Foster's Final Days
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| New York as seen from the steeple of St. Paul's Church, looking East, South and West. From a drawing by J. W. Hill. The churches shown, beginning at the left, are: St. George's, The North Dutch, The Middle Dutch and Trinity. Brady's celebrated Daguerrian Miniature Gallery is seen in the center foreground, on the southwest corner of Fulton St. and Broadway. You have not overlooked Barnum's American Museum, opposite St. Paul's Church, on the southeast corner of Broadway and Ann St. Minstrelsy was one of the hundreds of varieties of entertainment offered to the public by the dean of showmen and Americas's first concert manager, P.T. Barnum. His museum was in it's heyday from 1842 until July 13, 1865, when it burned, eighteen months to the day after the death of Foster. Thousands first heard Foster's melodies during their visits to the Museum. Music was flourishing in New York at this time. There were all sorts of musical organizations thriving, among the most important being the Philharmonic Orchestra, recently coming into being. (Photo: Courtesy of New York Public Library.)
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The last years in New York, 1860-64, of which so little is known and so much as been written, brings us to the sorrowful close of the life of America's song-writer, Stephen Foster. The period was fraught with enmity, as the Civil War was raging at it's fiercest. Foster's "big brother" William had passed away and the "Old Folks" were no long "At Home". The family ties, if not broken, were stretched to the breaking point. But Stephen Foster was never without a friend and George Cooper did not fail him. The Foster-Cooper episode is known to have covered the last twelve or fifteen months of Stephen Foster's life. This photograph, presumably the last of the composer, was taken in 1864 and belies the often repeated statement that Foster was in the last stages of alcoholism. We have Cooper's own statement that while Foster was addicted to drink, he was never intoxicated during their months of song-writing. |
| This photograph, presumably the last of the composer, was taken in 1864 and belies the often repeated statement that Foster was in the last stages of alcoholism. We have Cooper's own statement that while Foster was addicted to drink, he was never intoxicated during their months of song-writing. Cooper wrote the words to fifteen or more of Foster's songs, none of which have survived. Cooper's one song which has lived is "Sweet Genevieve," the music having been written by Henry Tucker. George Cooper relates having met Foster in the rear room of a dilapidated grocery store, located on the corner of Hester and Christie Streets; according to his description, Foster looked like a man utterly ragged and poor and one who seemed to have no incentive toward betterment. The bond which held these two souls together was a poetic one and their tramping days were about the only solace that Foster had during the last days of his life. The difference in the two men lay in that these days were merely a part of Cooper's youth, while there were the end of Foster's life. The songs they composed during their association were sold as they were written, often to a theater manager. It seems that Foster's publishing house, Firth & Pond, had severed relations with him just about the time that Foster went to New York; the exact reasons for this are not known, but it is easy to surmise that it was due to the gradual disintegration of the composer's music. This ambrotype of Foster and Cooper also seems to belie the impression of poverty generally associated with Foster's last years, but he may have "dressed up" for the occasion. | |
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to Morrison Foster, informing him of Stephen Foster's illness that resulted in his death. Several days before the accident, Foster was taken ill with fever and the ague, which had reduced him to a very weakened condition. Mr. Cooper relates the story of finding Foster in the hallway of the rooming house on the Bowery soon after he had been notified of the mishap. The following account is taken from Harold Vincent Milligan's biography of Foster and is a graphic description of the conditions as Cooper actually saw them; |
| "Steve never wore any night clothes and he lay there on the floor naked and suffering horribly. He had wonderful big brown eyes and they looked up at me with an appeal I can never forget. He whispered, 'I'm done for', and begged for a drink,...We put his clothes on him and took him to the hospital. In addition to the cut on his throat and bruise on his head, he was suffering from a bad burn on his thigh, caused by the overturning of a spirit lamp used to boil water. This had happened several days before and he had said nothing about it. All the time we were caring for him, he seemed terribly weak and his eyelids kept fluttering." (Photo: Copyright Sims Visual Music Co.)
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| to Stephen's brother, Morrison Foster, informing him of the death of Stephen Foster, January 13, 1864, at the age of thirty seven. Morrison seems to be the only one of the family who had any interest in Foster in his last days. On receiving Cooper's telegram that Stephen was dead, he and Stephen Foster's wife came to New York to claim the body. George Cooper states that when Stephen wife came into the room where the body lay, she fell on her knees before it and remained so for a long time. (Photo: Copyright Sims Visual Music Co.)
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