“Make new friends, but keep the old

One is silver and the other gold.”

How many of us sang this song as a child? This song, as well as many others, was written by Dr. Joseph Parry, once of Danville.

Born in Merthyr Tydrfil, Wales, on May 21, 1841, Parry was the second youngest of eight children born to Daniel and Elizabeth Parry. At the time of his birth, Merthyr Tydrfil was the coal and iron capital of the world, the world’s largest industrial town.

There, the coal owners and ironmasters were virtual kings while the miners and the iron workers, their slaves. At 10, Parry had to add to the family bank account and started helping his father in the puddling furnaces. At night, after dragging himself home tired and weary, Parry would practice his music on a primitive harmonium. He also joined the community choir.

In 1853, Parry immigrated to Danville seeking a better life. His family followed a year later. Parry and his brother joined their father working at the Rough & Ready Mill. While there, he was described as a lone wolf, a loner, by fellow workmen because of his habit of remaining apart from the group during breaks when he would compose and study music.

All his spare time was used to learn the fundamentals of music. For seven years, Parry worked and studied music and managed to write dozens of hymns, anthems and cantatas.

He also must have continued to perfect his craft in the rolling mill because he was promoted to head roller. A roller guided the operations at the roll, which included the orders of the product, the setup of the rolls stands and maintaining the rolls as well as knowing the properties of iron and steel.

Eventually, Parry gave up the iron mill and became a professional musician, a risk that proved a success and provided him with an outstanding career in music. Parry’s musical talents became so well known that money was raised in Wales and America to send him for three years to the Royal Academy of Music in London to further his studies. There, he polished his musical abilities under some of the great musicians of the times, including Manuel Gracia, teacher of songstress Jenny Lind.

Parry returned to Danville in 1871 with a bachelor of music degree and an even more coveted doctorate from Cambridge, the first for a Welshman, to work as a professional musician and set up his Danville Musical Institute while continuing as director of music at the Aberythwyth College of the University of Wales. About this time, he also began an American concert tour that totaled 103 concerts covering 10 states, averaging $20 a concert plus expenses.

During his lifetime, Parry completed many musical compositions, which included operas, hymns and songs. His first Welsh opera, “Blodwen,” was considered his best opera. Music for the popular church hymn “Jesus, Lover of My Soul” also was a Joseph Parry work of art. “Make New Friends,” originally named “Old Friends,” was an 11-line song with the last two lines the ones we all remember in one fashion or another: “Make new friends, but keep the old. Those are silver, these are gold.”

Parry met another Welsh American in Danville, Jane Thomas. His mother was not excited about Jane because she did not make use of the Welsh language well enough to suit her. Nevertheless, Joseph and Jane married in 1862 in Danville’s little Welsh chapel. After the service, Parry sang a song he had composed for the occasion, “Cupid’s Dart.” Every birth, death and marriage was a musical occasion for him, and he took those opportunities to compose another song.

Parry has been characterized as “the interpreter of the temper and spirit of the Welsh people.” His life was the inspiration for the full-length biography “Off to Philadelphia in the Morning” by Jack Jones, published in London in August 1947.

Though Parry loved his home in Danville, he often visited Wales. It seems only proper that on Feb. 17, 1903, he died on one of those visits, in Penarth, near Cardiff. He is buried in the town’s cemetery at St. Augustine’s Church.

n Lynn Reichen is president of the Montour County Historical Society. Annual membership in the society is $15 per person, $25 per family and $300 lifetime. Newsletters are sent out quarterly. Send membership dues to MCHS, P.O. Box 8, Danville, PA 17821. The Montgomery House is open Memorial Day through Labor Day on Sundays from 2 to 4 p.m. and by appointment by calling 275-0383 or 275-7875. The Mooresburg Schoolhouse is open for the day the first Sunday in October and by appointment by calling 275-3690. “Once Upon A Time In ....” is a Monday feature provided by the historical societies in Union, Montour, Northumberland and Snyder counties. The columns focus on people, places and objects of historical significance.