By William “Skip” Deegans
Vestiges of the old south in the Greenbrier Valley were evident in 1913 when Polk Miller and His Old South Quartette performed at Lewisburg’s Carnegie Hall. Polk Miller, who started the act, died less than a month before the performance, but he was replaced by his brother, Captain Tony Miller, who joined Colonel Tom Booker and Polk Miller’s quartette of African-American singers. An interracial group traveling, especially in the south, was becoming increasingly dangerous, and the Lewisburg concert may have been one of the group’s last performances.
Polk and Tony Miller were white and grew up on a plantation in Prince Edward County, Virginia. Polk Miller learned to play the banjo on the plantation by listening to slaves, and he developed into an accomplished musician. He served as an artilleryman in the Confederate Army and became a successful druggist in Richmond after the war. He developed a remedy for his dog, Sergeant, that led to his line of Sergeant’s Pet Care Products that are still sold today. His successes as a businessman gave him the resources to start his musical group and tour throughout the country. His two-hour act consisted of his depiction of black dialect, stories of life on the southern plantation, and songs including Confederate battle marching tunes. Miller was an immensely popular story-teller. Often his performances were used to raise money for Confederate monuments and help Confederate veterans. Following the troupe’s performance at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Mark Twain wrote, “Those who failed to hear Polk Miller and his wonderful quartette at Carnegie Hall last night missed about the only thing now left that is originally, and utterly American.”
Polk Miller and his quartette left a noteworthy legacy. They were recorded on Thomas Edison’s phonographs and are among the first interracial recordings in the United States. These recordings have been preserved and may be heard on Apple Music.
Photo: Courtesy of the West Virginia Daily News.
Sources: Greenbrier Independent, Alexandria Gazette, Norfolk Ledger Star, The Virginian Pilot, Staunton Daily Leader, NPR.