With the city set to celebrate its 150th birthday Saturday, the Journal-World is taking a look at early-day life in Lawrence:

When the second group from the New England Emigrant Aid Company left Boston for Lawrence, the travelers kicked off their journey with a musical performance.

According to Richard Cordley’s “A History of Lawrence, Kan.,” Joseph and Forest Savage from Hartford, Vt., played instruments and sang “Hymn of the Kansas Emigrant,” a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier.

The Savages took their instruments on the trip and “enlivened the journey with music whenever opportunity offered,” according to Cordley.

They also became the nucleus for the city band that formed soon after Lawrence was settled.

“They did noble service in stimulating an interest in music in the early