C. Frank Horn was born on April 19, 1851, in Tamaqua,
Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. His full name was
Charles Frank Horn, but he usually went by C. Frank
Horn to distinguish his name from his father’s. His
father, named Charles Horn, was a teamster born in
Pennsylvania in 1800. C. Frank Horn’s mother, Matilda
Horn, was born about 1820, also in Pennsylvania.
The first mention of C. Frank Horn is in the 1860
census. His father is given as Charles Horns (sic), age
sixty, a teamster,...(+)
C. Frank Horn was born on April 19, 1851, in Tamaqua,
Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. His full name was
Charles Frank Horn, but he usually went by C. Frank
Horn to distinguish his name from his father’s. His
father, named Charles Horn, was a teamster born in
Pennsylvania in 1800. C. Frank Horn’s mother, Matilda
Horn, was born about 1820, also in Pennsylvania.
The first mention of C. Frank Horn is in the 1860
census. His father is given as Charles Horns (sic), age
sixty, a teamster, with his family living in the North
Ward Borough of Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, as of June 14,
1860. His mother is listed as Matilda Horn, age
thirty-nine, with children Mary, nineteen, Susan,
sixteen, and Charles, nine. All were born in
Pennsylvania. Interestingly, another household member,
possibly a boarder, is listed: Will Davis, age
thirty-two, a professor of music. Perhaps having Davis
in the house influenced young Charles to become a
teacher and composer of music.
Horn composed some comic songs for George Thatcher of
George Thatcher’s Minstrels in Philadelphia. Horn
wrote many other songs, like “Miss Fogarty’s
Christmas Cake,” “Miss Mulligan’s Homemade
Pie,” “Grogan’s Grocery,” “The Band on
Murphy’s Block,” and “McCarthy’s Fancy Ball”
in an Irish dialect. Some others are “Duffy, the
Rising Man,” “Mr. Finnegan,” “The Trials of
Leap Year,” “The McGettigans’ Social Soiree,”
and ”When McGinnes Drives Up to the Door.”
“Miss Fogarty’s Christmas Cake” has become part
of the folklore of Christmas. It has also entered the
realm of folklore in a number of other ways. Edith
Fowke listed it in Canadian Journal for Traditional
Music in 1979 as “an old favorite.” It appears in
the Columbia Granger’s Index to Poetry, with the
author listed as “anonymous.” It is often
reprinted. The Family Herald and Weekly Star, a
Montreal publication, printed it numerous times between
1913 and 1959. The title shows some variation, with
Rick Benjamin’s Paragon Ragtime Orchestra recording
it as a music hall song called “Miss Hooligan’s
Christmas Cake.” Digital Tradition, the database of
folk songs at Mudcat Café (www.mudcat. org), includes
the song and a thread in which contributors discuss the
song. One contributor notes that in 1939, the song was
performed by Leon Ponce in the album California Gold:
Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties, a
field recording collected in 1938-40 by Sidney
Robertson Cowell as a WPA project.
Although originally written for Piano & Voice, I
created this arrangement for Flute and Concert (Pedal)
Harp.
SHEET MUSIC