Introduction

Biography

Septimus was the son of Jo­seph East­burn Win­ner, Sr., and Ma­ry Ann Haw­thorne, and hus­band of Han­nah Jane Guy­er. His bro­ther Jo­seph E. Winner wrote the song Lit­tle Brown Jug.

Septimus was a well known po­et, com­pos­er and vio­lin­ist. A self taught mu­si­cian, he ran a mu­sic store, gave les­sons on va­ri­ous in­stru­ments, and played in the Phi­la­del­phia Brass Band and Ce­ci­li­an Mu­sic­al So­ci­ety.

Works

Winner wrote or ed­it­ed over 200 vol­umes of mu­sic for more than 20 in­stru­ments, and pro­duced 2,000 ar­range­ments for vio­lin and pi­ano.

He wrote the song Lis­ten to the Mock­ing Bird, but sold the rights to it for the grand sum of five dol­lars. In the next few years, it sold 20,000,000 copies.

During the Am­eri­can ci­vil war, Win­ner com­posed the song Give Us Back Our Old Com­mand­er: Lit­tle Mac, the Peo­ple’s Pride. The song ap­pealed for the re­in­state­ment of no­tor­ious­ly ov­er-cau­tious Ge­ner­al George B. Mc­Clel­land, whom pre­si­dent Ab­ra­ham Lin­coln had re­lieved from com­mand of the Ar­my of the Po­to­mac on No­vem­ber 5, 1862.* Aft­er the song sold 80,00 co­pies in a few days, Win­ner was ar­rest­ed and charged with trea­son for the song’s an­ti-Un­ion sen­ti­ment.

He was re­leased af­ter pro­mis­ing to de­stroy all re­main­ing co­pies of the song. In the days be­fore com­put­ers and the In­ter­net, de­stroy­ing all co­pies of print­ed sheet music (if that were pos­si­ble) could make it tru­ly dis­ap­pear.

Shortly aft­er Win­ner re­gained his free­dom, he wrote Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Lit­tle Dog Gone, set to the Ger­man folk-song me­lo­dy Lau­ter­bach.

His other songs include:

• Aunt Je­mi­ma’s Plas­ter
• Days Gone By
• Der Dietch­er’s Dog
• Dreaming of the Loved Ones
• Farewell Song of En­och Ar­den
• How Sweet Are the Ros­es
• Just as of Old
• Lost Isa­bel
• Love Once Gone, Is Gone For­ev­er
• Our Good Old Friends
• Pet of the Cra­dle
• Side by Side
• Song of the Farm­ers
• Ten Lit­tle In­juns
• The Love of One Fond Heart
• What Care I
• What Is Home With­out a Mo­ther?
• Wherefore
• Yes, I Would the War Were Ov­er

Publications

• Cogitations of a Crank at Three Score Years and Ten (Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: Drex­er Bid­dle Press, 1903)