Daniel Crist

2026 | Hall of Fame

Daniel Webster Crist
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Daniel Webster Crist (1857-1929)

Class of 2026 – Business

Daniel Webster Crist was a prominent music composer and publisher as well as an educator, banker, and statesman.

One of ten children of Robert and Mary (Ruff) Crist, he was born on November 28, 1857 in New Chambersburg in Columbiana County, and was reared on the homestead farm.

He graduated from Ohio Northern University in 1882. That was the same year that he married Mary A. Reed (1864-1931), of Columbiana County. They had three children, Myrtie M., wife of Charles G. Miller; James R., connected with manufacturing industry in Canton and Arthur Dillon, a prominent businessman of Alliance.

One of the pioneer singing teachers of his day, as a young man Daniel Webster Crist began composing songs and later instrumental music, and gradually his efforts were directed to broader fields. His first publication, a collection of Sunday school music of his own composition, was published under the title of “Gospel Gleanings” in 1886. This was so successful that it proved the cornerstone of his business as a music publisher, producing  Sunday school song books, day school song books, music folios, sheet music, band music, instruction books. He was also the author of eighteen song books, besides some eighteen volumes of musical collections and over 200 special compositions.

Crist was com­pos­ing at least through 1910, when he scored the “Flow­er Girl Waltz.” His other prominent works included “The Ev­er­green Waltz;” “Joy and Praise for Sun­day Schools,” with R.A. Glenn (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio: H. L. Ben­ham, 1886); “Gospel Glean­ings,” 1886; and “Victory of Song.” (Moul­trie, Ohio: D. W. Crist, 1892.

For many years his business as a music publisher was conducted at Moultrie, in Columbiana County, before moving his plant to Alliance in May 1915. The company published largely the compositions and collections of Crist.

Soon after his relocation, he became one of the organizers of the Peoples Bank of Alliance and also served on the school board.

While working for 30 years as a suc­cess­ful mu­sic pub­lish­er, he al­so taught, farmed, and in New Al­ex­an­der, served as a church mu­sic di­rect­or and Sun­day school su­per­in­ten­dent.

Crist also had a career in politics. In 1901, he was elected a member of the state legislature on the Republican ticket, was reelected in 1903, and in 1905 was elected to the state senate where he advocated ideas and principles that subsequently became the ground work of the state tax commission of Ohio.

A member of the Christian Church, he was a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, and Shriner, a member of Al Koran Temple, at Cleveland.

Crist died in 1929 and is buried in Moultrie Chapel Cemetery.

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

2026 | Historic facts, Music

By Paul Hobe

Pictures, photographs actually, bridge the time between the instant the shutter was pressed until the moment it is noticed my someone at a later time. I was that someone. The five or six framed photographs of the Alliance City Band were displayed on the wall of the front room in the band’s rehearsal hall in the early 1960s. The band has a history the senior members of the group, some going back to the 1920s, related to me. It was the oldest continuous musical organization in the state of Ohio. The band had played when President-elect Abraham Lincoln stopped in Alliance on his way to his inauguration in Washington DC in February 1861. That was impressive to a young mind.

In 1988. the Alliance City Band performed at the Memorial Day/Decoration Day observances as it had traditionally done for eleven decades. Regrettably, that was the last performance of the Alliance City Band after a run of 129 years. In 1992. the organization officially ceased to exist and the assets were transferred to the Alliance Symphony Association.

I had thought that the story of the Alliance City Band should be told. Nineteen years had passed since the official demise; many of the older members had passed away and none of us were getting any younger. One of those who had left us was Al Nash. Several weeks later his daughter, Sue Grove, mentioned to me that they found several old framed photographs of the Alliance City Band in his effects. Knowing that I was interested in its history she asked what she should do with the pictures. I suggested she loan them to me and I would copy or record them for reference and then give them to the Alliance Historical Society.

The winter of 2010-2011 found me at Rodman Public Library searching through microfilm copies of The Alliance Review for any mention of the Alliance City Band. This and other sources resulted in A Band of Music, the Alliance City Band Story, 1859 – 1992. The title reflects the way bands were referred to in the era media. It can be found online at: http://www.ibew.org.uk. Copies can be found at Rodman Public Library and the Music Library at the University of Mount Union. It includes a list of directors, community involvement, financing, and stories about the band and some of its people. A feature of A Band of Music is a year-by-year description of significant band performances and activities from 1866 through 1992. It is illustrated with 20 pictures of the Alliance City Band. Please note that Figure 20 is mislabeled and should be the “cement slab” concert site. Readers may wish to refer to A Band of Music . . . along with this blog for additional information.

This blog will reflect the people, activities, financing, and demise of the Alliance City Band. This is an adjunct to the Alliance City Band Reenactment Concert compiled and directed by Joseph N. Rubin, scheduled for July 4, 2026, at Alliance’s Silver Park as part of the Alliance Historical Society celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary. Serendipitously, it turns out that this concert is another anniversary as it is exactly one hundred years, to-the-week, of the Alliance City Band’s first concert at Silver Park in 1926.