Tells about a digital exhibit celebrating the life of North Carolina patent medicine entrepreneur and folk musician Alice Person

Hursh, David

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Good Medicine and Good Music: The Virtual Life of Mrs. Joe Person at East Carolina UniversityBy David HurshAlice Person, known during her life as Mrs. Joe Person, was a woman ahead of her time. Professional musician, patent medicine entrepreneur, women's rights advocate-all are appropriate titles for this colorful North Carolinian. The convergence of several occurrences in Alice’s life led her to earn these titles at a time when such activities on the part of a woman were looked at askance.  Today, however, Alice’s unique life is being celebrated through a digital exhibit hosted by East Carolina University’s Joyner Library.A Life Out of the OrdinaryBorn and raised in Petersburg, VA, Alice relocated to Franklin County, NC after her December 1857 marriage to Joseph Arrington Person, a member of a wealthy central North Carolina family.  A few years later, the couple’s happy life was abruptly interrupted when Joseph’s debilitating stroke and the Civil War surrender of the South to the North left them with no way to support their young family.    For several years, the couple provided for their growing family by selling the land that Joseph was unable to farm.  During this time, one of their young daughters became ill with scrofula, a type of tuberculosis that was common before milk was pasteurized.  On the night that the local physician gave up hope for the child’s survival, a neighbor woman came by to offer help in the form of a remedy that was given to her father by an old Indian.  Alice was skeptical, but could see no harm in trying the medicine if it offered any hope at all of saving her child.  Alice and her neighbor gathered the ingredients from the woods, prepared a batch of the concoction, and gave it to the child throughout the night.  By morning, the child’s condition had improved, and in three weeks she was cured. As her family’s land and money slowly dwindled, Alice continued to prepare the remedy and share it with friends who were ill, never ceasing to be amazed by its ability to cure any number of health problems.1Alice’s faith in the remedy soon became a calling; one which also offered a cure for her family’s ailing financial situation.  With this in mind she began her mission by marketing the remedy in the nearby city of Raleigh.  Though she met with some resistance from the Raleigh medical community, Alice persisted and headed for Charlotte, Tarboro and other North Carolina cities.  With time, the remedy proved itself and attracted a faithful following of satisfied customers.  The promise of quick profits also attracted several unscrupulous investors and partners.  Though it was not easy, Alice was always able to pull herself out of these situations and maintain the remedy’s solid reputation.2As with her remedy, Alice felt a strong devotion to the power of music.  She initially viewed her piano playing as something for the enjoyment of her family and friends.  However, a visit to the Raleigh Exposition, predecessor to the North Carolina State Fair, transformed it into much more.  While there, some of Alice’s friends asked her to play a few of her infectious southern tunes on one of the pianos on display at a piano dealer’s exhibit.  She did, and soon attracted a large gathering of fair-goers.  The piano dealer was so delighted by the attention she brought to his display that he hired her to play at future exhibits.  This opportunity led to similar engagements in cities like Atlanta and Dallas, to name but a few.  Eventually people asked Alice to publish her arrangements so they could play them at home.  She did, and delighted in the fact that she now had three friends that brought her near to the people while adding to her income—her remedy, her playing, and her music.3  Alice continued to produce and market the remedy along with her piano playing and sheet music until the age of 70,4 thus becoming known for her “good medicine and good music”5 throughout the South.The Exhibit’s GenesisThe concept for a digital exhibit on Alice’s life had its origins in the September 2000 donation of two pieces of Alice's published music to the ECU Music Library by ECU alumnus and great, great grandson of Alice Person (​http:​/​​/​www.lib.ecu.edu​/​st​/​digital2​/​person​/​tree1.html​), Harry Stubbs.  As I examined the well-used, century-old sheets, Mr. Stubbs related to me snippets of the composer’s colorful life.  My curiosity was piqued, so in the days that followed Mr. Stubbs’ visit I did some research on Alice.  I was delighted to find that she had been given some attention in the published literature, and that her papers were part of the Southern Historical Collection at UNC-Chapel Hill.  I could not, however, find any indication of efforts to preserve the tangible results of Alice's musical activity—the pieces donated by Mr. Stubbs. I hoped to fill that gap by preserving and cataloging these pieces for the benefit of future generations.My interest in his grandmother’s music spurred Mr. Stubbs to arrange dinner with his cousin and Alice's great granddaughter (​http:​/​​/​www.lib.ecu.edu​/​st​/​digital2​/​person​/​tree2.html​), Louise Scott Stephenson.  At our dinner I learned that Mrs. Stephenson had donated Alice's papers to the Southern Historical Collection, and also that she had in 1971 produced a typescript of the handwritten manuscript of Alice's unpublished book, a copy of which she presented to me for addition to the music library's collection.  Mrs. Stephenson verified my findings with regard to the lack of attention to Alice's published music, and was pleased to learn of my desire to preserve her cousin's donation.  We also discussed the possibility of a lecture recital featuring Alice's music on the ECU campus.  She was certain there were more pieces that should be included in such an event, and set about to locate them.  Before she could complete the task of rounding up the stray pieces of music, Mrs. Stephenson passed away.  When Mr. Stubbs informed me of her death, he apologized for the fact that our plans with regard to a recital had been for naught.  I suggested that perhaps they were not.  What better tribute to a great lady and champion of Alice Person's memory than to dedicate an Alice Person digital exhibit and opening lecture recital to Louise?Serendipity played a role in the development of the exhibit.  Just a few months after my dinner with Mrs. Stephenson, I mentioned Mr. Stubbs’ donation to the Friends of Joyner Library board at one of their monthly luncheon meetings.  After the meeting, board member Franceine Perry Reese shared with me the fact that not only was she a native of Franklin County, the county in which Alice Person resided for the better part of her life, she was by marriage a distant relative of Alice’s.  Several weeks later, Franceine brought me a folder full of invaluable information about Alice, her home, and her family.  This information was either used directly in the creation of the exhibit, or it led to the discovery of other important facts, articles, and pictures that added much to the exhibit’s quality.The ExhibitThe exhibit, titled Alice Person: Good Medicine and Good Music and located at <http://www.lib.ecu.edu/digital/music/person/>, is the first musical digital exhibit to be hosted by Joyner Library.  While the exhibit focuses on Alice’s music, it includes information on all aspects of her life because her musical endeavors were closely tied to her other activities.  The exhibit is divided into three parts: (1) Music, (2) Medicine, and (3) More.The “Music” portion features the digitized versions of the two sheet music compositions donated by Alice’s great, great grandson.  The first is titled A Collection of Popular Airs and Plantation Melodies and consists of Alice’s piano arrangements of 15 folk tunes, both popular and rare.  The second is titled A Transcription of the Beautiful Song "The Blue Alsatian Mountains” and contains two other folk tune piano arrangements in addition to the title song.  Links from the digitized version of each piece allow the exhibit visitor to hear the music they see in front them as interpreted by Dr. Charles Bath, Chair of the Keyboard Department at the ECU School of Music.  This section also includes a scholarly article on the first collection of pieces, press releases from the cities in which Alice performed, and her ponderings on the value of music.The three subsections of the “Medicine” portion of the exhibit provide information on the birthplace of the remedy, the story of the remedy, and the marketing of the remedy.  The house in which Alice first produced her remedy still stands in Franklin County, NC, and because Alice married into a prominent family, it is historically significant.  The exhibit contains several articles about the structure.  The story of the remedy could only be told by the one who lived it.  For this reason, this part of the exhibit contains the digitized version of Alice’s unpublished book The Chivalry of Man, as Exemplified in the Life of Mrs. Joe Person.  Though Alice planned to publish it, she never did.  Fortunately, her great granddaughter created a typescript of the handwritten manuscript titled Banny’s Book.  “Banny”, a British term of endearment for a grandmother, was the family name for Alice.  The last subsection of the “Medicine” portion of the exhibit features several digitized advertisements illustrating Alice’s creative marketing techniques.The final part of the exhibit contains Alice’s lengthy obituary as well as several articles about her life.The Opening of the ExhibitThe digital exhibit opened on March 12, 2004 at 7:00 p.m. with a lecture recital in Fletcher Recital Hall on the ECU campus.  The guest lecturer was Dr. Chris Goertzen, Ethnomusicologist and Associate Professor of Music History at The University of Southern Mississippi.  Dr. Goertzen shared his published research on Alice’s adaptations of early blackface minstrel and southern folk tunes.   Dr. Charles Bath, Professor of Piano at ECU, assisted Dr. Goertzen by playing excerpts of Alice’s piano arrangements to demonstrate the concepts on which Dr. Goertzen lectured.  Violinist Joanne Bath, Hardy Distinguished Professor in Suzuki String Pedagogy at ECU and wife of Charles, also assisted by playing the original British folk tune and its American mutation which served as the basis for one of Alice’s arrangements.  The event concluded with a reception at which guests had the opportunity to view a “live” exhibit of the original documents featured in the digital exhibit, as well as some of the antique bottles that at one time held Alice’s remedy.Not only did serendipity play a role in the development of this digital exhibit, it also played a delightful part in the outcome of the opening event.  When I traveled to Franklinton, NC to collect one of Alice’s bottles for the opening event display case, I drove by the house in which Alice lived when she began producing her medicine.  As I passed the large, beautifully-maintained Victorian home I could not resist making my way down the long drive and knocking on the door to see if I could find someone who might know about the history of the house.  I was delighted to find the present owners, Libby and Wyatt L. McGhee, at home and very interested in my digital exhibit and lecture recital.  I showed them the antique bottle I had in my possession.  They responded by telling me they also had one of Alice’s bottles and escorted me into the next room.  There, to my utter amazement, sat an unopened bottle of the remedy on the mantle of the fireplace in which Alice supposedly first produced it!  The Wyatts were so intrigued by what I shared with them that they attended the event and brought their bottle for display.In her unpublished autobiography, Alice wrote fondly of one of her “knights”, a Mr. John Baseler, for the kindness he showed her by transcribing the musical notes in her head to paper free of charge while she repeatedly played them for more than two days straight.6  With the assistance of modern technology, ECU’s Joyner Library has picked up Mr. Baseler’s gauntlet and once again “transcribed” Alice’s music into a format that will allow it to live on long after its printed pages have crumbled.References1Alice Person, “Banny’s Book,” ed. Louise Stephenson (Raleigh, 1971), 1-4.2Ibid., 5-46.3Ibid., 48-51.4N.G. Terry, Jr., “Mrs. Person, Medicine Maker, Recalled Here,” Halifax (VA) Record-Advertiser, 30 March 1972.5Spring Blossoms, Greenville (NC) Daily Reflector, 21 March 1898.  The phrase “good medicine and good music” was chosen for the title of the exhibit because it was coined in the local newspaper of the town in which the exhibit’s hosting library is located.6Person, “Banny’s Book,” 51.Selected BibliographyGoertzen, Chris. "Mrs. Joe Person's Popular Airs: Early Blackface Minstrel Tunes in OralTradition." Ethnomusicology 35, no.1 (Winter 1991): 31-53.Pearce, T.H. Early Architecture of Franklin County II. Freeman, SD: Pine Hill Press,1988.Pearce, T.H. "The Persistence of Mrs. Joe Person." The State 54, no. 5 (October 1986):22-24.Person, Alice. “Banny’s Book.” Edited by Louise Stephenson. Raleigh, 1971.Person, Alice. A Collection of Popular Airs and Plantation Melodies. Kittrell, NC: AlicePerson, 1889.Person, Alice. A Transcription of the Beautiful Song "The Blue Alsatian Mountains" Also"Down Town Girls" and "Boatman Dance." Kittrell, NC: Alice Person, 1889.List of Possible Illustrations1.	Photograph of Alice for placement at or near the beginning of the article (see attached JPEG file labeled “Creative Activity – Alice Person Project Article Alice”).  Legend: Photograph of Alice which appears on the cover of Louise Stephenson’s 1971 typescript of Alice’s unpublished book.2.	Digital image of the cover of Alice’s “Popular Airs” for placement near the point in the article that discusses the digitized music in the exhibit (see attached JPEG file labeled “Creative Activity – Alice Person Project Article Popular Airs”.  Legend:  ECUs digitized version of the cover of the sheet music for Alice’s Collection of Popular Airs and Plantation Melodies.3.	Picture from the opening lecture recital for placement near the description of the opening event.  (see attached JPEG file labeled “Creative Activity – Alice Person Project Article DH CD Bs”).  Legend: From left to right: Joanne and Dr. Charles Bath, the author, and Dr. Chris Goertzen pause during the reception for a picture with what could be the last unopened bottle of Alice’s remedy.About the AuthorDavid HurshHead Music Librarian, East Carolina UniversityB.M., Houghton College; M.M., Converse College; M.S.L.S., Florida State University.

Good Medicine and Good Music: The Virtual Life of Mrs. Joe Person at East Carolina University

https://thescholarship.ecu.edu/bitstream/10342/1072/1/Person%20Project%20Article.doc

Good Medicine and Good Music: The Virtual Life of Mrs. Joe Person at East Carolina University

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