Frederick Alton Jewell was born in the Southwestern IN town of Worthington in 1875. He ran away to join the circus at the age of 16, starteing his career as a euphonium player with the Gentry Bros. Dog & Pony Show. Over the next two decades he rose through the ranks of the circus composers and bandmasters, becoming the Music Director of the Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth in 1908. His circus career ended in 1917, and he moved to Oskaloosa IA to assume the conductorship of the Iowa Brigade Band. There he started his own publishing company, which moved with him back to Worthington IN in 1923. He served as the high school band director, conductor of the Murat Temple Shrine Band and the Sahara Grotto Band in Indianapolis, and he continued to compose music for bands. His most famous marches are E Pluribus Unum (1917), Quality-plus (1913), Supreme Triumph (1920) and The Old Circus Band (1923). Jewell died in Worthington in 1936.