Page 153 - History of UB Church in Hburg Region
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History of U.B. Churches in Harrisonburg-Staunton Region December 26, 2024
later the northern stretch was opened and the lots developed. In 1884, the town also created Thompson
Street and in 1883 Mill Street was extended past Seminary Street, both no doubt created to provide
access to the new development at the western part of town along High Street. The town council minutes
also reveal continual attempts at improving the road pavements, creating curbs, and laying plank walks.
Although Dayton’s growth paralleled other communities in Rockingham County at this time, two
emerging musical enterprises soon distinguished this town from its neighbors and established it as a
cultural center by the late 19th century. In 1878, the Ruebush-Kieffer Company, a musical printing
house, moved to Dayton and established one of the largest operations of its kind in the south.
Shenandoah Seminary, founded in Dayton in 1875, specialized in a varied program of musical
instruction from its inception, and soon evolved into the prestigious Shenandoah Conservatory of Music.
The Ruebush-Kieffer Company had been well established as a musical printing house before its
move to Dayton in 1878. Its founders, Ephraim Ruebush, Aldine Kieffer, and J. W. Howe, had trained
under Joseph Funk, author of the Harmonica-Sacra, a well-known, shape-note hymnbook. From Funk
they had inherited the musical traditions of the character-note methods of instruction, and the singing
schools and had learned the skills involved in his printing operations. After the Civil War, these three
men, along with Cornelius Hammack, organized the Patent Note Company in Singer’s Glen, Funk’s
home community. Their first large-scale success came with the publication of the Christian Harp, by
Aldine Kieffer, a character-note hymnbook which sold over 100,000 copies. With this success, the
company reorganized as the Ruebush-Kieffer Company in 1873. Ruebush and Kieffer recognized that if
the business were to continue to grow the company would have to move; Singer’s Glen was 7 miles by
country road to the nearest town with a railroad station, express office, and banking and money order
facilities.
In the fall of 1878, the Ruebush-Kieffer Company moved to Dayton, choosing this new site
because of its better mail and shipping facilities and the recent establishment of a new school
specializing in music. This relocation proved to be a boom to both the company and the town itself. In
the first year alone, the company’s business increased 37 percent, and the town “took on a new life.” By
1879 the Ruebush-Kieffer Company offered 18 different songbooks for sale.
One of the company’s most widely read publications was the Musical Million, which it claimed
was the first musical journal in the United States. Subtitled as a “Journal of Music, Poetry, and Chaste
Home Literature,” the magazine contained a variety of articles, stories, poems, and character-note
musical selections, all “full of the spirit of Christianity, Brotherly Love, Human Sympathy, Temperance,
Knowledge, and Virtue.” Aldine Kieffer edited this journal from its first issue in 1869 to his death in
1904. Other members of the Ruebush family helped with the editing over the years. These included
W. H. Ruebush and J. H. Ruebush, sons of Ephraim and professors of music at Shenandoah College; and
J. K. Ruebush, who took over at his father’s death. Additional assistance was often provided by other
Shenandoah College faculty, such as Professor Beazley, revealing the close connections between the
college and the Ruebush-Kieffer Company.
By far the most important message running throughout the company’s journal was the value of
the character-note system of musical instruction. Kieffer argued that round notes were becoming
obsolete and offered his publication as a forum for teachers, musicians, and lay people dedicated to the
preservation of the shape-note and singing school traditions that had developed in the south in the 19th-
century. The round notes proved more difficult in instruction, Kieffer claimed, because they needed to
be accompanied by a phrase from the musical scale, e.g., do, re, mi. However, shape-notes provided
that same message simply by the basis of their shape. Each of the seven notes of the scale had a
different shape, such as a triangle, diamond, or square, at the end of the stem. In addition to several
selections of character-note hymns or songs, the Musical Million contained news about the conduct of
II.B.14 Dayton U.B. Church and SCI 139
later the northern stretch was opened and the lots developed. In 1884, the town also created Thompson
Street and in 1883 Mill Street was extended past Seminary Street, both no doubt created to provide
access to the new development at the western part of town along High Street. The town council minutes
also reveal continual attempts at improving the road pavements, creating curbs, and laying plank walks.
Although Dayton’s growth paralleled other communities in Rockingham County at this time, two
emerging musical enterprises soon distinguished this town from its neighbors and established it as a
cultural center by the late 19th century. In 1878, the Ruebush-Kieffer Company, a musical printing
house, moved to Dayton and established one of the largest operations of its kind in the south.
Shenandoah Seminary, founded in Dayton in 1875, specialized in a varied program of musical
instruction from its inception, and soon evolved into the prestigious Shenandoah Conservatory of Music.
The Ruebush-Kieffer Company had been well established as a musical printing house before its
move to Dayton in 1878. Its founders, Ephraim Ruebush, Aldine Kieffer, and J. W. Howe, had trained
under Joseph Funk, author of the Harmonica-Sacra, a well-known, shape-note hymnbook. From Funk
they had inherited the musical traditions of the character-note methods of instruction, and the singing
schools and had learned the skills involved in his printing operations. After the Civil War, these three
men, along with Cornelius Hammack, organized the Patent Note Company in Singer’s Glen, Funk’s
home community. Their first large-scale success came with the publication of the Christian Harp, by
Aldine Kieffer, a character-note hymnbook which sold over 100,000 copies. With this success, the
company reorganized as the Ruebush-Kieffer Company in 1873. Ruebush and Kieffer recognized that if
the business were to continue to grow the company would have to move; Singer’s Glen was 7 miles by
country road to the nearest town with a railroad station, express office, and banking and money order
facilities.
In the fall of 1878, the Ruebush-Kieffer Company moved to Dayton, choosing this new site
because of its better mail and shipping facilities and the recent establishment of a new school
specializing in music. This relocation proved to be a boom to both the company and the town itself. In
the first year alone, the company’s business increased 37 percent, and the town “took on a new life.” By
1879 the Ruebush-Kieffer Company offered 18 different songbooks for sale.
One of the company’s most widely read publications was the Musical Million, which it claimed
was the first musical journal in the United States. Subtitled as a “Journal of Music, Poetry, and Chaste
Home Literature,” the magazine contained a variety of articles, stories, poems, and character-note
musical selections, all “full of the spirit of Christianity, Brotherly Love, Human Sympathy, Temperance,
Knowledge, and Virtue.” Aldine Kieffer edited this journal from its first issue in 1869 to his death in
1904. Other members of the Ruebush family helped with the editing over the years. These included
W. H. Ruebush and J. H. Ruebush, sons of Ephraim and professors of music at Shenandoah College; and
J. K. Ruebush, who took over at his father’s death. Additional assistance was often provided by other
Shenandoah College faculty, such as Professor Beazley, revealing the close connections between the
college and the Ruebush-Kieffer Company.
By far the most important message running throughout the company’s journal was the value of
the character-note system of musical instruction. Kieffer argued that round notes were becoming
obsolete and offered his publication as a forum for teachers, musicians, and lay people dedicated to the
preservation of the shape-note and singing school traditions that had developed in the south in the 19th-
century. The round notes proved more difficult in instruction, Kieffer claimed, because they needed to
be accompanied by a phrase from the musical scale, e.g., do, re, mi. However, shape-notes provided
that same message simply by the basis of their shape. Each of the seven notes of the scale had a
different shape, such as a triangle, diamond, or square, at the end of the stem. In addition to several
selections of character-note hymns or songs, the Musical Million contained news about the conduct of
II.B.14 Dayton U.B. Church and SCI 139
