Representative women of New England/Nina K. Darlingtone

by Mary H. Graves

NINA K. DARLINGTONE AND DAUGHTERS NINA KELTON DARLINGTONE, the author and originator of a system of musical training and instruction copyrighted under the title of " Kindergarten Music-Building; the Science of Music, Art, and Education."

To picture for the public the essentially selfless toil and privations of an originator and philanthropist in any work is hardly possible: only those who have passed through the struggle know the cost. A glance at the system of education, "Kindergarten Music-Building; the Science of Music, Art, and Education," gives but a faint idea of its vastness and the painstaking labor that gave it birth.

Nina K. Darlingtone, though originally from Philadelphia, is descended through her maternal grandfather from New England colonists. Tracing her ancestry, we find a long line courageously braving hardships, leaving their native land, becoming pioneers in a new country for conscience' sake, fighting in the early wars, holding responsible offices, conducting public affairs, and fearlessly devoting themselves to humanity's needs.

On the maternal side we find Thomas Miner, who came to this country about 1630. He joined the church in Charlestown, Mass., in 1632, married Grace Palmer in 1634, and later removed to Stonington, Conn., where he ended his days. His diary shows him to have held almost every office within the gift of his fellow townsmen. His notes began with the day of the week, day of the year, year of our Lord, and year of creation, not forgetting the mention of leap-year. This diary seems to have been a public document, hence the more valuable. A descendant of one of his twelve children was Governor W. T. Miner, of Connecticut (1855- 57). Captain John Miner, sou of Thomas and a personal friend of Governor Winthrop, was skilled in the Indian dialects, and served as interpreter. He was for many years Town Clerk of Wootlbury, Conn. His daughter Grace married Samuel Grant, Jr., of Windsor, Conn., in 1688, and thus became an ancestress of Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States.

Charles Miner, the historian of Wyoming and a great-grandfather of Nina K. Darlingtone, was son of Soth and Ann (Charlton) Miner and a lineal descendant of Thomas, the immigrant. Born in Norwich, Conn., in 1780, he migrated to Pennsylvania in 1799, and two or three years later settled in Wilkesbarre. He served in the State Legislature in 1807 and 1808, and he introduced many bills that are now on the statute books of that State. During the younger President Adams's administration he was in Congress with Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and other noted statesmen, personal letters from each of whom to Mr. Miner are still in the family. The Hon. Charles Miner was a strong anti-slavery man. In January, 1829, he made an eloquent speech in the House of Representatives, and presented the first bill advocating measures to bring about the gradual abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. At the conclusion of his speech, as narrated in later days by one of the family, Mr. Webster followed him into the lobby, and, throwing his arms around him, said, "Mr. Miner, you have kindled a fire that will burn from Maine to Georgia."

Mr. Miner's thought was ever for the good of the community. He was a zealous promoter of public improvements, as railways and canals. He introduced anthracite into many homes, and, in company with two other gentlemen, was the first to ship this hard coal of Wyoming, which had been thought of little value, down the Lehigh River to Philadelphia.

Many amusing and curious stories are told of the introduction of "these black stones," as the people calkxl them. Once they were incredulous about their merit as fuel. On one occasion several men had worked for hours to make the coal burn, and, finally deciding that the task was impossible, had closed the stove door and gone out to dinner, incensed at the waste of time and labor. What was their amazement on returning to find a brilliant fire burning and the room as warm as a day in summer!

Charles Miner's father, Seth Miner, was on General Jed Huntington's staff in the Revolutionary War.

The old Miner homestead, on the plains near Wilkesbarre, Pa., has been standing for about a century, and is still in possession of the family.

It is said that one of the progenitors of the family in the Middle Ages was knighted on the field of battle for his valiant deeds; and because of his owning great tracts of land, including mines of value, his name became Sir Thomas the Miner. It is also interesting to note that his descendants to-day are possessors of mines in the coal district of Central Pennsylvania, left to them by Charles Miner, whose legal papers read that coal should be granted to his heirs and their descendants free of cost forever.

Indirectly, Nina K. Darlingtone is related to Priscilla Mullins and John Alden, this fact em- phasizing the New England connection.

Ancestors of hers noted for sterling worth, brave in the discharge of duty, and suffering persecution for conscience' sake, are found in the Lewis family, the direct line of the ma- ternal grandfather, which originated in Wales. Henry Lewis, a member of the Society of Friends, came to this country in 1682, his father, Evan Lewis, accompanying him, and settled in Philadelphia. The interests of Welsh immigrants were committed to his care by William Penn, his personal friend, who ap- pointed him one of three to decide all questions in place of the court. He purchased vast tracts of land, and owned both a town house and a country manor. In the seventh generation, in direct line, was Nina K. Darlingtone's maternal grandfather, the Hon. Joseph J. Lewis, an emi- nent lawyer, interested in all educational mat- ters, who was Commissioner of Internal Revenue under Abraham Lincoln and a valued personal friend of the President, by whom important questions were often referred to his clear, un- biassed judgment. His grand-daughter treas- ures, among other recollections of him, this, that was told to her in her girlhood: He had been invited to join the family party to attend the theatre on the night of the President's assassination, but, unable to be present, was spared the shock of witnessing the fatal deetl, to be of service to the family in their hour of need. His son, the late Charlton T. Lewis, LL.D. (recently deceased), editor of Harper's "Book of Facts" and author of the Latin dictionary said officially to be used as the standard in Oxford and Cambridge Universities, England, was poet of his class in graduating from Yale College; and later two sons of Charlton T. Lewis each received the same compliment at graduation. Graceanna Lewis, a well-known scientist, an authority on ornithology, is a member of this branch of the family."

Joseph J. Lewis's mother, Alice Jackson, was a noted mathematician of her day. Still in the possession of a descendant of the family is the estate in Chester County, Pennsylvania, which it is said was seen in a vision by the original owner, the Jackson immigrant, before he left his old home in Ireland to found a new one in a land where he could worship God, unmolested, in the way that he felt was right and true.

Nina K. Darlingtone's father, Charles Thornton Murphy, a resident of Philadelphia, is a great lover of music and art, a composer of ability, and a natural artist. His setting of Oliver Wendell Holmes's battle hymn, " God bless our Flag," fitly illustrates his musical quality. His father, John H. Murphy, fearing, with old-time prejudice, that he would devote his life to music, sent him to sea for five years; but, though separated from his beloved instrument, his musical nature held its own. The father's influence, however, was great enough afterward to induce him to adopt a business career. In his wife, Alice C. Lewis, he found a willing sym- pathizer and ready listener, and thus was woven into the home life their own interpretation of music for the very love of it.

Mr. Murphy's mother, whose maiden name was Saunderson, was a descendant of Robert Carter, of "Corotoman," I^ancaster County, Va., known as "King Carter," who was born about 1663, son of John and Sarah (Ludlow) Carter; the royal descent of "King Carter," and there- fore of his posterity, with a long list of illus- trious progenitors, among them Charlemagne and the Emperor -Frederick Barbarossa, is of undisputed authenticity (see "Ancestry of Ben- jamin Harrison, President of the United States, 1889-93," with included chart, by Charles P. Keith).

Into this musical and intellectual atmosphere came the first-born of eight children, the child Nina, named for a song and destined to bless all good inclination and help others to trust holy heart impulses. As usual with those whose abilities are of an unusual order and beyond what the world cognizes, she suffered from uncongenial environment; but, though this blighted outward expression, it did not tleter the child's inner growth, even as the careless crushing of a flower does not hinder the ema- nating of the perfume. As the eldest of eight children, she was ever the mother's helper and confidant, sharing in the interest of the home and little ones. When only three years old she saved her smaller sister from falling from a high window, holding on to the child's foot and crying out until some one came to her aid. At the age of ten years she entered the conserv- atory of music at Philadelphia, and for two or three broken years at school enjoyed the ad- vantages of musical education. After two years of boarding-school life ,slie was graduated the first in her class, though she had been a member of it for music study for the last six months only. At home in Philadelphia two years of excellent drill under a well-known master. Professor Henri Schneider, completed her musi- cal training. This shows conclusively that per- severance in the natural development of the musical nature, belonging, as it does, to the deeper, or spiritual, is ever of more value than mere intellectual training.

At fourteen she began to teach music to a cousin, and also to her brothers and sisters, the cousin being older than herself. Thus we see her at an early age beginning life's duties se- riously, earnestly, ever with a fixetl determina- tion to overcome the evil of ignorance with true understanding, and holding to the quiet, inner meditation in lieu of formal instruction from without. She thus discovered that this study alone fits one to give out the true substance worthy the distribution to others. This did not hinder her from entering into all the games of childhood with ready zest, settling disputes with an ab.solute justice that allowed no ques- tion of ulterior motive or of partiality. Lovetl and trusted by her associates, she grew into intimate and lasting friendships, upon which she leaned for the aid and sympathy most es- sential to a loving, confiding nature.

In her first teaching of young children she realized strongly their need of a natural system ; and oftentimes a music lesson was given the little student on the vine-covered porch or under the garden trees, the piano being sought after the problems in hand had been solved to the satisfaction of teacher and pupil. She waited, hoping that some one else would bring out such a system as she herself was unwittingly in process of unfo'ding. As life's experience deepened, further insight was gained into these matters; and within three years after her mar- riage, which occurred in the spring of 1892, the birth of her first child, Linda Frederika (December, 1894), brought the experience and joys of motherhood. Her life was further en- riched by a second daughter, Aylsa Winona Lewis, born in January, 1896. Three years of invalidism gave her opportunity for quiet thought and earnest pondering on many things.

The lack of a general musical atmosphere was apparent, and the need of such for the budding thought made her long to gather the little ones about her and create at least some intelligent love for the beauty of art and the ability to grasp inner meanings of harmony so success- fully hitlden from the ignoramus in the tone world.

Many unanswered questions had pursued her from her early years, questions which her elders could not answer. She had soon observeil that the child nurtured under its mother's influence was the one to achieve in the world's history of great deeds; also that the child of genius was permitted to unfold in the first attempts at expression without interference from out- side. U'hat was the cause back of these effects? She knew that The Creator who had createtl all things good could not fail to give humanity a remetly for every ill. The God of Love could not omit that which would heal every broken life and heart, but why the necessity of pass- ing through neeiUess agony to learn lessons easily taught? Surely there must be a preven- tative of such perversion of the natural in an educational system that would allow the child to find himself wholesomely in the kingdom of the Eternal King, under whose laws he might unfoUl and expand naturally, growing daily in brightness and beauty within until the full time of expression, when, like the bud opening into flower, the well-balanced child would enter a serene manhood or womanhood, growing healthfully because his true instincts had been nourished and strengthened, not thwarted nor suppressed until reaction and per- version had occurred. Such questions were stirring the active thought of the founder of the "Science of Music and Education" for fifteen years, unanswered and unsolved by any system in existence. " Are not all hearts seek- ing for the same remedy?" she argued, and in the wholeness of her searching prayer the answer was reflected. In a single night the light dawned, her health was restored, the discovery made! The truth of the natural law of unfoldment and its relation to the child was revealed. God's gift to little children was no longer a dream, but a present reality. To take the message at once to the little ones became her greatest neetl.

Like a pioneer teacher of old, Pestalozzi, who gave forth the first expression of his new idea to a class of children in an Ursuline con- vent, so Nina K. Darlingtone, in the spring of 1896, though of the Protestant faith, was called to teach the nuns in a convent, who had charge of the musical department in their school. Her re-entrance into active teaching found her engaged with these anrl other pupils, who sought from her chiefly ideas of interpretation. As a teacher and worker for children, as well as for those desiring to teach, the more mature woman, with the two little ones of her own, had lost none of the qualities which naturally reach the childlike in heart and which children naturally love. Nevertheless, when urged to teach children at this period, she refusetl, feeling the instruction of beginners to be the most difficult problem of all, and one which she was not yet ready to solve. On continued solicita- tion, however, she consented to take the little ones in a class and teach them in a body the things in music they would not ordinarily learn, and which she had for years imparted in private teaching. Her interest in this work grew rapidly; and, as the great educational idea grew upon her, as means of making matters comprehensible to the children, games were in- vented, songs written, and thus the new method spontaneously expressed itself.

Unlike other systems, "Kindergarten Music- building" is not the expression of a gradual growth of thought, resulting from years of practical teaching only. It is really a discov- ery, the result of the author's life experience. Thus the deep-sighted philosophy of this clear and simple system came from an intense de- sire to present the real essence of music and education to the child in its spiritual signifi- cance, as well as to help little hands and eyes antl ears to grasp the ordinarily stupid and confused beginnings of so complex a subject as music.

The secret of the true environment for the age of childhood is revealed, and as in the case of the same natural law in relation to the seed, which never changes while carried to the four corners of the world as long as it is in the air, but, once placed in the essential environment of soft, moist earth, and given the proper nour- ishment, rewards the labor of the planter by a pleasing sign of growth, so it is with the little child, and so should his mental and musical development be regarded.

Absorbed in this work and in the love of it for its own sake, she was unconscious of at- tracting attention from the outside world, till one day a teacher of nmsic asked to be taught her system of instructing children. A second and third, followetl by many more requests of this nature, were made before she awoke to the fact that she was starting a new era in music- teaching, and that the world wanted her ideas. Her thought had pierced the profundities of musical symbolism and grappled successfully with technical difficulties. She had looked at the art from its mental side, and had reduced all to the child's comprehension in natural terms ; for she began at once what has ever been her principle — to develop the individuality of the student or teacher and to advocate no copying of mere words.

In the winter of 1898, upon the solicitation of the Froebel Preparatory School and the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, Nina K. Darlingtone was prevailed upon to leave her home in Philadelphia and establish her work in Boston, where she now resides.

To the many hundreds of teachers who have studied this system directly from her or through correspondence, she has given much time and patient love, resulting in enduring good. It is customary to hear these students state that the gaining of the work is a "direct answer to earnest prayer" or "the true education found for the first time after a life's search." Thus this system has gone to all parts of the civilized globe, and has representatives in every State and in all the principal cities of our country. From the tiniest tots of three or four years, who learn their first lessons in "Kindergarten Music-Building" in the simplest form, to the adult who is still a child in heart, it is the natural system of education and music for all. This teaching has ever dwelt latent in the mother-heart, but remained undiscovered for the world until the present day. But to learn it one must be willing to become as a little child, even as such a change is also essential in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven. In 189S an organization was founded in Boston which will represent the work for future generations. The membership during the first year numbered over three hundred, including some of the ablest men and women in this country and Europe. Among them may be found judges, musicians, composers, and leading educators, as well as the teachers of the System.

Helen H. McLean.