The schoolroom first: Mishawaka High's music department, 1922–1930

THE DOCUMENTED BEGINNING · FROM THE YEARBOOKS, FIRST-HAND

The first music institution in Mishawaka whose workings can be read day by day is a high school department, and its record survives because the students printed it themselves. The Miskodeed, Mishawaka High School's yearbook, for 1924 gives the department a full account. It had been under the direction of Miss Winn — Nelle Winn, B.M. of DePauw, in the faculty list — who came to Mishawaka from Paris, Illinois, in September 1922 and "created a great deal of enthusiasm among the students," interesting a large group "in the orchestra work and choruses." Her establishment, two years in: an orchestra of forty pieces drawn from all the classes; a girls' chorus of fifty to sixty members working on "some of the older songs and also the new compositions"; a smaller boys' chorus; boys' and girls' glee clubs chosen from the choruses, so much in demand that they "furnished programs outside of school for the Woman's Club, the Fellowship Club, the Lion's Club and for various entertainments"; and, with the orchestra, "one of the Madrigal Concerts," which "proved very successful and won much praise from the audience." The yearbook's hope — "that Miss Winn will be here again next year to continue her splendid work" — is the voice of a school that knew it had acquired something. She is the first named music director in the city's record, and the department she built in two years is the seed of everything in the two school entries that follow.

By 1930 the yearbook describes the department under Miss Jones, "one of the most interesting in the school": courses in music appreciation, chorus, glee club, and orchestra, "excellent training for the many students who annually choose a course in music as their elective." Rooms outlast directors in the record; the gap between the two is named for the yearbook run at the public library, which holds the settling evidence volume by volume.

Sources:

1. Miskodeed 1924 (Mishawaka High School yearbook; Allen County Public Library copy, Internet Archive) — the Music Department article (Miss Winn's arrival September 1922, the forty-piece orchestra, the choruses and glee clubs, the Madrigal Concert, the outside programs), the faculty list (Nelle Winn, B.M., DePauw), read first-hand.
2. Miskodeed 1930 (Internet Archive) — the Art and Music account (the department under Miss Jones; appreciation, chorus, glee club, orchestra).
3. Mishawaka High School, "History of Mishawaka High School" (the school's own page) — the 1963 addition's music and practice rooms; the 1984 addition housing the Music Department.