A month ago, I wrote that Carlisle Town Band member Dr. David M. Kammerer had taken the piano score for “Carlisle Indian School March” and scored parts for the various instruments in the band and they would be playing it at their concert the following Sunday. I had the pleasure of attending the concert and enjoyed hearing the march played with full instrumentation. Here is a link to a recording made of that portion of the concert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OjPSdnaFmM
Before we could hear the march played, we had to listen to an introduction given by an archivist from the local college that scanned the Carlisle Indian School records from the National Archives files. She gave a fair recital of composer Dennison Wheelock’s history up to 1900. He was an Oneida from Wisconsin who enrolled at Carlisle in 1885, in part to improve his musical skills. A cornet player, he excelled at Carlisle, both in music and academics. After graduating in 1890, he returned to the school in 1891 as an employee and to attend cross-town Dickinson College’s prep school. There, he also sang with the College’s glee club. He soon became the Carlisle Indian School bandmaster and married former student Louisa LaChapelle (Chippewa from Minnesota). They had a son, Edmund, in 1896, the same year Dennison wrote the march. They had a second son, Dennison Paull Wheelock, in 1899. A reason for the unusual spelling of the child’s middle name may have been friendship with or admiration of Carlisle teacher Fanny Paull. On March 28, 1900, Dennison and the Carlisle Indian School Band performed at Carnegie Hall. The first piece on their program was “Suite Aboriginal,” composed by Wheelock. He and the band toured, playing concerts at several venues in preparation for traveling to the Paris Exposition to perform. In late April, he was reported as saying the trip was not a certainty. In May, tragedy struck when their infant son died. After services at 2nd Presbyterian Church, the child was buried in the Carlisle Barracks cemetery. In June, Dennison resigned and left for a vacation in Minnesota.
The young archivist claimed that he returned to Wisconsin to work as a real estate agent and practice law. I knew that to be a false statement due to having researched the government Indian school exhibit at the 1904 St. Louis World Fair twenty years ago. What he actually did after leaving Carlisle will be covered in future postings.
Tags: Carlisle, Carlisle Indian School, carlisle-town-band, Dennison Wheelock, history, music, news
Tom Benjey's Weblog 
December 22, 2024 at 11:17 pm |
You know this is a false statement because of something you learned 20 years ago? Perhaps you are correct. Perhaps there is new information of which you are not aware. The woman of which you speak is an archivist at Dickinson College and shared the most current information she had, based on ongoing research. This is her entire job, to collect accurate information about the Carlisle Indian School.
Rather than accuse someone you have never met of a “false statement” in a blog, wouldn’t it be more useful to history to share your knowledge and resources with her directly? You attended the concert, so you have a copy of the program, and could reach out to her directly with your information. I am a member of the Carlisle Band, and played the music of which you speak. I learned much more information during rehearsals than was shared at the concert. If you believe her information to be incorrect, then reach out to her and help correct the record.
The nature of history, and of science, is the ongoing seeking of truth, without judgement. Please reach out to her instead of blogging about this. I’m sure she would appreciate your valuable information. Thank you for your consideration.
December 28, 2024 at 1:32 pm |
She made this statement about a person unable to defend himself in public in front of a large number of people. Had it been in a newspaper, a correction could have been made. All I can do to correct the records is publish the data on my little blog few read. After attending the concert and before writing two blog posts, I checked my sources to affirm my memory was correct. She apparently did not read Wheelock’s student file because it contains a form that asked if had had been in the Indian Service. He wrote (typed actually) in response that, in addition to his eight years at Carlisle, he had worked one year at Flandreau and another at Haskell. Those responses should have caused her to at least do a little research to find out what he had really been doing. Neither the form nor his response were dated. Because he makes no mention of doing legal work on the form, I suspect it was before 1911 when he passed the Wisconsin bar exam, reputedly the first Indian to do that.