Zeke Backus

[Al Smitley]

I've spent the past hour trying to dig up something on Zeke Backus.  I've tried ancestry.com and other websites, "Monarchs of Minstrelsy", "Gentlemen Be Seated", "Birth of the Banjo", "Dan Emmett and the Rise of Early Negro Minstrelsy", and other sources and find next to nothing on Zeke Backus, though many tunes are attributed to him.  I found on Ancestry that Charles Backus' middle initial was "E".  Could Zeke (Ezekial) and Charles be one in the same?

I found this on the "Fiddler's Companion" site:

http://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Ivy_Leaf_Reel_(1)

Might anyone here have further insights?

[Wes Merchant]

Here's a clipping I have in my files:

[Wes Merchant]

More...https://books.google.com/books?id=y9P5E8CyqooC&pg=PA187&lpg...

[Al Smitley]

Thanks, Wes.....Not surprised that you had something.  I did see the "Burnt Cork" entry but found that I may have had a typo in my original Google search string that prevented others from coming up, though I viewed them and still haven't found much more than a mention of his name.  Still can't find him in ancestry.com nor could I find Clem Titus.  Makes me wonder how many stage names differed from their legal names.

[Wes Merchant]

Yes I wondered about stage names too. I think I might have read something from John Hartford or Bob Carlin about him as well but I can't put my fingers on it right now.

[Manfred Kilian]

Two books where he is mentioned :

https://archive.org/details/cu31924082209432?q=ZEKE+BACKUS

and 

https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofamer04ilamer?q=ZEKE+BACKUS

[Al Smitley]

Thanks, Manfred.