Admitted to the Union on December 29th, 1845 as our 28th state, Texas Day, first celebrated in 2017 as an online event, has recently received official recognition with February 1st as its national day. “Texas” was derived from the Caddoan language ‘taysha,’ meaning ‘friend’ or ‘ally.’ Texas is home to the most counties and is the second-largest state by area as well as having the two most populous U.S. cities. Texas was territorialized by six different countries over a 300-year period by France, Spain, Mexico, the Confederate States, Republic of Texas, and the United States. From 1836-1845, Texas was an independent country and after admittance, made Austin its capital. While the Lone Star flag was adopted by the Texas congress in 1839, its official nickname as the ‘Lone Star State’ was designated 176 years later in 2015. While home to numerous professional sports teams, Texas is credited as the origin of Dr. Pepper, hamburgers, the beef industry, and live music, the latter perhaps being the reason Sousa and His Band performed 181 concerts there.
Just over half of these concerts (91) were played in Austin [16], Dallas [20], Ft. Worth [16], Houston [21], and San Antonio [18], from 1895-1928 with the remainder in: Abilene, Amarillo, Beaumont, Brownwood, Cleburne, Commerce, Corpus Christi, Corsicana, Denison, Denton, El Paso, Gainesville, Galveston, Greenville, Harlingen, Lubbock, Marshall, McKinney, Orange, Paris, Port Arthur, Sherman, Temple, Texarkana, Waco, and Wichita Falls.
Just as with a Kansas university, there is a dedicatory Sousa march to a Texas school. In October of 1928 while performing concerts in Denton, Mr. Sousa was approached by representatives of an all-girl school being the College of Industrial Arts (known today as Texas Woman’s University) with a petition signed by seventeen hundred young ladies requesting a march on behalf of their school and by all accounts, Mr. Sousa graciously obliged, writing “Daughters of Texas“. I encourage further reading in Paul Bierley’s “The Works of John Philip Sousa” as an interesting tale of this work and the Foshay Tower march unfolds the following year during the hastily arranged tour of 1929.
The 1895 repertoire performed during the spring tour with matinee and evening concerts in Dallas, San Antonio, Waco, Austin, and Houston
Dated just after concluding the Texas portion of the 1895 tour, John Philip Sousa writes manager David Blakely making his feelings known of The Lone Star State
During the U.S. portion of the World Tour, Sousa’s Band plays concerts in San Antonio, giving them time for sightseeing which included a visit to The Alamo. Flanking Mr. Sousa are violinist Nicoline Zedeler (l.) and Virginia Root, soprano soloist
Following San Antonio, the Band was in Galveston for two concerts giving the ladies time to enjoy a stroll along the beach
The only concert taking place in Orange, TX was on December 29th, 1919
The Orange matinee did not feature John Kuhn, sousaphone, or John Perfetto, euphonium, although they were pictured along with soprano Mary Baker and John Philip Sousa. Most concerts at this time concluded with “The Star-Spangled Banner” as The Great War still loomed heavy on many people
During the 1922 tour in Houston, Mr. Sousa and soloists were guests at a luncheon held at the Humble Oil Building and are seen here being escorted in. This is paired with a matinee program from Austin on January 16th
1925 souvenir booklet and insert programs in Houston on December 27th
The 1925 matinee and evening programs
When in Denton on October 28th, 1928, Mr. Sousa was approached by a committee from the College of Industrial Arts to dedicate a march on the school’s behalf. The evening program had this short article tucked inside mentioning the request
The following year, Mr. Sousa dedicated his “Daughters of Texas” march to the school and unbeknownst to them, received a different march not originally intended for the College of Industrial Arts
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