Weaver, Herbert W. - Queen City Girl (1907).pdf
Queen City Girl (1907).MID
Weaver, Herbert W. (1888-1960) - photo, marriage announcement, etc.pdf
Hello again Everyone,
Here's another extremely rare piece of ragtime published literally just across the river from Cincinnati (about a 5 or 10 minute walk I've been told). It's a fantastic self-published piece (I have it memorized). The address you see at the bottom of the cover was the composer's home address at the time. According to the 1910 census his immediate neighborhood was integrated (about half white and half African-American--maybe that's how he was introduced to ragtime). I've been in touch with one side of the family (I haven't been able to get in touch with the side that may have more of his music

).
Herbert Wynne Weaver (Jan. 13, 1888-Oct. 26, 1960), who lived almost exactly the same time as Joseph Lamb, was an electrotyper (this cover is his own work and is in the kitchen of one of his grandchildren in Florida) and piano player. He met his wife while playing at the Georgetown Theater. She sang (beautifully, I'm told), while he accompanied her on the piano. Mabel Carroll was quite petite (less than 5 feet tall). According to one census that marriage occurred when he was 20 and she was 16 so that would be in 1908. In a separate PDF I'm attaching photos of Herbert & Mabel along with their wedding notice and his draft registration.
Most Saturday evenings in the 1950's Herbert would sit down and play the piano for a couple of hours with his wife accompanying him with her voice. If the weather was nice they'd open the windows and all the neighborhood children would sit on the lawn next to the house and listen to the music. When I played
Queen City Girl live over the phone for Herbert's grandson he distinctly recalled his grandfather performing it on some of those Saturday evenings. Mabel lived to be about 96 years old (she was born circa 1892 and died August 10, 1988)! If only we'd known about her earlier.
I'll be shocked if you have this one, Frank.
The copy is a little wavy on the last page and a bit of the cover's missing, but this is the best copy of a copy we've got. I'm also attaching my midi of this piece. "Queen City Girl" is Cincinnati's nickname but I really think the girl on the cover is a young Mabel!! (This would be the year before they married). Let me know what you think.
Best to all,
Rob
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