Abbotsford Club Abbotsford Club The Abbotsford Club was a text publication society founded in Edinburgh in 1833 or 1834. This was the year after the death of Sir Walter Scott, whose residence of Abbotsford House gave the society its name, and whose literature the club's publications sought to illuminate. The club was modelled on the Roxburghe Club, of which Scott himself had been a member, as well as the Bannatyne Club, which was founded by Scott, and the Glasgow-centred Maitland Club. The founder and first secretary of the club was William Barclay Turnbull, a young Edinburgh lawyer. The stated objective of the
On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away after his publishing business failed. Known for his generosity, he also had a tendency to overspend and give money to his friends and family. In addition, copyrights to Dresser's music were poorly managed after the Haviland and Dresser Company went bankrupt in 1905. Maurice Richmond Music, who purchased the bankrupt company's copyrights, gave Ballard MacDonald and James Hanley permission to use two bars from Dresser's ballad in a song they published in 1917. MacDonald and Hanley's "Back Home Again in Indiana" has since eclipsed "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away" in public use. Their song borrowed heavily from