56 Facts About Paul Dresser

Paul Dresser's biggest hit, "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away", was the best selling song of its time.

Paul Dresser was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.

Paul Dresser grew up in a large family and lived in Sullivan and Terre Haute, Indiana.

Paul Dresser had a troubled childhood and spent time in jail.

Paul Dresser left home at age sixteen to join a traveling minstrel act and performed in several regional theaters before joining John Hamlin's Wizard Oil traveling medicine-wagon show in 1878.

Paul Dresser settled in Evansville, Indiana, for several years while continuing to work as a traveling performer and musician.

Paul Dresser moved to New York City, and in 1893 Paul Dresser joined Tin Pan Alley's Howley, Haviland and Company, a New York City sheet music publisher, as a silent partner.

At the height of his success, Paul Dresser was a nationally known entertainer, successful songwriter, and sheet music publisher.

Paul Dresser was generous, especially to family and friends, and a lavish spender.

Paul Dresser's mother, born near Dayton, Ohio, was a Mennonite who was disowned after her elopement and marriage.

In July 1863 the family moved to Sullivan, Indiana, where Paul Dresser's father became foreman of the newly opened Sullivan Woolen Mills.

Paul Dresser quickly found the Benedictine seminary too strict and confining and decided to leave.

Paul Dresser stayed with family friends while working on local farms during the summer of 1871 through the summer of 1872.

The fourteen-year-old Paul Dresser then returned to Terre Haute and worked a series of odd jobs to help support his family.

Paul Dresser continued his education at the St Bonaventure Lyceum academy in Terre Haute and took piano lessons from a local music teacher, his only formal musical training.

Whatever the reason, Paul Dresser returned to Sullivan to work on a friend's farm, away from the city.

Paul Dresser resumed to his old habits of spending time with delinquents and drinking.

At age sixteen Paul Dresser took a job as a teacher and musician at a Catholic church in Brazil, Indiana, but left after less than a year.

Shortly thereafter, Charley Kelly, a traveling minstrel, hired Paul Dresser to join his act as a piano player.

In 1876, after he had taught for a full year, Paul Dresser returned to his family in Terre Haute.

Paul Dresser was jailed for ten weeks before his trial, convicted, fined, and sentenced to another month of jail time.

In 1876 Paul Dresser secured a job as an organist and singer with the Lemon Brothers, a traveling minstrel group from Marshall, Illinois.

Paul Dresser stayed with the group for more than a year, performing as an actor and singer, before they disbanded near the end of 1877.

Around 1878 Paul Dresser may have taken a job with Barlow, Wilson, Primrose, and West, a prominent traveling minstrel group that was among the most famous in the nation at the time.

In Evansville, Paul Dresser honed his skills as a musician and eventually became a nationally renowned talent.

Paul Dresser wrote a "humor-and-advice" column for a local newspaper, the Evansville Argus.

In March 1881 Paul Dresser went to Chicago, where he headlined his own act.

Paul Dresser starred as one of the featured acts in a benefit concert for Daniel Decatur Emmett at the Chicago Academy of Music.

Paul Dresser's act was a success and he was able to secure appearances in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York City as well as a number of smaller cities, including Indianapolis, Louisville, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh.

Between shows Paul Dresser returned to Evansville, where he had purchased a home.

In 1883 Paul Dresser had his first songs published as sheet music since his time working with Hamlin.

Whatever the case, Paul Dresser did not return to his family or resume performing for the public until 1886, when John Stewart Crossy approached him to act and sing music in his comedy, The Two Johns.

Paul Dresser continued to compose music during the height of his performing career.

Paul Dresser stopped selling his songs through midwestern publishers, moved to New York City, and turned to Willis Woodward and Company, a New York City music publisher located in the area that later became known as Tin Pan Alley.

Paul Dresser continued traveling with The Two Johns show until the end of 1889 and composed music after the show season ended.

Paul Dresser, who had been large since his youth and weighed nearly 300 pounds, performed as a jolly plumber in the nationally acclaimed show.

Paul Dresser began to have a dispute with Hoyt over the use of his songs, and Hoyt's refusal to acknowledge him as the composer.

Paul Dresser left the act in April 1891 and traveled the country performing in The Danger Signal.

Paul Dresser began to sell his songs to other acts for use in their performances.

At the height of the Panic of 1893, Paul Dresser formed a partnership with Frederick Haviland and Patrick Howley as a silent partner in Howley, Haviland and Company.

Paul Dresser stopped traveling and performing during the summer so he could focus on composing music and promoting the new company.

In "Wabash" Paul Dresser reminisced about his childhood home in Indiana, which was near the Wabash River.

Paul Dresser contributed to a book on composing music, Hits and Hitters: Secrets of the Music Publishing Business.

In 1900 Paul Dresser published one of his last hit songs, "The Blue and the Gray".

In 1900, although he was not a competent businessman, Paul Dresser became an acting partner in his publishing business, which was renamed Haviland, Howley, and Paul Dresser.

Paul Dresser's partners hoped Dresser's name would help spur more business, but the enterprise was not a success.

Paul Dresser continued to write songs, but none brought the financial success that the business needed to survive.

Paul Dresser began giving out money to his friends to help them.

Paul Dresser gave away large sums of money to his friends and family, spent vast sums at the city's brothels and saloons, and by 1903 he was nearly impoverished.

Paul Dresser's health began to deteriorate rapidly at the end of 1905, when he wrote to his sister that he was ill, but gave no details.

On March 19 Paul Dresser's remains were moved to St Boniface Cemetery in Chicago, where a funeral and final burial took place on November 23,1907.

In total, Paul Dresser composed and published more than 150 songs and left behind several unpublished compositions.

In Terre Haute, Paul Dresser Drive is named in his honor.

The Paul Dresser Birthplace is maintained at Henry Fairbanks Park in Terre Haute by the Vigo County Historical Society.

The village of Paul Dresser, called Taylorville, is situated on the west bank of the Wabash River in Vigo County and was named for the songwriter.

Paul Dresser Drive, a street in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Anderson, Indiana, is named for him, as is the Paul Dresser Bridge, which crosses the Wabash River, near Attica, Indiana.