American musical genius Stephen Collins Foster was of Londonderry/Donegal Presbyterian ancestry
Stephen Collins Foster, known as the "father of American music", was a second generation Ulster-Scot whose family emigrated from Londonderry to Pennsylvania in America in the late 18th century.
Foster was a celebrated composer known primarily for his parlour and folk songs in what was then the 'Romantic' period in the United States. He wrote more than 200 songs, including the classic soulful and haunting ballad 'Beautiful Dreamer'.
For all of his musical genius, Foster was a complex man and, after a short musical career, he died in New York in 1864, tragically after an addiction to alcohol. He was just 37. Among his best known songs were 'Oh Susanna'. 'Hard Times Come Again No More', 'Campton Races', 'Old Folks at Home' (Swanee River), 'My Old Kentucky Home'. 'Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair', and 'Massa's in de Cold Cold Ground'. His classic compositions remain highly popular in modern American music today.
The families of Foster's parents, Eliza Tomlinson Foster and William Barclay Foster can reliably be traced back to Londonderry/Donegal, with research showing the Collins-Foster line to Ballougry-Moville in Donegal with his Presbyterian great-grandfather emigrating from Londonderry to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1767. They were a prosperous family, owning farms in Donegal and property in Newtowncunningham and Londonderry city.
There are various biographies of Foster, but he compiled little biographical information himself. Foster was born on July 4, 1826 in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania. His parents were of Ulster-Scots and English descent and he had three older sisters and six older brothers.
He attended private academies in Pennsylvania with education in English grammar, diction, the classics, Latin, Greek, and mathematics.
Growing up, Foster taught himself to play the clarinet, guitar, flute, and piano. In 1839, his brother William was serving an apprenticeship as an engineer and he thought Stephen could benefit from being supervised by Henry Kleber (1816–1897), a reputed German-born music dealer in Pittsburgh.
Under Kleber, Stephen was exposed to music composition and the pair studied works of Mozart, Beethoven, Weber, Mendelssohn, Mozart, and Schubert.
Stephen moved to New Jersey and in 1854 he married Jane Denny McDowell on July 22, 1850, and they visited New York and Baltimore on their honeymoon.
Stephen returned to Pennsylvania where he wrote most of his best-known songs.
However, Foster's musical output in the 1850s turned primarily to parlour songs with his compositions having a 'Deep South' cultural theme. Foster's last four years were spent in New York city.
Family correspondence related Stephen became sick with fever in January 1864. Weakened, it is thought he fell at his hotel. His writing partner George Cooper found him still alive, but unconsciously lying in a pool of blood.
Foster died in Bellevue hospital three days later just 37. His leather wallet contained a scrap of paper that simply said: '"Dear Friends and Gentle People'", along with 37 cents in a Civil War script.
A telegram communicating Stephen’s death was addressed to his brother Morrison Foster. The note inside Foster's wallet is said to have inspired Bob Hilliard's lyrics for the classic song 'Dear Hearts and Gentle People'.
In 1949. Foster was buried in Alagheney cemetery, Pittsburgh.
Stephen Collins Foster's sister Ann Eliza married American Presbyterian minister Rev Edward Young Buchanan, younger brother of United States Democratic President James Buchanan (1857-61), whose family were also of Co Donegal and Co Tyrone roots.