The year following he played his initial minstrel engagement with Charley White’s Company, also in New York; he remained with White several seasons.
In 1854 he was with Buckley’s Serenaders in New York; in 1858 with Sniffen’s Campbell’s Minstrels, likewise in the metropolis.
February 14, 1859, he made his first appearance as a member of Morris Bros., Pell and Trowbridge’s Minstrels in Boston, where he became a great favorite, remaining about three years.
In his long career Mr. Carroll played with many prominent minstrel organizations, notably Kelly and Leon’s; at Hooley’s, at the latter’s theatre in Brooklyn, N. Y., with little Dick, his son, he began an engagement there March 14, 1870.
Subsequently with Dick, Jr., and Dick’s brothers, Edwin and Bennie, they played for several years in the principal variety theatres of the country.
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| JOHN QUEEN | MRS. ARTHUR L. GUY In Select Company | JAS. CUMMINGS | ||
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| JOHN PEASLEY | JAS.—SANFORD AND WILSON—CHAS. (Portraits Reversed.) | WM. HENRY RICE | ||
In September, 1878, he opened Carroll’s Comique, in Brooklyn, N. Y., and several weeks later, with his sons, began an engagement with Cotton and Wagner’s Minstrels. It may be interesting to know that Mr. Carroll, and the late J. K. (Fritz) Emmett, had a minstrel show once; Carroll and Emmett’s Minstrels opened at De Bar’s Opera House, St. Louis, Mo., June 1, 1868.
R. M. Carroll and John Queen (afterwards Queen and West), were the first to do a double clog dance, about 1862. Mr. Carroll likewise originated the famous song “Me Father Sold Charcoal.”
His sons, Bennie and Edwin, died in New York City, September 18, 1877, and at Denver, Colo., March 5, 1905, respectively.
Mr. Carroll played the variety houses for several years with his well known dancing specialty “Mortar and Bricks.”