wilson, a native of Blount County, sometimes drew crowds of at least 300.
Materials and music
Students used a variety of songbooks, such as The Song Monarch, The Leader, The Standard by Horatio R. Palmer and Luther O. Emerson, and Sparkling Rubies by Asa Hull and Harry Sanders. William Oscar Perkins’ Singing School and Encore were also sold by W.F. Cummins Music Emporium at 47 Gay Street. These manuals featured exercises, rounds, glees, and instrumental interludes.
Community celebrations
In 1847, a Grainger County singing school marked Independence Day by positioning male members of three singing societies a quarter‑mile from the Buffalo Creek church, where they marched while singing hymns before a crowd of about 1,500 citizens. An amusing 1847 newspaper account described a visitor who, hearing scale exercises, thought the singers were learning “to sing in Cherokee.”
Decline and legacy
By the 1890s, singing schools were labeled “old‑timey,” and they gradually faded as public schools incorporated music into their curricula in the early 1920s. Though the tradition has largely disappeared, its influence endures in the region’s musical heritage.
Jan Loveday Dickens, an educator, historian, and author of Forgotten in the Fork, continues to preserve these stories. Readers can request a copy of her book via the email provided in the original article.
Original reporting: Knox TN Today — read the source article.
