ABSTRACT
Even though it was, at the time, a small frontier town of three thousand inhabitants, Lancaster, Kentucky, enjoyed between 1885 and 1910 a musical life that was exceedingly rich and varied. Near the center of the state, then known as the Dark and Bloody Ground, Lancaster (in Garrard County) suffered many of the pitfalls that befell other similar towns with frequent killings, vandalism, and other rebellious acts on the frontier. Nonetheless, in the midst of this hazardous living, music flourished. From the lawlessness of the 1880s (when the town finally came together to outlaw liquor in the prohibition crusades in 1885) to the turn of the century (which began an era of civic pride with an electric works, a telephone system, and a water works), music could be found in the homes, the churches, the schools, the park, and in the opera house (when it was standing) of turn-of-the-century Lancaster. Local musicians actively participated in bands and orchestras, playing for dances and socials of all types as well as giving concerts both in the opera house and in the town park, touring musicians, vaudeville acts, and minstrel shows frequently came to town.
