<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-16BE"> <title>Bixby Songs History</title> <meta content="Introducing affordable sheet music publishing opportunities and downloadable score files with real-time credit card processing." name="description"> <meta content="sheet music, publishing, music, score, notation software, Finale, classical, composer, royalties, publisher, traditional, choir, free, songs, orchestra, piano, instrument, affordable, opportunity, Bixby" name="keywords"> <meta content="Microsoft FrontPage 6.0" name="GENERATOR"> <meta content="clearday 010, clearday 0010" name="Microsoft Theme"> <meta content="none, default" name="Microsoft Border"> </head> <body> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"><img src="images/FldBixby_sm.jpg" border="0" height="85"></td> <td align="left" valign="middle"><font mstheme="" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"> <h1 align="center"><font mstheme="" color="#000099">Bixby Songs History </font></h1> </font></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <br> <h2><!--mstheme--><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"><font color="#000099">History of "Bixby's Home Songs"<!--mstheme--></font></font></h2> <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"><b> </b></font> <p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"><b>In the late 1800's Samuel Merrill Bixby founded '<strong><em>S. M. Bixby &amp; Co.</em></strong>' to manufacture and distribute several popular household products including laundry blueing, mucilage glue, and shoe cleaners and polish. &nbsp; The innovative company became successful in part due to its subsequent invention of the first liquid shoe polish, and in obtaining a patent on this invention in 1893.</b></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"><b>As the company grew, S. M. Bixby's extended family invested additional monies in the fledgling business.&nbsp;&nbsp; Because S. M. Bixby was childless, his cousin's young son also was invited to join the company so that a family member would participate.&nbsp; &nbsp; That young man, Henry Dyke Bixby, was the grandfather of the founder of Fieldstone Music.&nbsp;&nbsp; Henry Dyke Bixby stayed with the <strong><em>S. M. Bixby &amp; Co.</em></strong> from about 1910 until the company was sold to a competitor after S. M. Bixby's death in 1923.</b></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"><b>To help promote his business, S. M. Bixby decided to create one of the country's first merchandise loyalty reward programs.&nbsp;&nbsp; In 1892, because he liked to perform music and wished to encourage others to do so around their family's piano, S. M. Bixby funded the compilation and creation of two different booklets of "<em><font color="#800000">Home Songs</font></em>".&nbsp; These booklets each contained 64 pages of traditional secular songs, and <strong><em>S. M. Bixby &amp; Co.</em></strong> mailed them back to customers in exchange for two $.02 stamps plus five labels from Bixby shoe polish bottles. &nbsp;&nbsp; These first two song booklets became very popular and the company commissioned and distributed two more similar 64-page booklets in the subsequent years.</b></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"><b>The image below shows a photo of a rare post-1893 "<font color="#800000"><em>Bixby's Royal Polish</em></font>" bottle with its label still intact --- perhaps because the promotion had ended!</b></font></p> <p align="center"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"><b> <img src="images/Bixby_small.jpg" height="210" width="100"></b></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"><b>The next four images show the front and back cover pages of that first 1892 booklet.&nbsp;</b></font></p> <p align="center"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"> <img src="images/2b92fcV_small.gif" height="134" width="100"> <b><img src="images/2b92deV_small.gif" height="134" width="100">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img src="images/2b92ibV_small.gif" height="134" width="100"> </b> <img src="images/2b92bcV_small.gif" height="134" width="100"></font></p> <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"><b> <p>By popular demand, these four "<em><font color="#800000">Home Songs</font></em>" booklets later were combined into a bound 256 page book that could be separately purchased through traditional music distribution retailers.&nbsp;&nbsp; Then in 1909, a greatly expanded&nbsp;"<em><font color="#800000">Bixby's Home Songs</font></em>" book was compiled and issued in a 576 page version that contains 480 different songs, including the first 256 pages of the "<em><font color="#800000">Home Songs</font></em>" that had been published earlier.</p> <p align="center"> <img src="images/2b09tpV_small.gif" height="134" width="100">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img src="images/2b09prV_small.gif" height="134" width="100"></p> </b> </font> <p align="left"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"><b>In addition to those considerable efforts, a recent computerized search of U.S. university library holdings reveals that S. M. Bixby also compiled and published another two books of music suitable for use in worship services outside the home.&nbsp;&nbsp; The first, a 412-page "<em><font color="#800000">Church and Home Hymnal:&nbsp; containing hymns and tunes for church service, for prayer meetings, for Sunday schools, for praise service, for young people, children and special occasions</font></em>" was published in 1893. &nbsp;&nbsp; The second, a 220-page "<em><font color="#800000">Evangel Songs: &nbsp; words and music, suitable for all services of sacred song</font></em>" was published in 1894, and its cataloging suggests that it contains gospel music as well as hymns. &nbsp;&nbsp; We would be interested in acquiring both of these books if anyone has either of them buried in the attic.</b></font></p> <!--msthemeseparator--> <p align="center"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"><img src="_themes/clearday/acdrule.gif" height="10" width="600"></font></p> <h2><!--mstheme--><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"><font color="#000099">Old Songs Will be Re-Published Here<!--mstheme--></font></font></h2> <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"><b> <p>As a tribute to the Bixby family's past music publishing activities, Fieldstone Technologies is pleased to announce that it will be making all of the traditional 480 songs from the 1909 "<em><font color="#800000">Bixby's Home Songs</font></em>" book available for free download from this website.&nbsp; As these&nbsp;songs are made ready for download, we will&nbsp;list them in the <i><a href="OvwBixby.htm">Bixby Old Songs</a></i> Listings.</p> </b> </font> <p align="center"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"><img src="_borders/clr_rule.gif" height="3" width="540"></font></p> <b><i><font mstheme="" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"> </font></i> <font mstheme="" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"> </font></b> <p></p> <p align="center"><i><font color="#400080" size="2">Copyright &copy; 2002-2007, Fieldstone Technologies</font></i></p> <em> </em> <table border="0" width="100%"> <tbody> <tr> <td align="left" width="45%"><font mstheme="" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"><font size="1"><a name="NavBtns">Click</a> <a href="JavaScript:history.go(-1)">here</a> to return to the previous webpage, or on any button:</font></font></td> <td align="right" bgcolor="#000000" width="13%"><font mstheme="" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"> </font> <p align="center"><font mstheme="" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"><b> <a href="index.htm" target="_self"><font color="#ffffff" size="1">Home Page</font></a></b></font></p> </td> <td align="right" width="1%"><font mstheme="" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">&nbsp;</font></td> <td align="right" bgcolor="#000000" width="13%"><font mstheme="" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"> </font> <p align="center"><font mstheme="" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"><b> <a href="Sftwr_Overview.htm" target="_self"><font color="#ffffff" size="1">Software Products</font></a></b></font></p> </td> <td align="right" width="1%"><font mstheme="" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">&nbsp;</font></td> <td align="right" bgcolor="#000000" width="13%"><font mstheme="" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"> </font> <p align="center"><font mstheme="" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"><b> <a href="OvwDover.htm" target="_self"><font color="#ffffff" size="1">Online Catalogs</font></a></b></font></p> </td> <td align="right" width="1%"><font mstheme="" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">&nbsp;</font></td> <td align="right" bgcolor="#000000" width="13%"><font mstheme="" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"> </font> <p align="center"><font mstheme="" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"><b> <a href="BixbyHis.htm" target="_self"><font color="#ffffff" size="1">S.M. 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