The Polk-Burnett County Chapter was started from the nucleus of a quartet (the Chordaliers) formed in Cushing, WI in 1956.  The quartet consisted of Bill Jensen, LaVern Larson, Ed Olson, and Loren Nelson.

     An organizational meeting was held in the spring of 1957 in the grade school in Cushing with 12 men attending.  As more men were attracted from the Luck and Milltown areas, meetings were scheduled at Cushing, West Denmark parish hall and Milltown Lutheran church on a round robin basis.

      Soon men from other parts of Polk County were attending so the meeting place was moved to the old Balsam Lake school which was centrally located.  We have met in Balsam Lake since then and now meet at the Court House.

      In one of the early meetings we decided to make application to become chartered and chose the name Indianhead for our chorus because of our area being called the Indianhead area of Wisconsin. We were sponsored by the St. Croix Valley chorus of Hudson and presented our first charter show in the fall of 1958.

SPEBSQSA's Informal Beginnings

An Informal Recounting of How SPEBSQSA Began

The following account breathes life into the beginnings of the Society. This story was posted on the Harmonet Internet discussion group by SPEBSQSA Public Relations Manager Brian Lynch in November 1995. (Used by permission SPEBSQSA.)

Brian Lynch writes: I discovered this article while rooting round on my hard drive, and thought y'all would enjoy it. It was written by Ray Heller, formerly Mgr. of Communications and editor of THE HARMONIZER, and one of SPEBSQSA's great historians.

Two harmony-hungry souls from Tulsa, Oklahoma, met in Kansas City one evening and sparked the beginning of an organization that has lasted for more than 50 years. Owen C. Cash, a tax attorney for a petroleum company, and Rupert I. Hall, an investment banker, had a chance meeting in the lobby of the Muehlebach Hotel when both were grounded overnight by bad weather that had closed the airport.

Co-founder Cash recalled: "I ran into Hall, whom I knew slightly, and as I was lonesome that night, I asked if he could sing tenor. He gave the typical barbershopper's answer, 'I suppose I'm the best barbershop tenor in the United States.'

"I tried him out on 'I Had A Dream, Dear,' and he stayed on pitch. We concluded that we were terribly good and canvassed the hotel lobby for a lead and bass."

Legend has it that Cash tipped a bellboy a quarter to round up two other singers to make that first foursome. They found a couple and developed a "fairly good quartet."

The baritone was a Kansas City real estate man named Joe Stern. Stern later started the Heart Of America Chorus in Kansas City and was its first director. He wrote words and music for a song, "Daddy, Get Your Baby Out of Jail," that became a barbershop standard, and he served as national treasurer of the Society.

History does not record who sang bass. During the evening, Cash outlined to Hall the dream of organizing a barbershop quartet club. He had previously discussed this idea with fellow Tulsans with whom he sang occasionally, but not often enough.

Though the idea of a singing society was Cash's, it was Hall that got the ball rolling. Hall promised that when he returned to Tulsa he would call Cash and "get this thing started." He arranged for a meeting at the Tulsa Club and Cash drafted an invitation.

Then Cash could think of only 14 men who he thought would be really interested, so he sent the notice out to them. Shortly, his telephone began to ring and, after his assurance that guests would be welcome, 26 men turned out at the first meeting.

Explaining the name he devised for the organization, Cash said that U. S. President Franklin Roosevelt was organizing government agencies with alphabetical names, "and I thought we ought to have a name longer than any of them."

April 11, 1938, was a warm, spring day. Rupe Hall arrived at the Tulsa Club first and began to check on arrangements for food. Donnie O'Donovan of radio station KVOO, Elmer Lawyer of the Tulsa Paper Co. and Cash were the next to arrive.

Cash, O'Donovan and Lawyer were standing around expectantly when S. M. "Puny" Blevens, a man well over six feet tall, showed up. Blevens asked, "What are we waiting for?" and a quartet was formed. Blevens sang lead, O'Donovan was the tenor, Lawyer was bass and Cash filled in at baritone. O'Donovan suggested a song, "Down Mobile," and, though Blevens didn't know the lead very well, that was the first song ever sung under Society auspices.

No one took time to eat much at that first meeting. After an hour or so of catch-as-catch-can singing, someone suggested that a permanent club should be organized.

It was fortunate that the "vulgar" public was excluded from that first meeting, for the public is rarely capable of grasping the importance of a great idea. We have innate suspicions when we see anyone having a good time.

And the men attending that first meeting had fun. They found a release in singing. There was a tenderness to the nostalgia recalled by old songs, such as "I Had A Dream, Dear," and "Down Mobile."

The fire of brotherly love was kindled in kindred souls, with harmony as a catalyst.

The harmony was simple, with the tenors staying pretty much on pitch with the leads, who sang the melody. The rest was sort of catch-as-catch-can, with the bass singers moving along the root of the chords until they got bored and moved to the fifth--a natural jump for the basses. The baritones tried to take the note that was left; there was a good deal of doubling of notes, but it was harmony. . .soul-satisfying harmony.

It was the beginning of a romance that has not ended today and perhaps never will.

About a week later, more than 70 attended a second meeting at the Hotel Tulsa.

Cash said that it never occurred to him at that time that anyone outside of Tulsa would be interested in the organization. His concept was entirely a local club, singing to itself as an audience.

But from then on, Cash and Hall were busy answering letters, phone calls and personal visits from a hungry mankind crying out for a chance to meet in harmony. They were literally swamped.

They tried to handle the correspondence at work but it got so bad that stenographers threatened to quit unless they cut down the letters about harmony. Cash and Hall chipped in and had some printing done.

Soon they were spending too much of their own time and money answering mail and addressing envelopes. They began to get invitations to tell the story of the movement from all over the United States. Since they both traveled a lot on business, they did their best to take care of inquiries, but it wasn't long before they had to decide whether they were going to devote their time to harmony or feeding their families.

It was the third meeting that really started America's rush to barbershopping. About 150 men showed up at the Alvin Hotel. While Blevens was leading the gang singing, someone looked out of the open second-floor window and called Cash's attention to a traffic jam that had formed. The cops were trying to get it straightened out.

"We had important business," Cash said, "so we paid no more attention until a reporter, Ralph Martin, from the Tulsa World came in. He said he had seen the cars jammed up and had asked the cops about the 'wreck.' An officer replied, 'That's no wreck, it's just some damn fools up there singing.'"

The reporter, sensing a story, sought out the source of the singing on the hotel's second floor and the next morning, June 1, 1938, the Tulsa World reported, "No, No, Folks---You're Wrong! That Was Musical History In the Making."

It was such a colorful handling of the fourth human need---food, shelter, clothing and music---that the wire services that furnish material to newspapers throughout the country picked it up and the Society was on its way.

APRIL 11- BHS IS 68 YEARS OLD

On April 11, 1938, SPEBSQSA was officially born.  Explaining the name he devised for the organization, cofounder O.C. Cash said that U. S. President Franklin Roosevelt was organizing government agencies with alphabetical names, "and I thought we ought to have a  name longer than any of them." Two harmony-hungry souls from Tulsa, Oklahoma, met in Kansas City one evening and sparked the beginning of an organization that has lasted for 68 years. Owen C. Cash, a tax attorney for a petroleum company, and Rupert I. Hall, an investment banker, had a chance meeting in the lobby of the Muehlebach Hotel when both were grounded overnight by bad weather that had closed the airport. Co-founder Cash recalled: "I ran into Hall, whom I knew slightly, and as I was lonesome that night, I asked if he could sing tenor. He gave the typical barbershopper's answer, 'I suppose I'm the best barbershop tenor in the United States.' "I tried him out on 'I Had A Dream, Dear,' and he stayed on pitch. We concluded that we were terribly good and canvassed the hotel lobby for a lead and bass." Legend has it that Cash tipped a bellboy a quarter to round up two other singers to make that first foursome. They found a couple and developed a "fairly good quartet." The baritone was a Kansas City real estate man named Joe Stern. Stern later started the Heart Of America Chorus in Kansas City and was its first director. He wrote words and music for a song, "Daddy, Get Your Baby Out of Jail," that became a barbershop standard, and he served as national treasurer of the Society.  History does not record who sang bass.  During the evening, Cash outlined to Hall the dream of organizing a barbershop quartet club. He had previously discussed this idea with fellow Tulsans with whom he sang occasionally, but not often enough. Though the idea of a singing society was Cash's, it was Hall that got the ball rolling. Hall promised that when he returned to Tulsa he would call Cash and "get this thing started." He arranged for a meeting at the Tulsa Club and Cash drafted an invitation. Then Cash could think of only 14 men who he thought would be really interested, so he sent the notice out to them. Shortly, his telephone began to ring and, after his assurance that guests would be welcome, 26 men turned out at the first meeting.   April 11, 1938, was a warm, spring day. Rupe Hall arrived at the Tulsa Club first and began to check on arrangements for food. Donnie O'Donovan of radio station KVOO, Elmer Lawyer of the Tulsa Paper Co. and Cash were the next to arrive.…And so it went. The next week, 70 showed up and the 3rd week saw 150 in attendance.