Frederick Alton Jewell (1875-1936) ran away from home at the age of 16 to join the Gentry Brothers Dog & Pony Show. He started out there as a euphonium player, also dabbling in calliope. He impressed the right people, and before long, he was the bandleader at Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey’s Circus. Between circus seasons, he led whatever ensemble needed him, from theater companies to church ensembles. After retiring from circuses in 1918, he lived in Iowa and directed the Iowa Brigade Band while starting his own publishing company. In 1923, he returned to his hometown of Worthington, Indiana, where he became both the local high school band director and president of the town council, all while still running his successful publishing company. All the while, he was composing marches, mostly in the circus style, completing more than 100 of them. He is remembered as the “Indiana March King.” See more about him at Wikipedia, C. L. Barnhouse, Ball State University, Find a Grave, and this blog.
E Pluribus Unum dates from the end of Jewell’s circus days in the shadow of World War I. The title is a traditional motto of the United States, which translates from Latin as “one from many.” Jewell likely wrote this upbeat march to stir patriotic feelings during the dark war days.
E Pluribus Unum as performed by The Ohio State University Marching Band:
E Pluribus Unum is currently available in contemporary editions by Andrew Glover and John Paynter, both of which seek to replicate the original 1917 edition with modern instrumentation. In addition, Andy Clark has a flexible instrumentation version, and David Shaffer has arranged a version for young bands.
Finally, here’s a look at a real dog and pony show:
A couple of minor corrections – Jewell was the Bandmaster at Barnum & Bailey from 1908-1910, but was never the Bandmaster for Ringling Bros. He was their Assistant Director (under Al Sweet), but the two circuses were not combined until 1919, two years after Jewell ended his circus career. The second is about E Pluribus Unum – I agree with all of your thoughts about WWI and the big, patriotic nature of the march, but it has a quite interesting history as far as the title is concerned. Jewell often saved putting a title on until after he completed the march, and this was one of those times. He had completed it and brought the parts to a rehearsal of the Indiana American Legion Band to run through and identify any mistakes before sending it on the the publisher C. L. Barnhouse. He asked the players if they had any suggestions for a title, and two names were suggested. He liked them both and they took a vote, which ended in a tie. He asked a euphonium player to flip a coin and when the coin fell on the floor he noticed the motto E Pluribus Unum on it and that is how the march was titled.