John Pond Ordway (August 1, 1824 – April 27, 1880) was a doctor, composer, music entrepreneur, and politician. Born in Salem, Massachusetts, in the mid-1840s John Ordway and his father Aaron opened a music store in Boston. John was also a music publisher and composer; his song Twinkling Stars are Laughing, Love (1855) was recorded by the Hayden Quartet as late as 1902 and 1904. Dreaming of Home and Mother (1851) was a popular sentimental song of the Civil War era, and continues to be played; it is popular in China and Japan in translated versions. Around 1845 he organized , a blackface minstrel troupe which performed at Ordway Hall in Boston and also nationally to promote Ordway's publishing business. Future bandleader/composer Patrick Gilmore worked in Ordway's store and also appeared wit