DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the marker tells it, and I'm just along for the ride. Now, out in Hunt County, there's a tradition that's been holdin' on longer than most folks can remember — they call it the Fourth-Sunday Singing, and it goes back to 1885, maybe 1890, depending on who you ask. That right there ought to tell you something about a community: when the founding of a good thing is worth arguing over by a decade, people care about it.
This was a monthly music convention, started by the church that once stood about a half-mile east of where you're passing now. And the whole thing began with one man making a long trip to make some music. G.
J. Oslin came down from Arkansas and held a twenty-day music school right here. Twenty days.
That's not a weekend workshop — that's a commitment. Singers came in from a wide area, drawn by something as simple and powerful as the human voice in harmony. Now, in those early days, they didn't have instruments.
What they had was a tuning fork. Just a little metal fork, struck against a palm, humming out the pitch so every voice could find its place. Eventually the instruments came, but that tuning fork did the work first, and you've got to respect that kind of humble beginning.
The Fourth-Sunday Singing has kept going, month after month, fourth Sunday of each month, right on schedule. The present officers are J. G.
Murphy, serving as president, and Mrs. Ola Speight, holding down the secretary's chair. And here's a little wrinkle the marker throws in, almost as an aside — also in 1885, a village called Hoover's Gin was founded near here by a merchant named John T.
Hoover. Music and commerce, arriving in the same year, in the same corner of Hunt County. The singing, far as anyone can tell, outlasted the gin.
Some things just have better staying power.
What the marker says
(Held on fourth Sunday of each month) A monthly music "convention" founded in 1885 or 1890 by this church, at old location (1/2 mile east.) Began when G. J. Oslin of Arkansas held a 20-day music school here. Singers came from wide area; a tuning fork was used to give pitch until instruments were obtained. The present officers are J. G. Murphy, president, and Mrs. Ola Speight, secretary. Also in 1885, the village of "Hoover's Gin" was founded near here by John T. Hoover, merchant.