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Carson Male Chorus

Contributor: 
Cottonwood County Historical Society
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Photograph of the Carson Male Chorus, 1949

Carson Male Chorus, 1949. Pictured are (back row) John Friesen, Frank Rempel, Pete Ewert, unidentified, Dave Schultz, Abe Hooge, unidentified, Clarence Winters, unidentified, Jacob Bartsch, and Jacob D. Wiebe; and (front row) William Neufeld, Harry Wiens, Ben Friesen, unidentified, Menno Wiebe, [Duke?] Wiens, Ted Lepp, Anton Dick, Albert Weins, Abe Ewert, Harold Wiens, unidentified, and Abe Dick. Used with the permission of Glenn Wiebe.
Source: Collection of Glenn Wiebe

The Carson Mennonite Brethren Male Chorus, known for singing gospel songs in four-part harmony, performed together for thirty years and managed a radio ministry through radio station KWOA in Worthington, Minnesota, from October 12, 1947, until December 8, 1963.

The Carson Mennonite Brethren Church Male Chorus has its roots in the vision and passion of Jacob D. Wiebe’s love for music. In June 1921, at the age of sixteen, Wiebe attended the dedication ceremony of Mountain Lake Hospital and heard the Bethel Mennonite Male Chorus sing. Deeply impacted by the music, he soon invited his friends Pete Ewert, Frank Woyke, and Ben Friesen into his home to sing. The vigorous choral singing of the German Mennonite Congregation had instinctively taught them four-part harmony, and they formed a quartet. Jacob H. Bartsch later replaced Woyke.

Rev. Henry H. Flaming invited the Wiebe Quartet to sing at American Sunday School Union meetings. Other singing engagements included a community Sunday School rally and annual meetings of the Bingham Lake Shipping Association and the Farm Bureau Association. A year later, the Bingham Lake Mennonite Brethren Church (later known as the Carson Mennonite Brethren Church) asked them to sing at a Sunday evening Christian Endeavor program.

After several years of singing with the quartet, Wiebe organized a glee club that included about twenty community men. They purchased eight copies of the Clover Leaf Quartet at thirty-five cents per copy and had regular ninety-minute practices. Area churches and organizations invited them to sing. Initially, they sang in German; after younger, non-German speakers joined the group, they sang in English.

Wiebe’s community glee club merged with the Bingham Lake MB Church’s male chorus in 1928, and Wiebe was then elected their director. Ben B. Klaassen accompanied them, first on the church pump-organ and then on a piano the men purchased for the church in 1934. The merged male chorus took the name Carson Male Chorus, named after the township where most of them lived.

J. D. Wiebe, as he was often called, studied music at Tabor College in Hillsboro, Kansas, and sang in both the college choir and a male quartet. This prepared him for thirty years of choral leadership in both the Carson Male Chorus and the church choir he directed.

Lydia Kienitz and Jake Wiebe married on September 2, 1931, in the Bingham Lake MB church with Rev. Jacob H. Ewert and Rev. H. F. Wiens as officiants. The church choir and male chorus, now both directed by Wiebe, sang at the wedding celebrations.

During a visit to Reedley, California, the Wiebes attended a local radio station’s live broadcast that inspired them to arrange a similar event in Minnesota. When KWOA Worthington started in 1947, Wiebe visited the manager, Mr. Shephard, requesting a broadcast for the Carson Male Chorus. KWOA invited the singers to broadcast weekly at 4:00 p.m. at a cost of $20 per week, granting one free Sunday each month.

October 12, 1947, marked the first of seventeen consecutive years of weekly programming under the name Faith, Hope and Cheer. It included a brief meditation by John A. Wiebe, brother to Jake Wiebe and missionary to India. Subsequent programs included a six-minute meditation by the pastor at the time of broadcast. For several years, the entire chorus group drove to Worthington on Sunday afternoons to record a live program. The Carson Male Chorus’ signature song, “Serve Ye the Lord with Gladness,” opened every broadcast. Every program concluded with the song, “The Lord Bless You and Keep You.”

When the Bingham Lake Mennonite Brethren Church moved into a new building in Delft, the congregation officially changed their name to Carson Mennonite Brethren Church. The choir loft area, designed with a recording studio to accommodate the weekly radio broadcasts, allowed for recordings to be made in the church and driven to Worthington at a convenient time.

Wiebe mentored young adults in the chorus. As a result of Wiebe’s influence, chorus member Larry Feil became a band instructor at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas, as well as an academic dean.

Wiebe continued to lead the chorus until he moved to Hillsboro, Kansas, in 1967. No one replaced him as director and the chorus disbanded. Its final broadcast was held on December 8, 1963.

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Kroeker, Elaine Ewert. A Culture of Call: The Story of the Carson Mennonite Brethren Church. Hillsboro, KS: Free Press Books, 2014.

Wiebe, Jacob D. Memoirs of Jacob D. Wiebe. [Hillsboro, KS: The author, 1981].

Related Audio

“Serve Ye the Lord” | Details
“On Jordan's Stormy Banks” | Details
Song composed and performed by the Wiebe Quartet | Details

Related Images

Photograph of the Carson Male Chorus, 1949
Photograph of the Carson Male Chorus, 1949
Photograph of the Wiebe Quartet
Photograph of the Wiebe Quartet
Photograph of the Carson Male Chorus
Photograph of the Carson Male Chorus
Photograph of the Carson Male Chorus, 1952
Photograph of the Carson Male Chorus, 1952
Photograph of Jacob Wiebe
Photograph of Jacob Wiebe
Photograph of Lydia and Jacob Wiebe
Photograph of Lydia and Jacob Wiebe

Turning Point

Jacob D. Wiebe attends the dedication ceremony of Mountain Lake Hospital on June 5, 1921. As he hears the Mountain Lake Bethel Mennonite Church Male Chorus sing, he longs to form a men’s chorus of his own.

Chronology

1921

Mountain Lake Hospital’s dedication ceremony is held.

1928

Carson Male Chorus is established.

1934

Carson Male Chorus members contribute between fifty cents and two dollars for the purchase of a sixty-five-dollar piano from Tenhoff, the owner of a Mountain Lake music store, in October.

1937

The first English-language song is listed in church records.

1947

The Carson Male Chorus’s first weekly thirty-minute performance is broadcast on radio station KWOA in Worthington, Minnesota, on October 12.

1950

The Fairmont station KSUM invites the Carson Male Chorus to broadcast at no cost until 1951.

1963

Carson Male Chorus decides on November 14, with 89 percent of the group voting “yes,” to discontinue the “Hour of Faith, Hope and Cheer” broadcast on KWOA.

1963

The final broadcast of Carson Male Chorus on KWOA Worthington is made on December 8.