Luke Schoolcraft was an American minstrel music composer and performer.
Background
Schoolcraft was born in New Orleans, Louisiana into a family of actors and artists. His father, Henry R. Schoolcraft* was an actor who appeared in shows at Crisp"s Gaiety Theater and who despite his death before 1860, saw to it that his son Luke and his daughters Jane and Alfreda (who would be famous in her own right as Alfreda Chippendale) all pursued careers in theater.
Career
He appeared in numerous minstrel shows throughout the North after the American Civil War. Luke Schoolcraft"s first stage performance was in 1851 in Rolla, the Richard Brinsley Sheridan adaptation of August von Kotzebue"s Pizarro. Not Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, who is credited with the discovery of the source of the Mississippi River.
Minstrelsy was America"s first original contribution to the theater arts
lieutenant was popular from just before the American Civil War to the end of the 19th Century. Today minstrelsy and its attendant blackface is viewed as racist and anachronistic, however it was the preeminent entertainment in the United States during the life of Luke Schoolcraft, and he was one of the most well-known and successful performers.
In Terre Haute By his twenties, Schoolcraft was touring the nation and performing in variety shows. Negroes were not the only ethnic group who were lampooned in minstrel shows.
Indeed Schoolcraft began performing Dutch songs until several hits as a blackface performer landed him in the minstrel ranks.
Schoolcraft also had an early association with Billy Emerson and Schoolcraft settled in Terre Haute, Indiana after 1870. In New York City In 1872, Schoolcraft moved to New York City and made a spectacular debut at Richard M. Hooley"s Opera House in Brooklyn on March 25, 1872. Newspapers there declared that he was "an immediate hit." During this period, one of Schoolcraft"s original songs, Oh! Dat Watermelon became popular.
Today, this song is among the best-known minstrel pieces of that era.
Partnership with Coes By 1880, the two settled with their families in Cambridge, Massachusetts and continued to tour throughout the country performing their minstrel act in a variety of shows and venues. When Coes was unable to continue his career due to poor health in 1889, the partnership dissolved.
Schoolcraft continued to perform solo as part of a number of shows including Lew Dockstader"s popular minstrel troupe. In 1892, Schoolcraft was a star in Russell"s Comedians, a troupe of specialty artists.
lieutenant was with this company that he performed his final show at the Walnut Street Theater in Cincinnati, Ohio.
He died on March 10, 1893 in his room at the Hotel Stratford. His body was transported to Boston, his funeral was held at the Church of the Advent and he was buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery in Dorchester, Massachusetts.