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![\"Evidence](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/German-Fire-Ins-Now-e1464146141159.jpg\")
<\/a>The Wheeling of one hundred ten years ago was a robust German town<\/a>, with a German language newspaper, mandatory German language classes in many schools, and German language services in many churches.<\/p>\n It was also home to numerous German choral singing societies<\/a>, including the Arion, Harmonie, Maennerchor, Beethoven, Germania, Liedertafel, Mozart, Concordia, Liederkranz, and Teutonia. The Turner (or Turnverein) Society emphasized gymnastics and operated Turner\u2019s Hall. The singers were mostly male, accompanied, when needed, by female singers from the women\u2019s auxiliaries. The societies often had their own musicians. The German singing societies also sponsored three big regional singing festivals, or Saengerfests in Wheeling in 1860, 1885, and 1906. Other societies journeyed to town from far-flung cities in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio to join their Wheeling brothers and sisters for a few days of concerts, parades, and picnics. The 1860 Saengerfest<\/a> featured performances in Washington Hall and the Athenaeum (converted not long after to a Civil War military prison). The 1885 Saengerfest was held at Alhambra Palace Hall, a huge roller skating rink at Chapline and 33rd Streets, and ended with a \u201cMonster Parade\u201d and \u201cGrand Excursion to Wheeling Park.\u201d<\/p>\n By the time of Wheeling\u2019s 1906 Saengerfest (held for the Central Ohio Singing District) only the big three Wheeling societies were still in operation: the upper crust Arion (a merger of the Harmonie and Maennerchor), which operated Arion Hall<\/a> at 20th and Main Streets; the working class Beethoven, which also met at Arion Hall and would be the last of the Wheeling societies still standing, surviving until 1961; and the working class, South Wheeling-based, Mozart (a merger of the Concordia and Liederkranz supported by Henry Schmulbach and his brewery employees), which had a hall at 38th and Jacob and operated Mozart Park (and beer garden).<\/p>\n Schmulbach\u2019s chief rival, brewer Anton Reymann, was a prominent member of the Arion Society, and operated his own beer garden at Wheeling Park. In fact, German beer gardens seemed to be around every corner in Wheeling at the time, from Mozart and Wheeling Parks, to Seibert\u2019s Pavilion in Edgwood. And beer was certainly a popular beverage at the German singing festivals, as Wheeling\u2019s singers fondly remembered the previous Saengerfest in 1904 in Akron where the Cleveland delegation wore hats with the German words for \u201cWhat will you have?\u201d on the front and on the back, \u201cAlways beer!\u201d<\/p>\n There was even a German beer garden on the Coney Island<\/a> amusement park in the river near Warwood, which had spared no expense in preparation for the 1906 Saengerfest, paying top dollar to book the hottest aerial act around that summer: the \u201cFrench equilibrist\u201d (tightrope walker) Arabie Philion. \u201cBetween 5000 and 7000 people saw [Philion] yesterday,\u201d the News-Register<\/em> reported. \u201cThe steamer Avalon was crowded to its capacity on each trip and as many more went up on the traction cars.\u201d Large Saengerfest crowds were expected for Philion, who \u201cstands upon a globe 28 inches in diameter and propels it up a spiral runway 160 feet long and then out upon an imitation cable 50 feet in length. The dare-devilry of the performance is accentuated by the fact that Philion does not have a net stretched to catch him in case he falls\u2026In the night performance he released a fountain of fire, which enveloped him as he descended to the runway.\u201d The News-Register<\/em> pronounced Philion\u2019s show a \u201cnovel, pleasant, and thrilling act\u201d and encouraged Saengerfest visitors not to miss it. According to newspaper accounts, not many did.<\/p>\n Just three days later the Wheeling Amusement Company, which owned Coney, was sued for $500. The cash drawer was levied but only contained a paltry $100, so the owners were given until the end of the week to reach a settlement to avoid a forced sale of the island. The manager, Mr. Driehorst, was \u201csaid to have been apprised of the deputy sheriff being in possession of papers for the island, and he beat the deputy to it by about fifteen minutes via the \u2018airship\u2019 line,\u201d the News-Register<\/em> joked, mocking the popular \u201cAirship to the North Pole\u201d attraction at Coney Island. The big 1907 flood would bring an end to the unlikely river resort.<\/p>\n Wheeling\u2019s August 21-23, 1906 Saengerfest was the biggest of them all. Held primarily at the Court Theatre, it featured, in addition to Wheeling\u2019s big three (under the direction of Professor Herman Shockey), 24 visiting singing societies, including: Akron Saengerbund and Akron Leidertafel; Alliance Harmonie; Canton Arion; Cleveland Harmonie, Cleveland German-Hungarian Society, Cleveland Newburg Germania Mannerchore, Cleveland Schwabischer Saengerbund, Cleveland Turner Mannerchore, and Cleveland Deutsch Ungartscher Saengerbund; Columbus Germania, Columbus Leiderfranz; Dayton Mannerchore, Dayton Schwabischer Saengerbund; Lima Orion; Mansfield Arion; Marion Deutsch Bund; Parkersburg (WV) Germania; Sandusky Schfabishcer Saengerbund; and Youngstown Mannerchore.<\/p>\n Also in town was the Chillicothe Eintracht which, back in 1885 when the Saengerfest was also a singing competition, had won a \u201csilver loving cup.\u201d They forgot to bring the cup back to Wheeling with them in 1906, when the competitive aspect had been discontinued because it had \u201cled to ill-feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n As each society arrived they were \u201cmet at the [train] depot by the reception committee and a band [typically the Opera House Band] and escorted by them to Arion Hall\u201d for refreshments and then to their headquarters.<\/p>\n With between four and five thousand extra passengers expected per day, local railroads offered special trains, including the Pan Handle from Butler and Columbus, the B&O from Pittsburgh, Parkersburg, and Cleveland and the Wheeling and Lake Erie from Cleveland. And with so many thousands of visitors expected to descend upon the city, the hotels offered special rates and were soon booked so full, most reportedly had \u201ca large number of cots placed about in the parlors and halls,\u201d with still more visitors having to be placed in private homes.<\/p>\n The idea of the streets teeming with out-of-towners had the Wheeling Police on high alert, expecting, \u201cpickpockets and crooks of a similar nature.\u201d But in the end, the police seemed almost disappointed by how few crooks actually went to work.<\/p>\n The streets of Wheeling had never been so alive with the sights and sounds of spontaneous singing, performance, and musicianship. The town was transformed into a German version of New Orleans. As they marched in the sweltering downtown street from their hotels to the Court to perform, the societies were usually accompanied by a \u201cband of music.\u201d Impromptu concerts broke out on street corners. The Cleveland German-Hungarian Society was the first to enlist an uninvited group tagged the \u201cLeedle German Band\u201d to play music as they walked from place to place. Other delegations followed suit, picking up the \u201cLeedle German Band\u201d to head impromptu parades. \u201cThere was music in the air after the concert last night,\u201d the News-Register<\/em> observed, \u201cand the inevitable \u2018Hi-lee hi-lo\u2019 was sung freely on the street. All the visitors appeared to be having a good time. Many of the societies wore uniform caps, some of them with inscriptions in German across the visor.\u201d<\/p>\n The biggest of Saengerfests was also a big marketing opportunity. In addition to an official lithography filled program, official badges were sold at Arion Hall and the Court, \u201c\u2026neat celluloid affairs, surmounted by the German flag, and bearing the words: \u2018Tenth Central Ohio Saengerfest\u2026Wheeling, W. Va.\u201d<\/p>\n The New York Staats Zeitung, the largest German daily newspaper in the country had a reporter at the events, and enterprising local newsboys \u201chad supplied themselves with a large number of copies of [Wheeling\u2019s] German Daily, Duetsch Zietung, and were hawking their wares along the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n Stores like C.A. House, House and Hermann<\/a>, Hancher Jewelers, and Palace Furniture and Undertaking Parlor ran newspaper ads targeting Saengerfest attendees. In its ad welcoming the singers themselves, Stone & Thomas reminded them that they were required to wear a white vest and black bow tie, both of which they could purchase at \u2013 wait for it \u2013 Stone & Thomas, for just 98 cents to $3 per vest and only 25 cents per tie!<\/p>\n The sixty-piece Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ludwig Van Beethoven doppelganger Johann Beck, served as the primary orchestra, backing a chorus of 700 men (for whom a huge wooden scaffolding was special built on top of the Court\u2019s stage), and another chorus of 600 children directed by Miss Lucy Robinson that, attired all in white, sang \u201cOld Glory\u201d \u201cDixie\u201d and \u201cAmerica\u201d while waving small American flags.<\/p>\n On opening night, August 21, with \u201ca large German flag and on either side smaller American flags,\u201d at center rear of the stage, \u201cThe curtain rose at 8:15\u2026and from the rear, row upon row, from the extreme back of the stage forward and from the extreme of either wing in tier upon tier sat the immense chorus of 700 persons.\u201d Beck led the symphony\u2019s performance of Wagner\u2019s Imperial March\u2026\u201d and then, \u201cthe largest song body ever heard in Wheeling\u201d performed \u201cSing and Forget.\u201d The volume was immense,\u201d the Intelligencer<\/em> reported, \u201cbut not to such an extent that it was rendered unpleasing\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Not all of the Saengerfest visitors were of German extraction. John Garrity the Irish \u201ctinner\u201d from \u201cthe ould sod\u201d via Parkersburg was making the rounds at the Saengerfest concerts and parties, which he reportedly enjoyed \u201cwith a keen relish.\u201d He became well known for \u201ccracking jokes\u201d and was \u201cgenerally a center of a jolly crowd wherever he might go\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the vaudeville acts at Wheeling Park attracted both Irish and Germans, who \u201cThronged\u201d the park. \u201cIt was the A.O.H. [Ancient Order of Hibernians] picnic,\u201d the News Register\u2019s<\/em> version began, \u201cbut the Germans outnumbered the sons of the Ould Sod two to one. However they mingled together and all were out on pleasure bent and they certainly had it. After the excellent vaudeville performance, the Saengerfest visitors formed in bodies of about fifteen, each body having a leader, and then there was singing in every part of the park. This singing was kept up until they arrived in the city. And each one had a grand time, and only such a time as a German at Wheeling Park can have. Every amusement was indulged in and the refreshment counter was well patronized.\u201d Indeed, the presence of so many hardcore German and Irish pleasure-bent amusement seekers at his park must have meant quite a boon to Mr. Reymann and the sales of his particular, hoppy refreshments.<\/p>\n Eschewing the superheated indoor events, many visitors hopped the trolleys to visit neighboring towns, the parks, and Coney Island, while the Mozart, Arion, and Beethoven halls were left open for visitors to come and go. Court Theatre manager Richardson and a team of just four men rather quickly dismantled the huge lumber scaffolding erected on top of the Court\u2019s stage, which had impressively held the 700 singers without incident and without a single nail having been driven into the stage itself.<\/p>\n Mozart Park, was \u201cthronged Afternoon and Night,\u201d with an estimated 4000 people (the Intelligencer<\/em> had the number over 10,000). \u201cThe Opera House Band,\u201d said the News-Register<\/em>, rendered the concert music and Meister\u2019s Orchestra furnished the music for dancing. The large pavilion where the devotees of the terpsichorean art held sway was crowded all the time during the afternoon and evening.\u201d Banners were placed around the park to mark where each society was to congregate and have lunch.<\/p>\n In the shooting contest, Henry Beu won first prize: a silk umbrella. Second prize was a box of cigars, third a pipe. Bowling champ John Roth won a \u201chandsome water pitcher.\u201d A \u201cbeautiful stein set\u201d went to the second and third place bowlers.<\/p>\n Though they managed to transport visitors up the hill to fill the park without incident, four City Railway Company cars jumped the tracks while lugging the huge crowd back down the hill. Fortunately, there were no serious injuries.<\/p>\n Wheeling\u2019s biggest (and last) Saengerfest had come to a rousing end.<\/p>\n The next biennial Central Ohio Saengerfest was scheduled for Canton in 1908 in June \u201cto escape the heat of August.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the grand success of the 1906 Saengerfest, and despite Wheeling\u2019s status as a staunchly German town<\/a>, just a few years later, the town\u2019s distinctive German character would be virtually erased. America\u2019s entry into the Great War sparked a highly effective national propaganda campaign against the German enemy. The ensuing anti-German backlash caused dramatic changes in Wheeling. In 1918, all German language instruction in city schools was discontinued, Wheeling businesses like the German Bank dropped the word \u201cGerman\u201d from their corporate names, and all of the German Singing Societies (except for the Beethoven) became extinct. And Wheeling would never again experience the merriment of a Saengerfest, that is, until the Ohio County Public Library revived the tradition in 2010.<\/p>\n And this Sunday<\/a>, you will have another opportunity to experience the sights, sounds, and smells of a bygone era.<\/p>\n On May 29, the library will welcome back the Liederkranz-Turner Club, a German singing society from Dayton, Ohio, accompanied by the Kolping Society of Cincinnati. The Liederkranz-Turner singers were in town six years ago to mark the 125th anniversary of Wheeling\u2019s 1885 Saengerfest. So memorable was their first Wheeling experience, they requested a return, along with their friends from Cincinnati, to mark the 110th anniversary of the last Wheeling Saengerfest in 1906.<\/p>\n After an introduction by Dr. David Javersak to provide the historical context, the Liederkranz-Turner Club and the Kolping Society will perform. Free German festival food created by Chef Chris Kefauver and the culinary arts department at West Virginia Northern Community College will be served. There will also be door prizes, including some from the Wheeling Brewing Company<\/a>, which has crafted the seasonal Saengerfest Schwarzbier<\/a>, a pilsner dedicated to the history of German singing in Wheeling.<\/p>\n The program<\/a> will be dedicated to the late Dr. Edward C. Wolf, whose research and writing<\/a> ensured that Wheeling\u2019s German singing societies would not be lost to history.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
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\nIn addition to their individual concerts, which often featured formal balls and dinners, these patriotic groups joined forces annually to sponsor Wheeling\u2019s biggest 4th of July celebrations at the Fairgrounds on Wheeling Island.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>
\nGardens of Beer<\/h2>\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nThe Biggest<\/h2>\n
\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>In keeping with a request made by Wheeling Mayor Charles Schmidt in his official Saengerfest Proclamation, many buildings throughout town (including Stone & Thomas, Arion Hall, and the Court) were draped with German and American flags and bunting for the occasion. \u201c\u2026the city had put on its gayest attire and all thoroughfares are lined with buildings displaying flags, festoons and streamers of the American and German colors.\u201d The decorations by H. F. Behrens Company on South Market were said to be the most artistic by the \u201csaengerbruders,\u201d with German and American flags artfully arranged all over the front of the store.<\/p>\n
\nThe Streets Were Alive<\/h2>\n
\n<\/a><\/a>
\nOpening Night<\/h2>\n
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\nVaterland vs Ould Sod<\/h2>\n
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\nA Heat Wave<\/h2>\n
\n<\/a>In the end, attendance at the official Saengerfest concerts was lower than expected, and the low numbers were blamed on an August heat wave that peaked at 96 degrees. In fact, the temperature inside the Court Theatre, packed with 700 choral singers, was stifling, and attendance at the outdoor venues received a corresponding boost.<\/p>\n
\nEven so, enough spectators showed up at the Court on the final night that, when they joined with the 700 singers on stage to sing the Star Spangled Banner. \u201c\u2026the big auditorium rang with the harmony of the grand old national anthem and on the chorus the audience rose and joined in and 1,500 voices breathed out the country\u2019s tune. It was a wonderful climax to a wonderful song festival and ended Wheeling\u2019s greatest musical affair.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nVolkfest!<\/h2>\n
\n<\/a>But the last concert was not really the end. The festivities ended in grand German style with another monster parade or Volkfest. The societies assembled at Arion Hall about 600 strong, and accompanied by the Opera House Band, Meister\u2019s Band and six others, marched up Market to 10th, down Main to 23rd, then over to Chapline, and down Chapline to 29th, where they hopped the incline street cars (along with thousands of others) to Mozart Park for a massive, Schmulbach beer-fueled picnic and party with dancing, bowling, shooting and general merriment.<\/p>\n
\nWheeling De-Germanized<\/h2>\n
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\nSaengerfest Revisited<\/h2>\n
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\nSee you at the SAENGERFEST!<\/h2>\n
\nRead the Program for the 2016 Saengerfest.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nNow You Can Get Your Own Special Saengerfest Edition Magical Then & Now Postcard!<\/h1>\n
Click Here to See the Magic!<\/a><\/h1>\n