Jules Verne Allen (April 1, 1883 – July 10, 1945) was an American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

singer-songwriter, writer, and cowboy. He was one of the few early

singing cowboy A singing cowboy was a subtype of the archetypal cowboy hero of early Western films. It references real-world campfire side ballads in the American frontier, the original cowboys sang of life on the trail with all the challenges, hardships, and ...

s who had actually engaged in

ranching A ranch (from es, rancho/Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of a farm. These terms are most ofte ...

. Calling himself the "Original Singing Cowboy," Allen's music is considered some of the best examples of authentic traditional

cowboy songs Western music is a form of country music composed by and about the people who settled and worked throughout the Western United States and Western Canada. Western music celebrates the lifestyle of the cowboy on the open ranges, Rocky Mountains, ...

. Allen only recorded 24 songs, but his frequent live radio performance and book ''Cowboy Lore'' (1933) made him one of the most influential figures in the popularization of country western music.

Biography

Early life

Allen was born on April 1, 1883, in

Waxahachie, Texas Waxahachie ( ) is the seat of government of Ellis County, Texas, United States. Its population was 41,140 in 2020. Etymology Some sources state that the name means "cow" or "buffalo" in an unspecified Native American language. One possible ...

, United States. His father, Luther, was a settler from

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

and seems to have died or abandoned his family when Jules was a child. His mother, Carrie, died ten years later and entrusted Allen with the care of his three younger siblings. According to his book ''Cowboy Lore'', he began working as a hand at his uncle's ranch when he was ten. After his mother's death, he began driving cattle hundreds of mile from the open ranges along the U.S.-Mexico border to railroad stockyards in

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

. During these long journeys, Allen's companions immersed him in a rich

oral tradition Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and Culture, cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.Jan Vansina, Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Traditio ...

of cowboy stories and songs, and taught him how to play the guitar. With end of open-range cattle driving, Allen later claimed that he began performing at local rodeos and on an amateur basis. He also stated that worked as a

deputy sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

El Paso County, Texas El Paso County is the westernmost county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 865,657, making it the ninth-most populous county in the state of Texas. Its seat is the city of El Paso, the sixth-most populou ...

, then

Bernalillo County, New Mexico Bernalillo County () is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Mexico.Bernalillo Co ...

, Texas, and finally as a

Texas Ranger Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by bo ...

. However, there is reason to doubt the veracity of his autobiographical claims. For example, military records indicate that he served in the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

from 1905 to 1907. Additionally, his enlistment records state that he was a "

barber A barber is a person whose occupation is mainly to cut, dress, groom, style and shave men's and boys' hair or beards. A barber's place of work is known as a "barbershop" or a "barber's". Barbershops are also places of social interaction and publi ...

" in

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

in 1905. Allen also never mentioned the fact that he was previously married to a woman in

Sturgis, South Dakota Sturgis is a city in Meade County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 7,020 as of the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Meade County and is named after Samuel D. Sturgis, a Union general during the Civil War. Sturgis is notabl ...

, named Charlotte Evelyn Hough, whom he divorced shortly after the birth of their daughter, Ethal Myrie "Mary" Allen, in 1904. After her parents separated, Mary was placed in a convent as an infant, but her mother remarried and later recovered her.Ancestry.com. ''1920 United States Federal Census'' atabase on-line Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.

Music career

During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, Allen enlisted in the

during

and began performing in

blackface Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-Black people to portray a caricature of a Black person. In the United States, the practice became common during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereo ...

as a

minstrel A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer ...

. He served as a sergeant in the 64th Infantry Regiment, which was assigned to the 7th Infantry Division operating in Lorraine, France. Prior to deploying to France, Allen married Elizabeth M. Caswell in El Paso on December 14, 1917. Allen claimed that after the war he briefly returned to ranching, but government census records from 1920 show that was living with his wife in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

, and working as a driver for the short-lived Fox Motor Company. Regardless, he soon left ranching or driving (probably when Fox dissolved in 1923) and began performing as singing cowboy on the radio in Texas under a variety of names including "Longhorn Luke" (after the Longhorn Cement Company, his

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_ ...

sponsor) and "Shiftless." The success of fellow singing cowboy

Carl T. Sprague Carl Tyler "Doc" Sprague (May 10, 1896 – February 21, 1979) was an American country musician. He was often dubbed "The Original Singing Cowboy". Sprague was one of the first country musicians on record, recording in 1925. Biography He was bor ...

's song " When the Work's All Done This Fall" in 1925 opened the door for other singing cowboys like

Ken Maynard Kenneth Olin Maynard (July 21, 1895 – March 23, 1973) was an American actor and producer. He was mostly active from the 1920s to the 1940s and considered one of the biggest Western stars in Hollywood. Maynard was also an occasional screenwri ...

Stuart Hamblen Carl Stuart Hamblen (October 20, 1908 – March 8, 1989) was an American entertainer who became one of radio's first singing cowboys in 1926, going on to become a singer, actor, radio show host, and songwriter. He underwent a Christian conversion ...

, Red River Dave McEnery,

Tex Ritter Woodward Maurice Ritter (January 12, 1905 – January 2, 1974) was a pioneer of American country music, a popular singer and actor from the mid-1930s into the 1960s, and the patriarch of the Ritter acting family (son John, grandsons Jason and ...

Gene Autry Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, musician, rodeo performer, and baseball owner who gained fame largely by singing in a crooning s ...

, and Allen. Allen traveled to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

to take advantage of the growing cowboy music scene in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

, where he was discovered by

Ralph Peer Ralph Sylvester Peer (May 22, 1892 – January 19, 1960) was an American talent scout, recording engineer, record producer and music publisher in the 1920s and 1930s. Peer pioneered field recording of music when in June 1923 he took remote rec ...

, a scout with

Victor Records The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer that operated independently from 1901 until 1929, when it was acquired by the Radio Corporation of America and subsequently operated as a subsidi ...

. In April 1928, he recorded three songs in El Paso with Victor–"Little Joe the Wrangler," "Jack O'Diamonds," and "Po 'Mourner" (a minstrel song). Despite Sprague's earlier recordings, RCA-Victor copyrighted the phrase "The Original Singing Cowboy" for Allen's records. Allen also acted in a few

Westerns The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...

. From 1928 to 1929, Allen recorded a total of 24 songs with Victor before his records sales began to slip during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

when more a more contemporary and romanticized style of country western music became popular.

Later life

Allen, who divorced his second wife sometime in the 1920s, married an unknown woman in 1930 and moved to

Taos, New Mexico Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Nuevo México Governor Fernando Ch ...

. In 1929, he reunited with his daughter Mary, who discovered her long-lost father after she heard one of his records playing. Although he had no more record releases, Allen continued to perform on the radio, as well as with rodeo shows and traveling circuses throughout the 1930s. In 1933, Allen wrote an autobiography about his life as a cowboy, accompanied by a dictionary of cowboy terms and sayings, a glossary of cattle brands, and collection of songs in a book entitled ''Cowboy Lore''. While Allen claimed the book contained knowledge and songs he learned while working on the trail, Barry Shank (an

American studies American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field of scholarship that examines American literature, history, society, and culture. It traditionally incorporates literary criticism, historiography and critical theory. Schol ...

scholar) notes that almost all of his observations about cowboy life, as well as all but three of the songs, are identical to those previously published by singer

John Avery Lomax John Avery Lomax (September 23, 1867 – January 26, 1948) was an American teacher, a pioneering musicologist, and a folklorist who did much for the preservation of American folk music. He was the father of Alan Lomax, John Lomax Jr. and Bess ...

in 1910. Furthermore, two of the songs were written in the 1920s for the records Allen recorded with Victor Records. How much of Allen's autobiography was a result of his personal experiences as a cowboy rather than Lomax's work is unknown. Allen divorced his third wife sometime prior to 1940 and moved back to Los Angeles. He continued to perform at rodeos and on radio stations throughout the southwest during the final years of his life. While travelling through

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

in 1945, Allen fell ill and was admitted to the local

veterans hospital Veterans' health care in the United States is separated geographically into 19 regions (numbered 1, 2, 4-10, 12 and 15–23) In January 2002, the Veterans Health Administration announced the merger of VISNs 13 and 14 to create a new, combined netw ...

. Doctors diagnosed him with a

gastric ulcer Peptic ulcer disease (PUD) is a break in the inner lining of the stomach, the first part of the small intestine, or sometimes the lower esophagus. An ulcer in the stomach is called a gastric ulcer, while one in the first part of the intestines i ...

and he died a week later. He is buried at the Evergreen Memorial Park cemetery in Tucson, Veterans Block 4, Section C, Grave 247.

Legacy

Although he enjoyed a brief musical career, Allen is considered one of the pioneers of early country music. His cowboy stories and music inspired the next generation of country music singers, including

Country Music Hall of Fame The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee, is one of the world's largest museums and research centers dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of American vernacular music. Chartered in 1964, the museum has amass ...

member

Ernest Tubb Ernest Dale Tubb (February 9, 1914 – September 6, 1984), nicknamed the Texas Troubadour, was an American singer and songwriter and one of the pioneers of country music. His biggest career hit song, "Walking the Floor Over You" (1941), m ...

. His work also helped popularize western-themed books and films.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Jules Verne 1883 births 1945 deaths American country guitarists American country singer-songwriters Singer-songwriters from Texas Guitarists from Texas Singing cowboys Country musicians from Texas American banjoists People from Waxahachie, Texas United States Army personnel of World War I 20th-century American singers 20th-century American male singers Deaths from ulcers Burials in Arizona Ranchers from Texas American male singer-songwriters