Group Members (incomplete) Tenor Marvin Dalton (late 1920s-early 1930s) W T "Deacon" Utley (late 1930s) Clyde Garner (late 1930s-early 1940s) Eulas Massey (early 1940s) Ralph Gage (1940-1941)(also sang lead) Troy Lumpkin (1948-1949) Lead Burgess Bell (late 1920s-early 1930s) J A McClung (1922-1942 with interuptions) (also sang lead) Zelmer Lee (late 1930s-early 1940s) (also sang tenor) Albert Houpe (late 1930s-early 1940s) (also sang baritone) Cecil Gray (early 1940s) Oris Baldwin (late 1940s) Jack Hendry (late 1940s) Baritone W A McNinch (late 1920s-early 1930s) John Cauthron (late 1930s) J A McClung (1922-1942 with interuptions)(also sang lead) M R Wortham (late 1930s-early 1940s) Albert Houpe (also sang lead) Ancil Baker (late 1940s) Al Mabray late 1940s) Bass Albert Brumley (late 1920s) (also played piano) Austin Arnold (late 1930s-early 1940s) Jack Smith (1940?-1941) Lorain Allison (late 1930s-early 1940s) Clarence Allison (????-????) Bob Allison (late 1930s) Charles Jeffers (late 1940s) Piano Albert Brumley (late 1920s)(also sang bass) Burgess Bell (late 1930s) George Hughes (late 1930s-early 1940s) Doy Ott (early 1940s) Fern Waits (late 1930s-early 1940s) Web Hughes (1939) LaDorn Ellington (early 1940s) Jackie Marshall (late 1940s) Oris Baldwin (1949) Position Unknown Eugene M Bartlett (19??) C L Murphree (1920s) Dale Cannon (1928) J H Carr (1928) J W Gladney (1939-1940) Chester Snow (1939-1940) Oochie Sanders (1939-1940) Jesse Lambert (1939-1940)

Hartford Quartet (1920s -1950s)

History

The Hartford Quartet was operated by the Hartford Music Company which was founded in Hartford, Arkansas in 1918 by E.M. Bartlett. The Hartford Musical Institute and the Hartford Quartet were created to promote the sale of the company’s songbooks.

The company expanded to include offices in Texas and Oklahoma and created additional quartets to sing in those areas. The company and its music school employed a number of gifted singers and musicians to conduct the musical training.

Some of the music school’s teachers and best pupils were also members of their quartets. One student in particular went on to become a very well-known songwriter. His name was Albert E. Brumley. Brumley joined one of the school's quartets and would eventually become the owner of the Hartford Music Company.

In addition to groups named Hartford Quartet, there were other singing groups associated with the Hartford Music Company. Some of these included Bartlett’s Gospel Four, Murphree Hartford Quartette, Hartford Boys Quartet, Odis Echols' Hartford Melody Boys, and the Hartford Melody Girls.

The Hartford Quartet that is possibly the best remembered existed from the late 1930s through the early 1940s. They were based in Hartford, Arkansas. Members included Clyde Garner (tenor), Al Houpe (lead), J. A. McClung, (baritone), Austin Arnold (bass), and future Rangers Quartet and Statesmen Quartet member, Doy Ott (piano).

(Larry Baker and Mrs. T J Gibson (daughter of J A McClung) contributed information for this article.)