Data source is Douglas Mumma, 2123 Farmington Place, Livermore, CA 94550, email = doug@mumma.org
He was recorded as passing through Ellis Island on June 12, 1910. It lists his port of departure as Hamburg, Germany and he is age 23 and single.
His death certificate lists his birth date as 15 February, 1887 in Dayton, Ohio. He died Nov 16, 1941. He and Edith were living at 51 Drake Avenue, Dayton, Ohio. His occupation was that of a musician.
He and Edith are living with his parents in the 1820 census.
The following two biographies about Archie were provided by Gordon Mumma who became famous in his own right as a musical composer and teacher. These were probably printed in the musical magazine, "Etude" and they probably accompanied his entries into the Edude compositionn contest.
ARCHIE A. MUMMMA
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Archie A. Mumma was born in 1887. His early musical instruction was begun by his mother. Later he studied with Louis Waldemar Sprague, of his home city, Dayton, Ohio. In 1909 he went abroad, studying in Berlin under Spanish master, J. Joachim Nin. Fifteen months later he returned to America, as he himself says, "with love of his native land and faith in her musical future increased ten folf." The greater part of his energies have been devoted to song writing. He has set a great number of James Whitcomb Riley's poems to music, the best-known of which are probably the "Ten Songs of Childhood", from the Rhymes of Childhood.
"Shepherd's Dance" is a quaint and characteristic number reminding us somewhat of the older folk dances. While the rhythm is a familiar one, the treatment of it is fresh and original, tand the harmonization throughout is particulary good for a piece of this type. Grade IV
ARCHIE A. MUMMA
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As is so often the case with musicians, Mr. Mumma showed strong musical proclivities almost from infancy, and commenced his musical education at the age of eight in Dayton, Ohio, where he was born in 1887. In addition to this he also received a good general education. After completing his studies he went to East Aurora in the summer of 1908 to give a series of recitals at the Roycroft Convention. Here he met Elbert Hubbard, who greatly appreciate his gifts.
In Berlin, Germany, Mr. Mumma studies with the Spanish teacher, J. Joachim Nin, and admits that he owes much to this master, not merely in a technical way, but in the developmant of his artistic ideals and ambitions. As a composer, Mr. Mumma wrote many songs of a someshat ambitious type to begin with, but now confines himself more strictly to painoforte music. He has a gift of melody, which is well displayed in the piece with which he won the first prize in Class II of the recent Contest. "The Pilgrims" is a sonorous chord study richly harmonized in the modern manner.
The following material was written in a message to by by Gordon Mumma in 2002.
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In the process of selling my house in Santa Cruz, I'm cleaning out
old closets and storage. And, to my delight, I've found some
long-lost musical materials concerning Archie Abraham Mumma.
(b. 5 Feb. 1887, d. 16 Nov. 1941).
As I've probably mentioned in my previous email communications
to you, Archie was considered something of a "black-sheep" by
my ancestors from Dayton Ohio (and environs). In my childhood
visits to the Dayton area (where, we visited my father's family
relatives), several of those relatives recognized my interests
in music. Some of them commented with their memories of
Archie Mumma and, according to what my mother later told me,
others of those Mumma relatives referred to Archie as an
odd-ball of the family.
In the late 1800s and first quarter of the 1900s, typical of other
westward-moving families of the time, the Mumma's were still of the
hard-working settler traditions, and often skeptical of "artist types".
Archie Mumma was an "artist type", but notably successful, as the
two of the attached .jpeg biographical indicate.
During that time 1800s to 1900s time, one of the rapidly growing
industries in the United States was the manufacture of pianos.
Following an existing practice of piano-manufacture in Europe, the
United States manufacturers often sponsored publications and
magazines, to promote the cultural and social "necessity" of having
a piano in every home. One of those magazines was ETUDE; I believe
it was still being published into the late 20th Century. ETUDE magazine
not only carried articles about music, piano-teaching, and piano
advertisements, but also published new piano music for the growing
(and encouraged) population of amateur pianists.
And ETUDE (with its piano-manufacture support) also sponsored
annual awards/prizes for new piano music. As you will see from the
two piano compositions (in the attachments to this email), Archie A.
Mumma won those prizes. These two piano pieces are typical of the
ETUDE-magazine musical-style (pre First-World-War). Within the
cultural context of that time, I'd say they're well written; Archie Mum
had a substantial command of the then popular compositional craft.
The piece titled THE PILGRIMS is something of a virtuoso challenge,
demanding the same level of piano-performing skills required for music
by Frederic Chopin or Franz Liszt (lots of leaping and opposing
octave-movement).
It's now difficult to find libraries that still preserve the ETUDE
magazines of this era, so I've been unable to locate many other of
Archie Mumma's compositions of that time. Though he lived until late
1941, one can only speculate that he remained prolific as a composer
past the first quarter of the 20th Century.
Somewhere on a Mumma-geneology website I've located a photo (circa
1900) of "Jacob Hiram Welty Mumma and their Wives", that includes the
Archie's father : Hiram Welty Mumma (1860 -1939), and mother Annie I.
Denlinger (1963 -1942). A part of your website also lists that Archie
had a daughter, Edith Kiester (1887 -1977). If I'd known about Archie's
daughter (in the early 1970s, when I first found the ETUDE magazine
documents), I'd have made an effort to find her, to inquire about her
father.
That's enough for this email, and I hope you find of interest the
Archie Abraham part of the Mumma legends.
On the other hand, Gordon Mumma, the electronic music pioneer, is the nephew of Archie Mumma, a salon-music composer from the turn of the 20th century, who was interested in music made from bird-calls. So you never know how that biologically transmitted talent stuff is going to work out. In fact, if I had been born in Ohio in 1891, maybe I would have ended up working with Ohio-an Archie Mumma! (
http://www.spencerserolls.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=400294400)
Sincerely, -- Gordon Mumma
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1900: Randolph, Montgomery, Ohio
Hisam N Mimima, head, 39, m: 16 yrs, b: OH/OH/OH, teacher school
Anna B Mimima, wife, 36, m: 16 yrs, 1 child, 1 living, b: OH/OH/OH
Archie H Mimima, son, 13, single, b: OH/OH/OH
1910: Dayton Ward 4, Montgomery, Ohio
51 Brake Ave
Husam W Muma, head, 49, m1: 26 yrs, b: OH/OH/OH. teacher high school
Anna Muma, wife, 46, m1 26 yrs, 1 child, 1 living, b: OH/OH/OH
Archie A Muma, son, 23, single, music teacher
Humnas H Kreckoff, boarder, 45
Maud Kreckoff, boarder, 40
Hilda Kreckoff, boarder, 18
1920: Dayton Ward 4, Montgomery, Ohio
51 Drake Ave
Hiram Mumma, head, 59
Anna Mumma, wife, 56
Archie A Mumma, son, 32
Edith Mumma, dau-in-law, 32
1930: Dayton, Montgomery, Ohio
51 Drake Avenue
Hiram Mumma 69, teacher, public school
Anna Mumma 66
Archie Mumma 43, Musician, composing
Edith Mumma 42
1940: Dayton, Montgomery, Ohio
51 Drake Avenue
Anna Mumma, head, 76
Archie A Mumma, son, 52, musical composer, own business
Edith Mumma, dau-in-law, 52