DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, you wouldn't necessarily expect the man who wrote the official song of Texas to have been born near Liverpool, England — but that's exactly the hand William John Marsh was dealt, and he played it beautifully. Born on June 24, 1880, Marsh was already an accomplished organist and musician by the time he crossed an ocean and landed in Fort Worth in 1904.
And here's the part that makes you smile just a little — he didn't come chasing music. He came to enter the cotton business. Bookkeeping, ledgers, numbers in neat little rows.
That was the plan. But Fort Worth, it seems, had other ideas about how to use a man with those kinds of hands and that kind of ear. Marsh took up as organist and choirmaster for two area churches and one synagogue, and as if that weren't enough, he became choral director and Professor of Organ at Texas Christian University.
He also composed over a hundred pieces of music. Over a hundred. The cotton business was keeping the lights on, but music was keeping the soul alive.
Then comes 1929. There's a competition — an open competition — to write the official state song of Texas. Now think about what that means.
Texas. A state that does not suffer modesty, does not accept second place, and has strong opinions about pretty much everything. William John Marsh entered that competition with his composition, Texas, Our Texas.
And he won. The man from near Liverpool, England — the one who came over to work in cotton — wrote the song that would speak for an entire state. He lived the rest of his long life in Fort Worth, and when William John Marsh died there, he was ninety years old.
Ninety years. Born in England in 1880, gone in Fort Worth on February 1, 1971, with a hundred songs behind him and one that will outlast just about everything. Not bad for a bookkeeper.
What the marker says
(June 24, 1880 - Feb. 1, 1971) Born near Liverpool, England, William John Marsh was an accomplished organist and musician when he came to Fort Worth in 1904 to enter the cotton business. In addition to his bookkeeping work, he served as organist and choirmaster for two area churches and one synagogue, and as choral director and Professor of Organ at Texas Christian University. He also composed over 100 pieces of music. In 1929, his composition "Texas, Our Texas" won in competition to become the official state song. Marsh died in Fort Worth at the age of 90. (1985)