Lives of the Pipers Home
John Roantree
performer
b. County Tipperary, Ireland circa 1840
d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Feb. 27, 1896
John Roantree was active in Philadelphia and the surrounding region in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. No other piper has had a career so closely associated with a well-known athlete. John H. Clark (1849-1922) was a champion boxer and a dancer of "Irish jigs, reels, etc." Roantree was often listed as his accompanist. They performed at sparring exhibitions, often organized by Clark. One of the earliest known, for example, from 1880:
Of a sparring exhibition in Mount Holly, New Jersey, February 1881, "... The music for the evening consisted of bagpipe playing with John Roantree, with organ accompaniment."
There are a couple of references to the pair performing at variety or vaudeville halls as dancer and piper only, no boxing. One such is an engagement at Tony Pastor's Theatre in New York City, Jan.-Feb 1881. An advertisement for the show says "The famous Athlete, Gymnasium Wonder and Dancer, JOHN H. CLARK, in his splendid Irish Reel Dancing, accompanied by JOHN ROANTREE, the best Irish Piper in America."
In the 1890s Roantree played at picnics, at Irish games, etc., in northeast Pennsylvania, mostly near Wilkes-Barre. He played with local piper Tony Mullin on at least three occasions.
Roantree had a connection to Charles and William Taylor, the best-regarded Irish pipemakers in America. They lived in Philadelphia from about 1873 until their deaths. Both died in poverty and spent their last days in the Blockley Almshouse Hospital. When Charles was admitted to the hospital, Jan. 22, 1893, "John Roundtree" was listed as reference or contact person.
An account of a St. Patrick's Day event, Camden, New Jersey 1893, says "Out in the refreshment room the squeaking notes of the bagpipe floated through the Dundreary whiskers of big John Roantree, while beside him James Ellis threw all the wind he could manufacture into a fine bit of a fife. Roantree's fife is 108 years old. It stirred the pulse of the men of '98, and played the Dead March the night brave Robert Emmet was hung." Dundreary whiskers are flourishing bushy sideburns, and the description implies he may have been playing Highland or War pipes.
The 1893 Chicago World's Fair had a popular street of international exhibitions called the Midway Plaisance. In subsequent years the Midway was recreated in several cities in the United States. A Philadelphia version was held at the First Regiment Armory, February 1894. Among the exhibits, an Irish Village. Roantree played pipes for dancer Patsy Brannigan at this event. Brannigan had been a hit at the Chicago fair.
With one unlikely exception, see below, Roantree's last known engagement was at a meeting of The Royal Order of Ancient Stove Lifters, a lighthearted social club, Jan. 10, 1896 in Wilmington, Delaware.
Not a great deal is known about Roantree's life. A great great granddaughter, Debra Grosso Noce, believes he was born in Tipperary in 1840. His parents were John W. and Rose Roantree. John Roantree the piper married Catherine Darcy in Carrigeen, Kilkenny, November 1862. They had at least seven children, the two oldest born in Ireland and the rest born in Pennsylvania. This puts Roantree's emigration to the US around 1865. John Roantree died of tuberculosis February 27, 1896. He is buried in Saint Dominic Church Cemetery in the Torresdale neighborhood of Philadelphia. His wife Catherine died in 1906.
Casting a bit of shadow on this data is an announcement of one more engagement: "John Marron and John Roantree, the great Irish pipers", were to play at an Ancient Order of Hibernians reception in Chester, PA, Feb. 10, 1899. Perhaps this is a typographic error, or even a kind of memorial to Marron's old acquaintance.
Selected References
"Erin Go Bragh." [sideburns, old fife] Camden NJ Post March 18, 1893 p. 1 column 4
Newspapers.com
Brought to my attention by Debra Grosso Noce.
"The famous Athlete, Gymnasium Wonder and Dancer" [Pastor's Theatre ad] New York Herald Jan. 30, 1881 p. 2 column 4
New York NY Herald 1881 - 0363.pdf
"The Hibernian Reception." [engagement of John Roantree] Chester [PA] Times Jan. 30, 1899 p. 1 column 2
Access Newspaper Archive
"John H. Clark Dies After Long Illness" [obituary] Philadelphia [PA] Inquirer July 27, 1922 p. 23 column 6
Philadelphia PA Inquirer 1922 - 7523.pdf
"The Midway Plaisance" Philadelphia [PA] Times Feb. 20, 1894 p. 2 column 2
Access Newspaper Archive
Noce, Debra Grosso, email communications, Feb. 2019
"The Ring. Johnny Clark in Jersey." New York Clipper Dec. 25, 1880 p. 314 column 6
New York NY Clipper 1877-1879 - 0739.pdf
The Ring [sparring exhibition, Mount Holly, NJ] New York Clipper March 5, 1881 p. 397 column 3
New York NY Clipper 1877-1879 - 0822.pdf
Nick Whitmer
Feb. 2019, additional information June 2019