T. MARTIN TOWNE

Thomas Martin Towne (1835-1912) was born in Coleraine, Massachusetts, where he grew up on a farm and attended the district school and the local singing school. He studied music at Willston Seminary and a music convention in Shelburne. He moved to Hudson, New York, to study with W. F. Sherwin and then to Albany as a tenor in St. Peter’s Church. He moved west and taught in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and in the Detroit public schools. During this time, he also studied with Lowell Mason, George F. Root, and William B. Bradbury at a North Reading, MA, normal school. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he left teaching and sang with the Continental Vocalists, eventually settling in Janesville, Wisconsin. After teaching a year, he enlisted and became musician in the 40th Wisconsin Infantry. After the war, he went to Milwaukee and taught music at the Female College and sang in Plymouth Church. A few years later, he moved to Chicago, Illinois. He led choirs, composed, held music conventions, taught in many normal schools, and was musical editor for the David C. Cook publishing house. He died in Chicago. After his first wife died, he married Isabella Electa Kellogg, who wrote Sunday school books and edited several Sunday school papers besides writing lyrics for some of her husband’s songs using the pseudonyms Mrs. Thomas Martin Towne, Mrs. E. S. Kellogg, and Belle Kellogg. They were devout members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He composed hundreds of sheet songs, duets, quartets, part-songs, gospel songs, Sunday school songs, hymns, and anthems.

All are mixed chorus unless noted; some contain divisi.

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Come to the Wild-Wood

 
Maria Straub
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Grannie’s Trust

 
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Kick Him When He’s Down

 
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O ye rain

 
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Sugar Making

 
“Youth’s Companion”
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The Old Log Hut

 
R. Sinclair
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Those Sweet Blue Eyes

 
Rev. C. Hartley
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