Appendix: Odds and Ends about the Hicksville Sängerrunde
The names of those who sang at Sagamore Hill are listed in the penultimate paragraph of the following excerpt.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 18, 1908
FYI, the remainder of the article, not shown here, deals with a complaint made by an attendee that the Town Supervisor had "jostled" her while trying to get into the event.
Zeal to preserve history can sometimes lead to careless errors. When I find that such an error - even my own - is relevant to Ancient Hixtory, I take a moment to tell readers about it.
This photograph of the Sängerrunde is found online in the Hicksville Public Library Collection at NYS Digital Images. Unfortunately, the text which accompanies it identifies these men as "Staehle's Brewery Singers." In addition, like several other pictures in the online collection, this one was erroneously scanned as a mirror image of the original.
Staehle's Brewery Singers - not!
The Hicksville Sängerrunde
Don't be misled by the fellow on the right; his jacket's "button side"
is in front of its "button-hole" side. A look at the other men shows
clearly show that their jacket buttons all appear to be on the wrong
side. Hence, this must be a mirror image of the original photograph.
Hicksville Public Library Historic Photographs at nyheritage.org
We can see the picture in its correct orientation in Richard and Anne Evers' book about Hicksville.
Sängerrunde, or at least some of it; date unknown
Seven of the men here who were identified by the Evers had no connection to the Staehle Brewery. One of the others is Eugene Staehle, the proprietor of the Brewery Hotel. His presence may explain why the society was able to use his hotel space for rehearsals, but it certainly does not imply that this group was "Staehle's Brewery Singers." Incidentally, the society's musical director, Ludwig Birseck, was not a Hicksvillian. He was a professional music teacher who lived in Queens, and presumably had been hired by the Sängerrunde.
Although the Evers' book says the singing society was "active from 1900 to 1910," its roots go further back. The Queens County Sentinel for May 20, 1875 announced that the Hicksville Sangerunde [sic] was going to have its second annual concert in the New Cassel Woods on June 7, 1875. We live and learn.
*****
Well, that's about it.
I wish you all a healthy and joyous December!
