1880s–1890s: Religious and Musical Associations

Religious Associations

Before the late-19th century, most New Brunswick religious congregations were not large enough to have many talented choir singers or leaders to train them. In fact, until 1860 Christ Church was the only one with an organ. By 1886, the First Presbyterian Church was given a pipe organ from the New York factory of Kilbourne Roosevelt.

As well as using music to enhance weekly worship, churches hosted programs for the surrounding community. The First Presbyterian Church gave a benefit recital for the local Young Women’s Missionary Society that featured Willard P. Voorhees on the organ. Likewise, the New Brunswick branch of the all-female Baptist Zenana Missionary Society’s Forget-Me-Not Band performed for the benefit of converting women in colonial India. In a more light-hearted vein, newspaper articles and programs show how each of New Brunswick’s churches made the most of summer’s strawberry season by providing beautiful hymnals, strawberries at ten cents a bowl, Philadelphia’s famous Harkinson-brand ice cream, and home-baked strawberry shortcake.

Musical Associations

The city’s amateur musical life continued to flourish through its large Musical Association, the seasonal symphonies of the Vocal Union Singing Society, and Otto Geitner and F.W. Stein’s highly popular Anglo-German Singing Society Aurora. Diarist Sarah Voorhees, for instance, offers us a glimpse into the Monday evening meetings and rehearsals of the New Brunswick Musical Association’s 170-person chorus. Even New Brunswick’s often hypercritical audience could only praise the “rich power, flexible tones [and] grace” of soprano Garret Smith and baritone Francis Fisher Powers during the Association’s May 1892 program.