BIO: Fletcher E. Meek, Tillard Pen Pictures, 1911, Blair County, PA Contributed April 2003 for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja Copyright 2003. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/blair/ _________________________________________ Pen Pictures of Friends and Reminiscent Sketches by J. N. Tillard Altoona, PA: William F. Gable & Co., Mirror Press, 1911 Famous Singer of The Olden Time FLETCHER U. MEEK, With Heaven-born Talent, Developed Amid Hardships, Was Figure in Musical Circles for Three Score Years GENIUS is born and not made. Some men come into the world with some talent, gift or spark of glowing fire in their souls that no adverse environment can quench or no harsh surroundings can crush. Some way, somehow, they will find means to develop the best that is in them and their enthusiasm will be the torch that will light the fire of their latent powers. The man who has in him the elements of scholarship will find the means to learning and in proportion to the innate greatness of his being will demonstrate to his fellows the powers of his mind. The log cabin in which Abraham Lincoln first saw the light was the farthest possible remote from the halls of culture and the wilderness in which he grew up was anything but conducive to the development of his mental powers, but there were no earthly conditions sufficiently strong to shackle or hold in the bondage of ignorance such a mind as his. His natural endowment was such as to enable him to rise superior to every ugly and squalid circumstance of birth and position. The plant that was born to be sun-kissed and has in its seed the germ of life will penetrate the mould that covers it and find its way to the light. No matter how homely the spot in which it first found lodgment, it will finally fling its fragrance to the air and its beauties will unfold whether its lot be cast in the well-kept garden or in the midst of the wilderness. It is true that human longings may fail to reach their full fruition and appreciation because of unkindly environment, but in some degree the soul that has in it art, or song or special talent of any kind will find an outlet for its hidden springs. A new country with undeveloped resources, where the people must of necessity give most of their thought and energies to the acquisition of the most elementary needs of existence, does not greatly favor the development of the finer feelings, and the man who develops any artistic passion must possess it in an unusual degree. Fletcher E. Meek was born a singer in a time and place not particularly favorable to the musicians' art. Centre County, in the State of Pennsylvania, in 1826, was in the heart of a great and sturdy commonwealth, but the man who could skillfully wield an ax, hew logs for houses, guide the plow or handle the sickle, was much more in demand than he who could sweep the lyre. It is not meant that the men and women of the time had no music in their souls or were without the finer instincts of humanity, but civilization in the new land had not yet reached the stage where a market had been created for what must be regarded as mere accomplishment in a strictly utilitarian age. There was not much time for amusement or the indulging of the lighter veins in that serious time. But this boy was a singer born and he could no more check his song than could the stars of the morning of creation time or the wild birds in the tree tops in the spring. For him all creation sang. From the treble of the mountain stream to the diapaison of the summer storm, all nature was full of harmonies to his attuned and listening ear. There was no master near to teach him the mysteries of music, but to him there were no mysteries in the eternal harmonies. The same Divine hand that had filled the world with the chords that tuned had touched his ear and they swept through his being with an over- mastering sense of their sweetness. And as he caught them his voice gave utterance to the sounds that thrilled him. While the stern necessities of his existence compelled him to give his time and attention to the humdrum and heavy tasks of the farm, he spent all of his leisure in the development of his heaven-born gift, but it was not until he had reached man's estate and was far in his twenties that he found it possible to go where he could spend some time in an atmosphere that he loved and come in touch with the masters of musical art. But while there was not much of musical culture in his neighborhood, it was an intensely religious age and time and in the great meetings of the Methodists to which he belonged all the people sang. It was an integral part of their worship and what it may have lacked in art it made up in vigor and heartiness. Here the young man found some outlet for his extraordinary gift, and in the great camp meetings of the time he found opportunity for the expression of the melody that was in him. In these centres of religious fervor, the shouting and the tumult never died, but above it all rang the clear and powerful tenor of the young singer, and though more than four-score years have fled backward in his pilgrimage, the joy of those ancient days are still with the old man and will never lose their sense of power this side the nearing grave. He is one of the few remaining who can clearly recall, because of active participation, the uplift of those stirring times. Perhaps the emotions that swept over our fathers and mothers of those days were somewhat crude and extravagant in their expression, but, like the sound of many waters, they came from the heart-strings of a strong and sincere people who were engaged in a hand-to-hand conflict with the rude forces of nature, and they subjugated them and left them an inheritance for their children. But one day Mr. Meek found it possible for him to go to New York and study under George S. Root, at that time one of the greatest vocal teachers of this country. Though he was not able to devote a long time to this congenial pursuit, it was long enough for him to master the art and return to his native heath as a teacher of vocal music. For many years he farmed in the summer and devoted his winters to teaching vocal classes in the churches and school houses all over Centre and adjoining counties, and his fame as a teacher and singer spread far and wide. In view of his early life, he was peculiarly fitted for the position of the itinerant music teacher in country places and his joy in his work was great. But he was deeply pious and it was in church music that he still found his greatest joy and there were few revival meetings in Central Pennsylvania to which he did not find his way. Those were the days when the great preachers of Methodism gathered at the camps and the fire of their eloquence was the complement and supplement of the singer's art in stirring the emotions of the great crowds of worshipers. Twenty years or more ago he came to this city and was for a long time the leader of the choir of the Fifth Avenue Methodist Church. Though well in the ninth decade of his journey, he still occasionally wakes the echoes in the church with solos that, despite the tremolo stop that time has put in his voice, brings quick tears to the listening congregation. His sons and daughters inherited much of his musical talent and they listen lovingly while he sings of the fair land that his unshaken faith, in degenerate days, sees afar off, that rings with the music of the spheres. #