Near Harrisonburg, Virginia, in a small town that was originally called Mountain Valley, a man named Joseph Funk established the first Mennonite print shop in the United States in 1847. Members of the Mennonite church shared a common heritage of music traditions, which they brought with them from Germany a few generations before. Funk followed the traditions of his ancestors in sharing new ideas and concepts such as shape-note music to the members of his church and helped to spread these ideas and traditions outside the Shenandoah Valley and the Mennonite church to other religions.
Funk printed and published religious works and shape-note hymnals, which he then spread throughout the surrounding area; because of Funk’s musical influence, Mountain Valley was renamed Singers Glen. His grandson and grandson-in-law took over the business and moved it to Dayton, Virginia, where they renamed it the Ruebush-Kieffer Company and printed shape-note music books and The Musical Million journal.
About
Joseph Funk was the son of Henry and Barbara (Showalter) Funk, and a grandson of Bishop Heinrich Funck. Joseph Funk recorded his genealogy in his copy of Eine Restitution, oder, eine Erklärung einiger Haupt-Puncten des, Gesetzes, durch Henrich Funck published in Philadelphia in 1763. The images below are courtesy of Menno Simons Historical Library. Reference number H 230 F96rG 1763 Cop. 2 AC.
Joseph Funk’s papers include his business records, business correspondence, and business ledger. The links to these are listed below:
In 1816 Joseph Funk compiled Ein allgemein nützliche Choral-Music which was his first shape-note hymnal. Joseph Funk’s second shape-note music book was A Compilation of Genuine Church Music which was published in 1832 and was the forerunner of The Harmonia Sacra.
His other works not related to shape-note music were The Confession of Faith published in 1837, A Collection of Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs published in 1847, The Reviewer Reviewed published in 1857. Joseph Funk also published The Southern Musical Advocate and Singer’s Friend which was a monthly periodical published from 1859 to 1861 before the Civil War. After the death of Joseph Funk and after the Civil War, The Southern Advocate was revived by Funk’s grandson and grandson in law and renamed The Musical Advocate and Singer’s Friend, dropping the word Southern off of it. It became the forerunner of The Musical Million and Fireside Friend which ran from 1870 to 1914 and was published by the Ruebush-Kieffer Company.
