Research on James Robert McEwin

James Robert McEwin was a songwriter and singing school teacher who seems to mysteriously disappear after about 1902-03. McEwin was born in Texas in 1868, the son of William McEwin and Catherine Reynolds of Lamar County, Texas. He married Elizabeth Ledbetter in 1897 in Jack County, Texas. In 1899 he was a vocal music teacher, also organizing a string band. The McEwin family was living in Jack County in 1900, when the U. S. Federal census was taken. J. R. is listed as a “teacher of music.” He was active in teaching Eureka Normal Music Schools. Here’s a link showing one of his advertisements (Jacksboro Gazette, August 16, 1900), advertising a with S. J. Oslin in the summer of 1900, at Post Oak, in Jack County:

J. R. McEwin and his wife divorced in 1905. A divorce was granted and she was given custody of the children (Jacksboro Gazette, September 21, 1905, p. 3). She remarried, to Benjamin Franklin Page. However, what happened to J. R. McEwin? Perhaps he died before the 1910 census, or perhaps he will turn up elsewhere? There is one story that he was accidentally killed in Arkansas, that he was mistaken for someone else.

It seems that J. R. McEwin was very active at the end of the 1800s and beginning of the 1900s, then just disappears. In her divorce suit in 1905 (Jacksboro News, August 3, 1905, p. 5), Lizzie McEwin claimed she had not had not seen or communicated with J. R. McEwin since February 25, 1901. He is listed as an associate compiler on Songs of Glory No. 2, by J. S. Torbett, which must have first been printed in 1902. Even if he and his wife divorced, it seems that he should show up somewhere in a census, in newspapers about teaching singing schools, or in publishing more books somewhere. This could lend credence to the story about his being accidentally killed in Arkansas.

This McEwin family site gives a possible story of what happened to J. R. McEwin, as well as a picture:

“James Robert McEwin was born about 1868 and died after 1895. He was a music teacher. He was killed in Arkansas, according to a family story. Annie McEwin, the widow of Edgar McEwin reported that James was mistaken for someone else and shot as he got off a train. His belongings were shipped back to his brother, John, whose family had them for a long time afterwards. John was Annie McEwin’s father-in-law.”

If this link works properly, it will show 16 times that J. R. McEwin is mentioned in The Musical Million periodical. (The later ones are simply his name included in continuing advertisements for Songs of Glory No. 2.) Perhaps some day the conclusion of his story will be revealed.