Big Four Gold and Copper Mining (Signed by Car Maker John W. Henney and Remick Music Corporation Founder, Jerome H. Remick) , Colorado 1899

Beautifully engraved certificate from the Big Four Gold and Copper Mining issued in 1899. This historic document has an ornate border around it with 3 vignettes: top center of mill buildings in rugged canyon with river and steam train; top left of 3 miners inspecting ore sample; top right of miners working underground. This item has the signatures of the Company’s President, Jerome H. Remick and Secretary, John W. Henney and is over 107 years old. The certificate was issued to John W. Henney and was signed on the back in 1927 by John W. Henney, Jr., as Executor of John W. Henney, Sr.'s Estate.


Certificate Vignette




John W. Henney's Signature as Secretary




Jerome H. Remick's Signature as President




John W. Henney, Jr.'s Signature on Back




Certificate Ledger Stub referring to Freeport, Illinois



The Big Four Gold and Copper Mining Co. was incorporated in Colorado and operated in Leadville. They owned claims covering 11 acres north of the Little Jonnie Mine in the Leadville district.

Jerome H. Remick

The president of the company was Jerome H. Remick , music publisher; born, Detroit, Nov. 15, 1867; son of James A. and Mary (Hosmer Remick; common school education; married at Flint, Mich., June 26, 1895, Miss Adelaide McCreery. Began active career in banking business in Detroit and was president of J.H. Remick & Co; president The J.H. Remick Printing Co. and the Big Four Gold and Copper Mining Co.

Jerome H. Remick was a milkman who acquired a music publishing firm in Detroit known as Whitney-Warner Publishing Company and moved to New York in 1894.

Jerome Remick, together with Maurice Shapiro, established Shapiro-Remick & Company in 1902. In 1905 they sold several million copies of "In The Shade Of The Old Apple Tree," with words by Harry Williams and Egbert van Alstyne.

But in 1906, Maurice Shapiro split with Remick, and Remick formed his own Jerome H. Remick & Co., taking over the domestic rights to the Shapiro-Remick catalogue. Van Alstyne remained with Remick and soon came up with a string of hits songs such as "Pretty Baby" and "Your Eyes have Told Me So."

In 1909 Remick had three ballads that passed the million copy sale mark, one being "Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet." These were followed by other successes including "Moonlight Bay" in 1912 and "When You Wore A Tulip" in 1914.

In 1914 Jerome H. Remick and Company, now in a brownstone walk-up on West 28th Street, began hiring song pluggers to sell their tunes to performers.

However, there was always a musical salesman left on the premises to demonstrate songs in the shop and George Gershwin, becoming that type demonstrator, entered the song plugging field when he joined Remick in 1914. While at Remick, Gershwin composed many songs, hoping they would be published. He left Remick shortly after they finally published one entitled "Rialto Ripples" in 1917, with a lyric by Will Donaldson.

To meet further competition and develop a catalogue, Jerome Remick began to sign such young writers as Harry Warren, Al Dubin, Gus Kahn, Richard Whiting and others. The golden era of the music of the roaring twenties was born. But soon the entertainment business saw more changes. Needing music for their new talking pictures, the Warner Brothers began to buy publishing houses. In acquiring Jerome H. Remick and Company in 1929, they acquired not just the catalogue, but the staff writers as well. Harry Warren and Al Dubin brought their musical talents on to the Warner Brothers' studio lot, creating such hits as "42nd Street" and "I Only Have Eyes For You."

In 1929 Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. acquired Remick Music Corporation. In 1929 Music Publishers Holding Corporation was formed to acquire the capital stock of Remick Music Corporation and Harms, Inc.

In 1967 Harms, Inc., Remick Music Corporation, M. Witmark & Sons, Music Publishers Holding Corporation and Advanced Music Corporation were merged into Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, Inc. Under the division name Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Music (which has since become Warner Bros. Music, a division of Warner Bros. Inc.), the following companies came into existence.

Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Music, a division of Warner Bros. Seven Arts, Inc. controlled all the Standard Catalogues developed or acquired by the original firms of Harms, Inc., Remick Music Corporation.

W-7 Music Corp. was formed to contain all contemporary ASCAP copyrights acquired or developed from 1967 on.

Warner-Sevarts Publishing Corp was the newly formed BMI company.

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John W. Henney

The secretary of the company was John W. Henney.

The Henney family had been in the wagon and buggy building business in Freeport since the late 1870s and by the early 1920s the Henney name was among America's best known in the funeral car trade. In the decade that followed, the company produced approximately 30 limousine and sedan passenger cars to custom order, as well as a production run of 50 sport phaetons designed by Herman Earl (whose previous credits included work with Haynes-Apperson, Schacht and Halladay, which were marketed on the West Coast). The Henney passenger cars were, like the Henney hearses, powered by six-cylinder Continental or eight-cylinder Lycoming engines. The sport phaeton run had occurred during the early Twenties.

In 1929 Henney produced 100 taxicabs on stretched Model A Ford chassis—and in 1930-1931 came the Henney passenger car piece-de-resistance. It happened principally because John W. Henney, Jr. — who had followed in his father's footsteps in the family business in 1912 — was a good friend of Errett Lobban Cord's and was challenged to come up with a car equally as classy as those Cord was purveying in Indiana. The convertible sedan that resulted was a handsome thing, powered by a Lycoming straight-eight and set on a 137-1/2-inch wheelbase chassis, just like the new L-29 Cord. Only four examples were built and sold to friends or undertaking clients of Henney's. The last one was delivered in October 1931, and it was the final Henney passenger car as well. Henney Motor Company remained in the funeral car business (in addition to providing limousine bodies to Packard and producing a special run of Lincolns for the U.S. Government) until ceasing operations in 1954 and closing its doors forever the following year.

The Henney related companyies we Henney Carriage Works - Henney Buggy Co. 1879 -1916, the John W. Henney Co. 1916-1927, and the Henney Motor Company 1927-1960 - Freeport, Illinois

Jacob Henney came to Stephenson County first in the spring of 1848, bringing his family by team and wagon, since there was as yet no railroad. He did not like the country and returned to Pennsylvania that same fall. The Henneys were carriage makers in the East, among the first in the United States to introduce machinery into the manufacture of vehicles. In 1854 he brought his family back to Freeport by railroad and established a carriage repair shop in Cedarville, remaining there the rest of his life.

John W. Henney, his son, was a boy of 12 when the family returned to stay. He learned the woodworker's trade, and carriage building and painting in his father's shop. He worked in several cities in the Midwest before becoming superintendent of the Wiley Carriage Shop in Kansas City. In 1868 he returned to Cedarville and took over the family shop, forerunner of the large business he was to develop over the years. He equipped it with the steam power and modern machinery, and the Henney vehicles soon established their reputation.

In 1879 he reorganized the business as John W. Henney & Company and moved it to Freeport where there were railroad shipping facilities. The first Freeport plant was at South Chicago Avenue and West Jackson Street. John W. Henney, Jr. became superintendent of the plant in 1912, when he was 29. Mr. Henney's nephew, John Henney Smithe, recalled when the first plant was torn down to make way for a new building to fill the east half of the block between Chicago, Jackson, Van Buren and Spring Streets.

The Henney Buggy Company was liquidated before the United States entered World War I and the building was sold to the Moline Plow Company, who enlarged the building to cover the rest of the block.

The Moline Plow Company planned to make automobiles. Since the hand work in auto manufacturing at that was very similar to the work involved in carriage frames and upholstery, they retained most of the employees. The Moline Plow Company manufactured the Stephens motor car in Freeport from 1916 to 1924.

John W. Henney, Jr. went back into business as the John W. Henney Co. in 1917, building truck bodies in the Maurer building on the railroad and the river bank. He also used the old Lena Casket Company building nearby (in East Freeport) to make walnut gun stocks for the government.

When the Moline Plow Company liquidated the Stephens car operations in 1924, the Henney Company moved back into the building. The name of the business was changed to the Henney Motor Company in 1927 and its business was making motor hearses and later, ambulances.

John W. Henney, Jr. sold out in 1928 before the stock market crash. He bought back in later and in 1931 was again head of the company, continuing until 1946, the year of his death. The company continued in business under other ownership from 1946 until it ceased operation in 1954. The business was closed out the following year.

Over the years many of Freeport's most skilled craftsmen and much executive talent were developed in the Henney Buggy and the Henney Motor Companies.

Hisoty form the Freeport Historical Society.





In 1912 Henney's son and namesake, John W. Henney, Jr. became superintendent of the busy plant at the age of 29. A new larger plant was constructed that totally filled half of a city block, but his timing was unfortunate as the golden age of carriage building was coming to an end. Now called the Henney Buggy Company, the firm was eventually liquidated and the modern factory sold to the Moline Plow Company in 1915. Moline enlarged the plant and built the Stephens Salient Six automobile there from 1916 to 1924.

With plenty of cash in hand, young John W. Henney, Jr. was soon back in business as the John W. Henney Co. after purchasing the former Maurer building which was conveniently located between the Illinois Central Railroad lines and the Pacotonica River. Early production consisted of truck bodies and a motorized Henney funeral coach was added late in 1916, built on an assembled chassis with a six-cylinder Continental engine. Henney also purchased the building now known as the Lena Casket Company in East Freeport to make wooden frames for the coach bodies as well as walnut gun stocks for the US Army.

By the early 1920s the Henney name was among America's best known in the funeral car trade. In the decade that followed, the company produced approximately 30 limousine and sedan passenger cars to custom order, as well as a production run of 50 sport phaetons in the early 20s that were designed by Herman Earl (1878-1957) whose previous credits included work with Haynes-Apperson, Schacht and Halladay. He later worked for Des Moines Casket Company, and finally ended up in Piqua Ohio with the Meteor Motor Car Company where he worked for almost 25 years up to his retirement. The Henney passenger cars were, like the Henney hearses, powered by six-cylinder Continental or eight-cylinder Lycoming engines.

The 1923 Henney catalog showed a handsome light-grey 12-column carved-panel funeral coach built on a light truck chassis which featured huge nickel-plated disc wheels.





WARNER BROS.

On August 6, 1926, the Warner Brothers presented the first motion picture with a synchronized accompaniment at the Warner Theatre on Broadway in New York City. The feature film was Don Juan with John Barrymore, Mary Astor, Warner Oland, Myrna Loy and others. This was followed by The Jazz Singer, which proved a sensation, grossing millions for the Warner Brothers and also making Al Jolson Hollywood's new king. The Jazz Singer was actually silent through most of the film. During the film, the audience suddenly heard Al Jolson sing a few of his specialty songs. But during one scene, while singing for his mother, Jolson suddenly stopped singing and began to ad-lib dialogue without music. Then he went back into song. Since this was the first time speech was heard in a full length film, it proved that sound in the movies was here to stay. The age of the talking picture had arrived!

Talking pictures had proved no fad, as they were here to stay. And now the Warner Brothers and their competitors went into a mad production schedule producing all talking and singing motion pictures.

The enormous demand for music by the Hollywood Studios soon led to studio buy-outs of music publishers.