Madame Mary Davenport Engberg
(1881-1951)
Madame Mary Davenport Engberg was born in 1881 as Mary Cornwall. She was born in a covered wagon near Spokane,
while her parents, the Rev. and Mrs. John Cornwall, were moving from California to Washington Territory.
Mrs. Cornwall died when Mary was only a child, and Mary was adopted by the Davenport family of Mt. Hope in Spokane County. In 1890, at the age of nine, she and her family moved to Bellingham Bay.
She met Henry Christian Engberg, a native of Denmark, while just a teenager. They were married in 1898, and moved to northern Europe, where Mary studied music for five years in Germany and Copenhagen, Denmark. She made her musical debut in 1903, at the age of 22, in Copenhagen. She also appeared as a soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony and Copenhagen Symphony.
After moving back to America, Madame Davenport Engberg performed at Town Hall in New York before returning to Bellingham. In 1912, she joined the faculty of the State Normal School as a music instructor.
In 1914, with the help of the Bellingham Ladies’ Music Club, she organized the 85-member Bellingham Symphony Orchestra. "Madame Davenport Engberg," as she became known, became famous as the only female orchestra conductor in the world.
She also founded the Engberg School of Music in Bellingham. At least two of her students won national gold medals, and several leading violinists of the Northwest had studied under her. She also taught her two sons, Ralph and Paul. Madame Engberg also wrote a music column for the Bellingham Herald. While Madame Engberg pursued her musical career in Bellingham, Henry became owner of Engberg Drug Store, located at 218 E. Holly.
In 1920, Henry and she decided to move to Seattle and greater opportunity after conquering the Bellingham arts scene. Her music school was relocated to 1702 Belmont Avenue, and Henry founded the Engberg Surgical Appliance Company.
She joined the Seattle Ladies’ Musical Club, and in 1921 she organized the 90-member Seattle Civic Symphony Orchestra, largely composed of amateurs supported by a few professionals. They played at the Metropolitan Theater in Seattle. While Madame Engberg was revered by her pupils, she was also known to be an outspoken perfectionist who would deliver tongue-lashings to whip the amateur musicians into proficiency.
In 1923, while continuing her work with the amateur orchestra, she conducted a symphony orchestra of 62 professionals in a series of five concerts at the Metropolitan Theater. She engaged such soloists as Madame Frances Alda, Ossip Gabrilowitsch, Efrem Zimbalist, and Ferenc Vecsey. Late in 1923, as the orchestra was finishing, she began directing the Seattle Civic Opera in its first appearances.
In 1925, she created the Davenport-Engberg string quartet and quintet combination. Playing before the Seattle Musical Art Society in February 1925, the Davenport-Engberg Quintet played Schubert’s Opus 163, the premiere presentation of the work on the north Pacific Coast. Madame Engberg played the first violin with an Antonio Ruggieri violin, which she had purchased during a recent trip to Europe. The violin was made in 1723, and had formerly belonged to Professor Strauss.
Her son Paul was a cellist in the Seattle Symphony Orchestra before launching a career as a singer. He later became the director of the Seattle Civic Opera Association for fifteen years. Her husband Henry was head of the Engberg Surgical Appliance Co. until his death in December 1942.
After her husband’s death, Madame Engberg filled her time with civic activities, and was an officer of the Seattle Branch of the American Association of Penwomen, and as a member of the Soroptimist Club.
On January 23, 1951, Madame Mary Davenport Engberg died at age 70 after a heart attack. At her request, no funeral services were held. She was survived by her two sons and five grandchildren.
Bibliography
Archival Sources located in the archives of the Whatcom Museum of History & Art.Seattle Times January 24, 1951.