The Mozart miracle and Beethoven’s lessing

William Howard Doane was born on February 3, 1832 and lived to become a forgotten innovator and musical prodigy. In his 83 years on Earth, more than 70 patents have been registered in his name regarding woodworking equipment. He also managed to compose and contribute to over 2,000 hymns, including “I Am Thine” and “More Love to Thee.” 

Despite his name and influence, William Howard Doane had no impact on Eastern University’s legacy, nor the residence hall that resembles his namesake. Instead, the credit goes to his daughter, Marguerite Treat Doane.

In the 1950s, Ms. Doane was a major benefactor for the Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, which was renamed to Palmer Seminary in 2005. In 1952, she contributed $100,000 to the purchase of the “Bonalton Estate,” a portion of the original Walton estate built for the eldest son of Charles S. Walton. This new part of the campus was originally named Fairview Dormitory, but was renamed to Doane Hall in 1957. 

Doane continued to contribute to Eastern Baptist College, including donating a portion of her father’s music collection after his passing. While there were plenty of music sheets that were placed in a safe, one impressive 14-paged manuscript was hidden away as well. 

It took 33 years until Judith DiBona, an accounting manager at the time, randomly came across the original manuscript of “Fantasia in C Minor” and the “Sonata in C Minor” by Mozart while searching through old financial records. 

The manuscript was authenticated, and was quickly taken to be sold at an auction in London. It, along with a few other manuscripts from Haydn, Strauss, Meyerbeer and Spohr, sold for $1,576,000 to a Mozart museum in Salzburg, Austria.

This enormous sum of money was used to reignite the music department, which had slowly died out in the 1970’s. In addition to revitalizing the department, the Mozart Scholarship was created to encourage musically inclined people to come to enroll at Eastern University. 

2005 saw an echo of the “Mozart Miracle” when an 80 page manuscript of Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge was found by Heather Carbo, a Palmer Seminary librarian. This manuscript, another part of Doane’s original collection, was authenticated and sold for $1,720,000. This money further strengthened the music department. 

Who knows, maybe there are more compositions from Doane’s collection waiting to be discovered!