...’an artist in her peculiar line’
One-woman cultural event
brought theatrical life to town

By Joanne Hulbert

George Wellington Slocum was a lover of the arts, and spent a great deal of time pursuing his interests visiting stage and musical productions in and around Boston. During one of those trips, he met Abby (Wallace) Corey, a Medfield native. She was a member of the Spaulding Bell Ringers, and was a stage performer known for her singing, acting and expert playing of the musical glasses. She and Slocum married Jan. 24, 1883, in Boston, and from the moment she arrived in Holliston, the Town Hall stage never had time to gather dust. As one Boston Globe review in 1884 said, when she had made a return guest appearance with the Bell Ringers, “Mrs. Slocum is an artist in her peculiar line – that of drawing forth sweet music from common glass tumblers.”

She was a one-woman cultural event, as she produced plays and organized entertainment programs. Her connections with Boston entertainers provided a steady stream of professional actors, who brought first class productions to the small town of Holliston.

At one typical Town Hall show she performed “Home Sweet Home” and “Way Down Upon the Swanee River” on her crystal glasses, and then creditably sang “Misere” by Trovatore. A night of entertainment for the Ladies’ Benevolent Society of the Congregational church included 13 musical numbers for the audience. Post 6 GAR, in 1883 at their Memorial Day observances, enjoyed her production of a Grand Army march, a Policeman’s Chorus, and an appearance by Professor Ryerson, a humorist from Boston. Admission was 25 cents for adults, 15 cents for children. Doors opened at 7 and the show began at 8.

But the production for which she was most famous was Gilbert and Sullivan’s “HMS Pinafore,” first performed in Holliston in 1883. As the preceding newspaper announcement reported, her connections with the Boston theater scene were of great value. The first night audience numbered 600. Besides producing and directing the performance, she also portrayed the role of Little Buttercup and exhibited her fine singing abilities. After a successful run in Holliston, Mrs. Slocum took her show on the road and performed in Milford and Medfield, despite warnings from Milfordians that the production would be “detrimental to the minds of Milford citizens.”

Abby Slocum reached and exceeded many milestones in Holliston’s entertainment history. She introduced in October of 1884 the first kazoo band to play on a Holliston stage. The same show featured the musical talents of Miss Gertie Lufkin of Boston, the “wonderful child comet soloist,” along with the Oriental Quartette Band. That night, Mrs. Slocum also played her musical glasses. One month later, on Thanksgiving evening, she presented a concert featuring the Boston Cadette Band Quartette, and a child singer called a second Jenny Lind – La Petite Louise Marguerite. Popular Boston humorist, John Thomas, famous for his grotesque facial manipulations and comic songs, was relentlessly begged for endless encores by the gallery gods of the upper Town Hall.

Many of the Slocum productions featured local Holliston talent interspersed with actors from the Boston theater troupes. A few of her proteges went on to minor fame and fortune performing in dramatic and musical productions throughout the Boston area.

Abby’s daughter, Fanny, an actress in her own right and well-known on the Boston and New York theater circuits, was married to an actor of some fame, William Daboll. These seasoned professionals appeared frequently on the Town Hall stage in performances directed by Abby Slocum. Will and Fanny Daboll came to Holliston and lived here with Abby for a short time while Will was attempting to “get his act back together,” after a downswing in his career on the New York comic opera stage was caused by “a large cold bottle and a small hot bird.” While rehearsing for a Boston play performance, when life seemed to be improving for him, and after returning from a quiet stroll on Sunday afternoon in 1892, along Washington Street in Holliston, Will Daboll calmly informed his wife that he had just taken some poison. He gave no explanation to his frantic wife, who ran next door to solicit the help of Dr. Pope. But when they returned to the Slocum residence, Will Daboll was already dead. His demise caused a minor stir in the newspapers of New York City, and was one of those rare moments the press beyond Boston took any interest in what was going on in Holliston. The shocked patrons of the theater world that had considered him a prominent star lamented his loss. Fanny continued to perform on the stages of Boston, New York and Chicago. She supported herself and two young sons using talents inherited from her mother.

Throughout the 1890s, Abby Slocum continued to offer superb entertainment from the Town Hall stage. “Pinafore” continued as the most popular show in Holliston history, and a new production appeared on the stage. In order to raise money for the construction of a town drinking fountain, a troupe of Lady Minstrels was organized, and a series of “Charcoal Sketches” was presented in June of 1891. Admission was free, but donations were solicited during the show. The seventeen ladies that made up the troupe appeared onstage in orange dresses, white gloves, and with blackened faces and “appropriate wigs.”

The program opened with an original song performed by Abby Slocum, and was followed by a stump speech by Miss Fannie Hayes. All works were pointedly aimed at local prominent citizens, especially the politicians. The efforts of the minstrels were rewarded and the largest amount of money ever raised in Holliston for a public betterment project, $282.65, made it possible to order a new granite water fountain, for the intersection of Washington and Hollis Streets. The old cast iron town pump in front of the Town Hall, that had served man and beast for so many years, was then considered a relic best left in the nineteenth century.