Frank L. Bristow (1845-1914) was the son of one preacher, Benjamin Franklin Bristow, and the grandson of another, Archibald Bristow. He made his career as a musician, composer, and entrepreneur.¹

In a time before recorded and broadcast music performed by professional artists saturated the public consciousness, people made their own music. A century ago almost every middle-class home had a piano around which family and friends would gather to sing old favorites and try out new tunes. There was a big market for sheet music for all these pianos and Frank did his part to meet the demand. He composed in a variety of forms.

Collection of Neil Allen Bristow

"Little Dimple-Chin" was published in 1880 and reflects the sentimentality popular at the time. Another song was named for his daughter, Daisey Dell, who was born in 1873. He also dedicated several compositions to family members.²  Frank had some success with hymn writing. Among his efforts in that genre were "Sweet Rest at Home" and "Rejoice! Rejoice! the Lost is Found".³  He also composed dance music — "Pit-A-Pat Polka" and "Last Love Mazurka" — and patriotic tunes — "Fair Bride of Liberty Awake! A National Song". More ambitious works included a cantata for female voices ("Rainbow").⁴

Teaching probably provided the core of his income. City directories list him as a music teacher and (later) as "professor of music."⁵  He apparently both took private students and taught in the Covington schools.

Seeking another outlet for his talents he took over a resort on the Kentucky River. In 1892 a Lexington paper announced that "Professor F. L. Bristow of Covington has purchased from Messrs. Hambrick and Best, the entire outfit at High Bridge, formerly known as Camp Meeting Grounds, and has changed the name of the same to the 'Kentucky Palisades'".⁶

Like Meredith Willson's fictional Professor Harold Hill, Frank had romantic troubles. He was married twice but both unions ended in divorce. His first wife, Linnie Frank, outlived him by two decades.⁷ In 1891 he married again, to the well-connnected Emily Elizabeth Buford, who was the widow of Captain Vincent Shinkle and the daughter of Col. Ambrose Buford, both leading figures in Covington.⁸  Emily bore a daughter, Minta Guy Bristow, the following April, but the couple separated and Frank at first did not contest the 1898 divorce. However, by that December he changed his mind and sought to reopen the matter, seeking custody of six year-old Minta.⁹  At a pretrial conference in January Frank alleged that his ex-father-in-law had given false testimony, a claim which so enraged Col. Buford that the 74 year-old took his cane to the younger man. Readers of local papers were treated to a story with the sensational headline:¹⁰

SPRANG WILDLY AT HIS SON-IN-LAW
Colonel Ambrose Buford Madly Assaults Professor Bristow

Charges were quickly filed against the irate colonel.¹¹

Within a couple of months the notoriety of the affair proved too much for the school board, which suspended Frank in March.¹²  Battle lines hardened and in May Frank and the husband of Emily's sister Carrie, Oscar R. Taylor, got into a confrontation and Frank was accused of drawing a knife on his erstwhile brother-in-law.¹³

Eventually tempers cooled, and when the case was resolved two years later the judgment went in Emily's favor.¹⁴

Perhaps chastened, Frank returned to teaching and composing.¹⁵  He died suddenly in 1914 in his 70th year of age, and is buried in Linden Grove. Minta grew up and moved to New York, far from her feuding parents.

Notes:

[Click on the footnote number to return to the text.]

¹ Gordon Byron Woolley, John Bristow of Middlesex (New York: Vantage Press, 1969), 103. Fragmentary information, but does list his service in the 101st Illinois Regiment (on the Union side). He was the second cousin of Julius Lucien Bristow I (1836-1893), who served as a member of the Covington School Board, for which Frank worked.

² The Library of Congress catalog lists this and eight other of his works. The New York Public Library has a copy of "Sleep Li'l Chile Go Sleep" with words by G.V. Hobart, a Stephen-Fosteresque lullaby, subtitled "a pathetic mammy song with crooning or invisible chorus suitable for either children or adults." 1871's "Whirligig Galop" was inscribed "A ma petite Earle" for a newborn daughter; and in 1874 the "Merriment Mazurka Caprice" was labeled "To Linnie" for his wife, while "Pomposo Marche Grande" (also that year) was marked "To my brother E. H. Bristow, Esq., Aberdeen, Miss." Altogether we know of almost a score of titles, either through surviving sheet music or by other references.

³ Collection of Neil Allen Bristow.

⁴ Library of Congress.

⁵ In 1894, 1895, 1897 he was listed as "Bristow, Frank L music teacher h 615 Greenup." and in 1900 as "professor of music, h 1032 Russell Av" Williams Covington Directory

⁶ Lexington Leader, 6 July 1892, p. 8 col. 2. Abstract at www.lexpublib.org

⁷ In 1880 Linnie and their daughter Daisey Dell were counted with Frank's parents, but Frank was missing. [1880 Census, 2nd Ward, Covington, Kenton, Kentucky. ED 115 Family 320 Page 267D. 11 Jun 1880.] (Linnie was pregnant with an infant that was stillborn 31 Oct.) She appears in city directories and the census through 1930. She died in 1933 at age 79 and is buried in Linden Grove Cemetery in Covington.

⁸ Emily had been for a brief time the second wife of Captain Vincent Shinkle (1822-1885), a steamboat proprietor, who with his brother Amos (1818-1892) took active roles in the commercial and political affairs of the northern Kentucky city. See a sketch of Amos. Buford was described as "a Commission Merchant" in the 1880 census. [2nd Ward, Covington, Kenton, Kentucky. ED 115 Page 260A.]

⁹ Kentucky Post, 21 Dec 1898, 8.

¹⁰ Cincinnati Enquirer, 13 Jan 1899, 10.

¹¹ Cincinnati Enquirer, 15 Jan 1899, 3. "COVINGTON - CHARGED WITH ASSAULTING SON-IN-LAW BRISTOW"

¹² Cincinnati Enquirer, 12 Mar 1899, 3.

¹³ Cincinnati Enquirer, 10 May 1899, 5. "COVINGTON - NEWS OF THE COURTS - TEACHER CHARGED WITH CUTTING HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW" (Oscar had married Carrie Buford 10 Dec 1879.)

¹⁴ Kentucky Enquirer, 18 Aug 1901, 15. "HE MUST PAY ALIMONY"

¹⁵ "Fair Bride of Liberty Awake!" and "Nature Studies. Cycle of songs for the school months." were published in 1909. Library of Congress.

¹⁵ Kentucky Post, 11 Nov 1914, 1. The item, accompanied by a photo, noted that Professor Frank L. Bristow died suddenly this morning at his home, 1051 Russell Ave, citing "hardening of the arteries" and observed he was for 18 years a music instructor in the Covington schools.

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This page updated 27 September 2005.