Walter H. Aiken
In the department of music Walter Harris Aiken, for eleven years past superintendent of music in the public schools of Cincinnati, has gained a national reputation and thousands of school children have been made acquainted with the principles of music through the use of works of which he is the author. He is also a highly successful conductor and has had charge of some of the best-trained singing societies the music-loving people of Cincinnati have known. He is a native of this city, born September 27, 1856, a son of Charles and Martha Stanley (Merrill) Aiken, record of who appears elsewhere in this work.
Under his father Mr. Aiken of this review was inducted into the principles of vocal and instrumental music and even in his boyhood he gave indications of talents which pointed to a brilliant career as a musician. He began teaching music at Middletown, Ohio in 1874, and was appointed superintendent of music in the public schools of Hamilton in 1876. In 1879 he secured a position as teacher of music in the public schools of Cincinnati. He continued in this connection until 1900 when he was elected superintendent of music in his city, as successor to G. F. Junkermann. An instructor and leader of marked ability, he has greatly advanced the interest in music in Cincinnati, and the system employed in the public schools of this city ranks as second to none in any other city of the United States. Mr. Aiken was leader of one of the choral societies which sang at the May Festival in 1874 and also prepared the Choral Society of Hamilton, Ohio for the festival of 1876. For many years he has been prominently identified with various musical organization and is now a member of the music section of the National Educational Association and has read many papers at various times before that body.
As an authority on musical works Mr. Aiken has gained wide recognition. Among his books are "Part Songs for Mixed Voices," which is used extensively in the high schools of the country; and "Aiken's Short Course is Music," which is intended for intermediate schools and is proving highly popular. He has contributed about two thousand pages to the Willis Collection of Music, used in public schools throughout the country as supplementary to the regular musical course. He has orchestrated most of his compositions and many of his productions have become well known.
Mr. Aiken is an indefatigable worker and in addition to his regard duties in connection with the public schools has had charge of the summer schools at Chicago, Illinois, Wooster, Ohio and at Knoxville, (Tennessee) University. He is also an instructor of music at the Teachers College of Cincinnati University during the scholastic year. For many years he has been an enthusiastic student of botany which he adopted as his "hobby," this being a relaxation from his regular work. He served as curator of the Herbarium of the Cincinnati Natural History Society for five years, and has been curator of the Lloyd Library since 1905. Few men are as well acquainted with the plants of this section of country and he has written two check lists of Hamilton County plants, one of which was published by the Natural History Society of Cincinnati in 1895, and the other by the Lloyd Library in 1910.
In 1888 Mr. Aiken was married to Miss Lucy Bakewell Avery, a daughter of Dr. Charles Avery, of Cincinnati, and to this union three children have been born, Gwendolyn Bakewell, Walter Avery and Victor Audubon. Mr. Aiken has been a member of the Presbyterian Church for thirty-five years and served as organist and choir leader at Middletown, Hamilton and College Hill. He has through conscientious application won many honors and now in the prime of an active and useful life is attempting to perform his duty to the school children of his native city and also discharge his obligations to the great brotherhood of man. His influence has always been toward the up-building of character and in harmony with the highest ideals of the race, and he has been fortunate in carrying forward to successful completion whatever he has undertaken. No man in Cincinnati is more highly respected.
From Cincinnati, The Queen City, Volume III by Rev. Charles Frederic Goss, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1912