“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.
News
Welsh ironman wrote songs we still remember
- News
-
-
New Report: Large charitable donations on the rise
SEATTLE — Money donated by the nation's most chartable people is starting to catch up with pre-recession giving, thanks in part to some very large bequests from a few donors. The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports today in its annual report of the nation's most generous people that the top 50 donors made pledges in 2011 to give a total of $10.4 billion.
-
State Rep. William DeWeese convicted on five counts in corruption case
HARRISBURG — A jury today convicted a senior Democrat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on all but one of six charges in the latest corruption trial stemming from a five-year investigation into the use of taxpayers' resources for political purposes.
-
State gas-drilling bill may pass today
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania's top-ranking state senator says he's hoping for a speedy vote in his chamber on sweeping legislation to impose a drilling fee and update safety regulations on the booming natural gas industry.
-
Senator warns of 'dramatic' and 'difficult' state funding cuts
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania's top-ranking senator says he expects dramatic and difficult spending cuts in Gov. Tom Corbett's budget plan. Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati said Monday that Pennsylvanians should be prepared for a debate on how best to use tax dollars, and he warned that he can't envision lawmakers raising taxes to ease spending cuts.
-
'It's just amazing'
PAXINOS -- Eli Manning may have been the Super Bowl's Most Valuble Player, but Henry Hynoski was the name on everyone's tongue in the Valley onSunday night. Patrons gathered in blue Giants jerseys to support Hynoski, the 23-year-old Elysburg native and Southern Columbia High School graduate who is now the proud owner of a Super Bowl championship ring.
-
Schools await word on Corbett's budget
SUNBURY -- Winston Churchill once said, "A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen."
-
DA wants Loving Care leader held liable for $68G fine
MIDDLEBURG -- More than a year has passed since the former corporation that operated a Selinsgrove personal care home was convicted of stealing a resident's money, but the case still lingers in court. In December 2010, Loving Care Nursing Center Inc. was convicted of stealing about $32,000 of former resident Francis T. Simonoski's money while he lived at the 308 S. Market St. home in 2007. The corporation was fined $100,000, which later was reduced to $68,000 following an appeal.
-
For Riverside couple, game day means party
RIVERSIDE -- Super Bowl Sunday is more than just a sports day for Joe and Leanna Muscato. It's also one of their biggest parties of the year. They have been holding Super Bowl parties for 32 years. They have been holding Super Bowl parties for 32 years. "When it started, it was in my little apartment" in Danville, Leanna said. Only eight people were at the first gathering. Now, there are usually 25 to 30 people every year.
-
Who will feed US?
SUNBURY -- More than 60 percent of farmers are over the age of 55, and without young farmers to replace them when they retire, the nation's food supply would depend on fewer and fewer people. "This is an alarming revelation that we have been hearing for several years," said Tim Lesher, a member of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau's Young Farmer and Rancher Committee and president of the Northumberland County Farm Bureau.
-
A dip'll do: Few linger in 41-degree water
LEWISBURG -- Why? Group by group, about 250 otherwise perfectly sane-looking folks dived in and ran out of the Susquehanna River at St. George Street landing Saturday in the Seventh annual Polar Bear Plunge, part of the yearly Heart of Lewisburg Ice Festival.
-
5 of 9 coaches: Giants will be super
CATAWISSA -- Around 10 tonight, it will be the New York Giants being showered with multi-colored confetti, holding preprinted newspaper front pages that proclaim "GIANTS ARE SUPER!" and getting sweaty fingerprints all over the 7-pound sterling silver Lombardi Trophy, so say five of nine Valley high school football coaches.
-
State mandates manure must be managed
HARRISBURG -- Anyone who spreads manure on fields or has a pasture, barnyard or feedlot must now have a manure management plan, even if he has no animals and imports manure only for his fields, a Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection official said Friday.
- More News Headlines
-
New Report: Large charitable donations on the rise
