Silas Leachman

[5] According to a report first published in the Chicago Tribune in 1895, he recorded in a wide range of styles, often under assumed names, and by that time claimed to have personally produced almost 250,000 cylinders.

The report sets out in detail Leachman's work, at the very start of the recording industry:[6] Away out in the extreme northwestern part of the city, near the Milwaukee Railroad tracks, Silas Leachman puts in four or five hours every day singing at the top of his lungs, though not a soul is in hearing but his wife.

When he gets tired of singing, he varies the proceedings by preaching a negro sermon, or gives an imitation of an Irish wake, and altogether conducts himself in a way that would lead the neighbors to consider him a fit subject for a lunatic asylum — if there were any neighbors, but there are not.This is the very reason Mr. Leachman chose the lonely spot for his residence.

Nature gave him the peculiar qualities that enable him to reproduce his voice perfectly on the wax cylinders.

He prepares three "records", as the wax cylinders are called, at one time.To do this three phonographs are placed near the piano, with the horns at one side pointing away from the keyboard at an angle of forty-five degrees.

He has a remarkable memory, and, after once hearing a song, cannot only repeat the words and music correctly, but can imitate excellently the voice and expression of the singer.A baritone, he became best known for "coon songs"[5] - stereotypical portrayals of African American life - although little regard was paid to the quality of the performances themselves.