1843–1918

Introduction

portrait

Born: June 6, 1843, Lines­ville, Penn­syl­van­ia.

Died: De­cem­ber 1, 1918, Ober­lin, Ohio.

Buried: Gus­tav­us Ce­me­te­ry, Gus­ta­vus, Ohio.

Biography

Charles was the son of Or­as­mus Case and Nan­cy So­phron­ia Fitch, and husband of An­nie Will­iams. His fa­ther was an ac­comp­lished vio­lin­ist, and his grand­fa­ther, an Am­er­ican re­vo­lu­tion­ary war vet­er­an, taught vo­cal mu­sic.

When Case was about four years old, his fa­mi­ly moved to Gus­ta­vus, Ohio, where he lived the rest of his life. By the time he was nine years old, a neigh­bor gave him a small vio­lin which he mas­tered long be­fore he could read mu­sic. At age 16, he be­gan at­tend­ing sing­ing school (with­out his par­ents’ con­sent), bor­row­ing the mon­ey from a neigh­bor.

His first vo­cal mu­sic in­struc­tor was a Mr. C. A. Bent­ley, a prom­in­ent con­duc­tor of the day. Will­iam Brad­bu­ry’s Ju­bi­lee was the school text­book. For three win­ters in a row, Case at­tend­ed Bent­ley’s sing­ing school, work­ing on his fa­ther’s farm in the sum­mer.

In 1866, Case, be­gan stu­dy­ing with Ben­ja­min Bak­er in Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts. He al­so stu­died un­der George Root, Carl Zer­rahn, Will­iam Ma­son, Car­lo Ba­ss­ini, Ho­ra­tio Pal­mer, Phil­ip Bliss, Lu­ther Em­er­son, George Webb, and others.

Soon af­ter Case be­gan teach­ing, the par­ents of James Mc­Gra­na­han moved to a house two miles from the Case home, so the two young men be­came friends.

Works

Sources

Lyrics

Music

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