Joel Walker Sweeney
The Daily Argus and Democrat in Madison, Wisconsin, reported on 8 November 1860 that “Old Joe Sweney” had died at his father’s residence in Appomattox on 27 October at age forty-five.
He had traveled extensively in Europe, and almost entirely over the United States, and probably enjoyed a greater reputation than any other man as a banjoist, having been the first white man to introduce the banjo to the public.
Joel Walker Sweeney was born about 1810 in Buckingham County in a portion that later became part of Appomattox County in 1845. Sweeney claimed to have learned to play the banjo from local African-Americans, and he is the earliest documented white banjo player as well as the first known person to play the banjo on stage (documented as April 1839). He was a black-face minstrel performer who played on stages in London, Scotland and in other European venues.
Sweeney’s younger brothers, Sampson (Sam), Richard (Dick) and his sister Missouri also were talented banjo and fiddler players.
Sweeney was buried on the grounds of what is now the Appomattox Court House National Historic Park in the Bohannon-Trent Cemetery, also known as the Sweeney Cemetery.