Horace Weston, World's Greatest Banjo Player

During the 1880s, Horace Weston was the world's greatest banjo player. He toured the U.S. and Europe, wrote music, endorsed a line of banjos, and influenced countless musicians. Weston spent a formative portion of his childhood in Waterbury, and it was here that he first learned to play musical instruments, setting him on the path to stardom.

Horace Weston, c. 1880
Harvard Theater Collection, HTC Photographs 1.1073

Weston played stroke style banjo and, in the words of a fan, "reigned supreme---the greatest the world ever produced." That fan was civil rights organizer, author, and musician Wendell P. Dabney, who wrote the following about seeing Weston perform during the 1880s:

     "...I learned that Horace Weston would play the following week at Niblo's Garden. I waited and nearly starved while waiting for it had been my proud boast, from boyhood, to my parents that I'd never have to send home for money. The night came. My last fifty cents was paid to get a comfortable seat.
     Horace Weston finally stepped on the stage and the applause was as though the President had appeared.
     Seated himself, tenderly took his big banjo, decorated with many brackets, lifted his right hand upon the forefinger of which was a big brass thimble, and the orchestra of thirty pieces was ready for his great "Seek No Further March."
     In a maze I sat throughout the performance filled with joy and envy. I'd rather been Horace Weston that night than the Czar of Russia....
     "Joe" Sweeney, a Virginia white man, was an artist on stroke playing. He added the fifth string to the banjo, but Horace Weston was the king of all that class of players."  
       (Wendell P. Dabney, "Banjo Days," Afro-American, 8 December 1934)

Born in 1842 in Derby, Horace Weston was about three years old when his family moved to Waterbury, and about nine or ten when they moved to Naugatuck. His life as a musician began in Waterbury, where he learned to play the accordion at age seven. He then learned to play the violoncello, double bass, slide trombone, and guitar. (Horace Weston obituary, New York Clipper, 7 June 1890). His father, Nelson Weston, taught music and dance, in addition to running a barbershop and general store in Waterbury.

Weston appears to have been on his own by 1855, when he was only 13. He was an itinerant musician and dance teacher, traveling through New York with a guitar. When his guitar broke, he borrowed a "tub banjo" and stay up all night learning how to use it. ("Death of Horace Weston," Supplement to S. S. Stewart's Banjo and Guitar Journal, June 1890)


Early Career

After serving briefly in the Navy during the Civil War, Weston found work as a banjo player with prominent minstrel shows. Born free in Connecticut, the son of a successful business owner, Weston would no doubt have been required to hide his background while working in minstrel shows, pretending to have been born into slavery in the south, pretending to have never received any formal education, pretending to be illiterate. Audiences wanted a stereotype, and the minstrel performers were expected to play the part.

Between 1867 and 1876, Weston had a series of short-term performance contracts in New York City, Boston, and other locations, supplementing his income by teaching banjo. ("Death of Horace Johnson," Supplement to S. S. Stewart's Banjo and Guitar Journal, June 1890)

Weston steadily built up his reputation and skills until he was a star performer. Some of his contracts were at disreputable but profitable clubs, while others were at well-heeled theaters. He also worked at concert saloons, which were a popular venue during this era, bars that combined minstrel shows, alcohol, and prostitution.

One of the more famous concert saloons at which Weston worked was owned by Harry Hill, a "notorious proprietor" of a dance house on Houston Street in New York. In 1869, Hill was reportedly stabbed by a prostitute who frequented his establishment (he recovered) (The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 6 November 1869). Hill also hosted wrestling matches at his saloon.

Inside Harry Hill's Dance-House, 1869
The New York Public Library Digital Collections

In 1870, the dance house was dubbed "Harry Hill's Hell" in a newspaper exposé (The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 26 August 1870). The dance house featured a bar, a low stage, and a dance floor. It was frequented by prostitutes and men of high social standing, from police officers to politicians.


Stardom

Beginning in the late 1870s, Weston was under contract with theater impresarios Jarrett & Palmer, performing in their production of Uncle Tom's Cabin in New York and Europe. During the tour of Europe, Weston cemented his reputation as the world's best banjo player. He won countless awards, including fourteen gold and silver medals.

Throughout the 1880s, Weston's talent was unquestioned. He had achieved celebrity status.

In 1881, for example, students at Yale in New Haven worked to convince a local theater to book a performance by Weston:

"There is so much interest taken in Banjo-playing in college that those who are really fond of fine playing would like to have a chance to hear the world-renowned 'banjoist,' Horace Weston who is now taking a rest in New Haven, after a two years' trip around the world. We have heard several Banjo-players who were considered fine, but not one of them could compare with Weston. We would like very much to hear him again, and if the manager of the American Theatre were to engage him, he would be sure of a crowd of students to hear this really magnificent musician. Weston, though colored, can play the Banjo in a way no other man of any complexion whatsoever ever pretended to. We hope there will be an opportunity to hear some of his playing." (Yale News, 8 December 1881)

In 1882, a glowing review was published following Weston's performance at Salt Lake City, Utah:

"The most remarkable performance of the evening, however, was the banjo playing of Horace Weston. He is reputed to be the finest banjoist alive, and no one will dispute his right to that title who witnessed his playing last night. It cannot be described, it must be seen. We have had a sneaking idea all along that there was no real music in a banjo, but that idea was well nigh demolished when Weston got through." ("The Minstrels," Salt Lake Daily Herald, 19 April 1882)

Combating Stereotypes

After being forced to accept the racist stereotypes of minstrel shows during his early career, Weston worked to correct his public image after achieving stardom. While under contract with Jarrett & Palmer, Weston was the subject of a demeaning anecdote created to promote the company and their production of Uncle Tom's Cabin. The anecdote appeared in newspapers all over the country starting in 1881.

The anecdote is essentially a poor joke in which Weston receives a letter from the Queen of England, but he is completely illiterate and ignorant, so he dismisses it as being just another letter from a fan. Weston's speech pattern is altered to fit the stereotype of an uneducated former slave. The anecdote goes so far as to claim that he had never learned to read, which was entirely untrue. 

The Eaton (OH) Democrat, 10 November 1881

Eight years later, no longer under contract with Jarrett & Palmer, Weston was able to publish his version of the anecdote in the New York Herald. This time, the story referred to him as "Mr. Weston... a colored gentleman of distinguished manners and appearance" and allowed him to tell the story in his own words. The differences are telling. As before, the story appeared in papers all over the country for several years.

"That Was Different," Wisconsin State Journal, 4 May 1889

An unanswered question remains: did Weston receive a letter from Queen Victoria? While it hasn't yet been proven, there is reason to think there is some truth to the story. In 1890, an actor who was with the Jarrett & Palmer company during the trip to England recalled that the Prince and Princess of Wales and the royal family of Denmark were in the audience during their first performance in London, and that the Prince of Wales was so thrilled with the performance that he went backstage afterwards to chat with some of the performers. (Pittsburgh Dispatch, 1 February 1890)

Pittsburgh Dispatch, 1 February 1890

Musical Compositions

Weston wrote and published numerous compositions for the banjo. It appears that most of them were published by S.S. Stewart. Some have been digitized by the Library of Congress.

Horace Weston's Old Time Jig, 1883

Library of Congress Music Division

When Horace Weston died in 1890, he was at the height of his career. He had successfully cast aside the racism of minstrel shows, establishing himself as a premiere musician who was treated with respect and admiration.

There's so much more to his story, but it won't all fit in a blog post. I still have some more research to do, hours of reading old newspapers on microfilm, contacting historical societies and archives, searching for answers to some very specific questions, after which I'll try once more to weave together a compelling narrative about the Weston family from their years in Waterbury to Horace Weston's glory days on the world stage.