The Bully Roarer Songster

In 1848, the publisher D. Campbell & Sons of Sandusky, Ohio produced a comic songbook, the third in a series of publications. David Campbell established the Sandusky Clarion in 1822, which was a predecessor of the Sandusky Register.

On pages 76 through 78 is a song called Umbrella Courtship, about a man named Simon who steals kisses from the belle he is courting, but only when it is raining. They got married on a rainy day, and had eight children, all who were marked with umbrellas.

A version of the Umbrella Courtship is also found at the Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music from the Johns Hopkins University’s Sheridan Library. 

The comical song found on pages 82 and 83 of the Bully Roarer was about two Irish men who were fighting over the same young lady.

This publication is in the collections of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.