ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — A newly-restored instrument once played by the founder of St. Joseph more than 150 years ago is revealing the storied history of music runs deeper than previously thought.
An artifact dating back to the earliest years of St. Joseph now sits on display at the Robidoux Row Museum as the crown jewel of its new music history exhibit: a fiddle roughly 150 years old, recently found to have been owned by Joseph Robidoux.
Like any new exhibit seeking to tell a unique story in history, it begins with a creative idea, or a discovery.
“I was walking around in Joseph’s bedroom, looking around, and I saw a fiddle sitting inside of a display case,” Robidoux Row Museum Director Megan Wyeth, a native of St. Joseph who took over the position in January, said. “It made me think, was Joseph a musician?”
Although the case was marked as Robidoux’s, the fur trader and founder of St. Joseph in 1843 wasn’t a well known musician, let alone a talented one as Wyeth would come to learn.
“I learned that he was invited to parties and weddings in hopes that he would play the fiddle,” she said, adding that little is documented about Robidoux’s musical abilities.
Hoping to learn more and preserve the item, Wyeth had the fiddle taken to Kansas City to an instrument repair specialist in Kansas City to restore it with the help of a local donation this November.
Not only was the item restored to a near-perfect condition, specialists were able to pinpoint a specific design feature — the way the neck attaches to the body — to date it to the 1850s when Robidoux was still alive in St. Joseph.
“I realized what was happening with Joseph Robidoux and his fiddle in the past, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh,'” she said. “It just took off from there because I’ve known that Saint Joe has very significant music history.”
With that, the music room was born.
A launchpad for Robidoux Row’s new exhibit
It was only fitting the founder of the city would help inspire the museum’s new exhibit on the history of local music, a result of weeks of work transforming a room located next to Robidoux’s bedroom.
Opened in late November with the help of Nancy Schmidt-Brunson with the Saint Joseph Symphony, the exhibit offers an in-depth look at an array of historic items and figures like Coleman Hawkins who have shaped the history of music, both locally and across the world.
“The whole idea of the music room is to celebrate the musical fabric of St. Joseph. I think of people who live near and even people who grew up here, like Meghan and I did, don’t really realize the importance of music to the history of the city,” said Brunson-Schmidt, managing director of the Symphony and partner in the project.
One unique musical fact about St. Joseph: Katherine Kennicott Davis, born in 1892 in St. Joseph and prominently displayed at the museum, was the writer of the beloved Christmas song “The Little Drummer Boy.” in 1941.
It’s one of the many ties to music that Schmidt-Brunson and Wyeth hope will inspire and open the public’s eyes to how prominent St. Joseph’s music history truly is.
Within the exhibit is a large number of items donated by the Symphony after being kept inside their Downtown building for years, including a historic baton from Karl Winkler, director of the Rosenblatt Band, one of the first musical organizations to perform in Saint Joseph as early as 1868.
Other historic items on display include a pump piano and a pair of gold epaulets over a 100 years old from the Rosenblatt Band.
“Nobody ever gets to see these items, all of this history of music in St. Joe. It’s exciting to know and I’m so grateful to Megan for really making my dream come true and sharing that with the general public. This is so important for people to know,” Brunson-Schmidt said.
She said a perfect example is the recently-discovered connection between music and Joseph Robidoux, something she was unaware of until now despite growing up in the city as a passionate musical performer.
Now, the museum, the St. Joseph Historical Society and SJ Symphony are planning to celebrate the sound of the historic instrument in front of the community.
“We’re thinking of ideas of how we can get this fiddle played so that people can hear it in a concert. With a smaller orchestra maybe, really let that instrument speak the way that it did when Joseph Robidoux played it. What a moment that would be to hear.”
The museum is already planning future phases focusing on the history of the Saint Joseph Symphony and some of its most talented performers. The Symphony has an abundance of artifacts not included in the current display.
“I want people to understand and see how broad of a range our music history is and how it’s reached all over the world. We have several musicians on the wall here that have reached the world and in so many different ways with so much talent and incredible skill,” Wyeth said.
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