San Francisco County
HENRY M. BOSWORTH
HENRY M. BOSWORTH, the well-known and popular organist of Grace Episcopal Church, San Francisco, was born in Marietta, Ohio. His parents were pioneers of that State, his father having settled there in 1816. Mr. Bosworth was reared and educated in his native State, and is a graduate of Marietta College. He came from a prominent family, in affluent circumstances, and in early boyhood was given the advantages of the best musical instruction available in his vicinity. At the age of thirteen he became organist in the principal church of the town, and subsequently was selected to fill a like position in the elegant new church erected by Mr. Nahum Ward, one of the oldest and wealthiest pioneers of Ohio, which contained a large and fine instrument. Mr. Ward doubled the salary, considering his young organist quite a musical prodigy.
After completing his course at Marietta College, at the earnest request of his parents he entered the Episcopal Theological Seminary at Alexandria, Virginia. While there he was sought for as a private tutor of music and languages and engaged as organist in Christ Church (the old church which General Washington used to attend) until the war broke out. He entered the service as a musician in the Thirteenth, subsequently becoming band-master of the Thirty-sixth, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, of which regiment General Crook was then the Colonel.
In 1864 Mr. Bosworth came to San Francisco and the following year engaged in the music business at No. 3 Montgomery street, under the firm name of Bosworth & Frisbie. This establishment formed the nucleus of what is now the firm of Sherman, Clay & Co. Selling out his interest in the business, he engaged in teaching music and for the past twenty-five years has been a prominent musical instructor in this city. He held the position of organist of the First Baptist Church four years, of Calvary Church eleven years, and of Trinity Church several years, resigning the latter position to accept a similar one in Grace Church, where he has faithfully presided at the organ for the past eight years.
Mr. Bosworth is the author of a number of musical compositions and is regarded as high authority in musical circles. He has been for many years a member of the Bohemian Club. He is a correspondent of the American Musician and is also a contributor to other musical journals and magazines. He is at present engaged in writing a text-book on Harmony and the Theory of Music, which he hopes will exhibit these somewhat obscure topics in the light of hard American common sense.
Transcribed
by Joyce and David Rugeroni.
Source: “The Bay of
San Francisco,” Vol. 2, Pages 357-358, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
© 2006 Joyce & David
Rugeroni.