I pulled up YouTubeTV on one monitor while I started working on the blog post on another, thinking I’d be able to focus on writing with the Michigan-Penn State game on in the background. That may have been a tactical error on my part. PSU looked pretty good on their first drive, chewing up over 9 minutes in 16 plays. Sure, we held them to a field goal, but we’re near the bottom of red-zone defense in FBS teams. We can’t afford that kind of performance. Especially when we come up empty on our next possession.
And being tied for most turnovers in the B1G isn’t doing us any favors, either
Read That Again
You ever read something you’ve read a dozen times, and something finally leaps out like you’re reading it for the first time? That happened to me this week.
My dad wrote a history of the JC Mueller family that’s probably 70 or 80 pages, and I’ve read all nine sections multiple times over the years. The last part, “The Robert Mueller Family,” mentions Dad’s parents traveling after their wedding
“After New York, they went overland to Ohio and Chicago, visiting friends Mother had known from her Chicago days.”
I don’t know how many times I read that and glazed right over it.
Then Dad added a section at the end, almost as an afterthought. He was talking about the source of his name, because he was the first Harold in the family line.
“I have no evidence to back up my assumption, however, Harold was the name of Mr. von Mickwitz, the piano teacher with whom they studied in Sherman and later, in Chicago.”
Huh. My grandmother and her sister spent time in Chicago. I never knew that. Well, I did, because I’d read this section before, but that tidbit never clicked.
And who follows some piano teacher across the country?
Harold von Mickwitz
Turns out he wasn’t just some piano teacher.
Born in Helsinki in the mid-19th century, he immigrated to the US in 1897. He’d built quite a musical career in Europe, teaching at the Karlsruhe and Wiesbaden Conservatories of Music. When he arrived in the US, he made his way to Texas, taking a position at what was then called the North Texas Female College in Sherman, Texas. It later became Kidd-Key College. He taught there until 1905 when he left for Bush Conservatory of Music in Chicago.
He taught there for four years, then moved to Southern Methodist University in Dallas. After SMU, he taught at what became Julliard. He went back to Finland for a time, then came back to Kidd-Key for its last year.
I located the 1906-07 yearbook/catalogue for Kidd-Key/North Texas Female College on Ancestry. Von Mickwitz isn’t listed as a staff member, though there’s a note at the end of the catalogue, dated April 1905, where he introduces his successor and apologizes for leaving the school and Texas.
Leona and Emily are listed in the Roll. Neither is listed as a piano student. Leona is listed under Harmony. Emily doesn’t seem to be listed anywhere other than in the Roll.
Basic board was $95/semester ($3,461 today). Tuition was $25 ($910 today). There were various instructor and instrument fees, too. Enrollment peaked at just over 500 girls.
But What’s The Story?
Even today, with travel being so much easier than it would have been in the early 1900s, it seems a little far-fetched to follow a piano teacher almost 900 miles from home. Heck, back in 1905, even Sherman was a hike from Austin of something over 250 miles. I’m sure trains ran between Austin and Sherman, and connections could certainly be made between Sherman and Chicago. But it honestly boggles my mind for Leona and her sister Emilie to travel that distance to attend school and study piano when they had UT almost literally just around the corner.
Would their parents have spent the money if they didn’t see some sort of talent? I doubt it, but I don’t know much about the Mayer family (yet) other than their father Carl owning a jewelry store in Austin.
This is the kind of thing I mean when I say I’ve got the dates, but I want the stories.
Did my dad talk about his mother being musically talented? And she must have been, if her parents sent her to two different music schools. Not that I recall. He mentions several concerts he attended, and composers, conductors, and flutists he heard over the years.
I don’t remember him talking about them around me, though.
It makes me miss him even more.
And as I was reviewing a couple of Dad’s files for this post, I found out I was missing a family history by one of my cousins. It’s supposed to be archived at the Austin Public Library, so I’ll contact them on Monday to see about getting a copy of it.
Back To Football
I wrote that first paragraph during the first quarter of the game, and by halftime, I was pretty frustrated with the listless way Michigan was playing.
Then they came out for the second half, and Tommy Carr replaced Bryce Underwood as quarterback, and to quote Keith Jackson, “Whoa Nellie!”
Michigan went from throwing two interceptions to picking two from Penn State as well as forcing a fumble. We gained more yardage in the third quarter alone than we’d made in the entire first half. The team just played with a ton more energy, it seemed.
And even though Tommy Carr was driving the bus, Bryce Underwood supported him loudly and often from the sideline, including cheering Carr over his 4th-quarter rushing touchdown. I don’t know that we’ve turned the corner for the season, because no one’s talking about who’s going to start next week against defending champion Indiana. But we’ve made a good start toward a turnaround.
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