Original Proprietors
Update VII

     The precise schedule of events for the Original Proprietors event, to be held in late July of 1998, has not been finalized. It will, however, coincide with the Newport Music Festival, which will run from July 11 to 26. 
     Dr. Mark P. Malkovich, General Director of the Festival, has graciously offered to schedule a Redwood night on Friday, July 24. This concert will feature music that might have been familiar to Redwood's founders, as well as music by some Original Proprietor descendants or their spouses. 

     Among the musicians in the Library's extended family are Robert Curt von Gorrissen (1887-1978; a descendant of Abraham Redwood); Theodore Ward Chanler (1902-1961; a descendant of Samuel Ward); Benny Goodman (1909-1986; married to a descendant of Samuel Vernon); and John Ayres Lessard (born 1920; married to a descendant of Samuel Ward). 

     Of course, Benny Goodman is the most familiar of these, and the Library has many of his recordings, on both compact disc and cassette. Theodore Chanler was a native of Newport. A student of Ernest Bloch and Nadia Boulanger, he is best known as a composer of art songs. Chanler was also a respected music critic, writing for The Boston Herald, The New York Herald-Tribune, and Modern Music. We currently have one CD that includes some of Chanler's music and have several others on order. 

     John Ayres Lessard, another student of Nadia Boulanger, also studied with Henry Cowell and Alfred Cortot. Like Chanler, Lessard has composed many songs for voice and piano. His other works include a 1941 piano sonata which was highly praised by Virgil Thomson, and works for orchestra and chamber ensemble. Robert Curt von Gorrissen, a native of Hamburg, Germany, (his American grandmother married a German diplomat) was best known as an organist and composer of music for the organ and for chorus. Unfortunately, we have been unable to find any recordings of music by either Lessard or Gorrissen. 

     To date we have succeeded in locating living descendants of 27 of the 46 Original Proprietors. Although it is not necessary to amass a large amount of data in order to find living descendants of these men, the likelihood of locating someone increases with the information collected. We have, for example, information on 2,240 descendants of Samuel Rodman (not all of them living, of course) and have contacted over 100 of them. We have information on 862 descendants of Samuel Ward and have contacted over 40 of them. 
     On the other hand, even though we have information on 791 descendants of Ebenezer Gray, we have contacted only four of them. We have been able to contact 15 descendants of John Callender, having found information on only 75 of his descendants. 

     As part of the effort to locate descendants of the Library's Original Proprietors, we have recently taken to the Internet. The Roots Surname List (RSL) is a registry of over 290,000 surnames submitted by over 39,000 genealogists. Associated with each surname are dates and locations, and information about how to contact the person who submitted the surname. 
     We have submitted 20 surnames, representing 27 of the Original Proprietors, and have had responses on several. 

Original 46 Founders 
Descendants of the Redwood 
Update III 
Update IV 
Update V 
Update VI 
Update VII