If the birth of ragtime is set to the first published piece, ragtime was conceived in 1895 when Ben Harney published his ragtime composition You've Been a Good Old Wagon. In 1896, the same man, Ben Harney, was responsible for bringing ragtime to New York City. A year after this, 1897, the first published intrumental ragtime composition was published (William Krell's Mississippi Rag). The first African American intrumental ragtime piece also occurred into 1897 when Tom Turpin published Harlem Rags.

The Three 'Fathers' of Ragtime
Scott Joplin 1868-1917	James Scott 1886-1938	Joseph Lamb 1887-1960

From Ted Gioia's The History of Jazz

. . . the striding on-the-beat bass employed by the left hand and the riveting right-hand syncopations. . . were often so predominant in ragtime that entire melody lines might be constructed out of repeated syncopated figures. . . The left-hand structures of ragtime were equally influential, with a whole generation of jazz pianists adopting its use of a resounding low bass note or octave (sometimes a fifth or tenth) on beats one and three, followed by a middle register chord on beats two and four. The resulting combination of the pounding four-to-the-bar foundation of the left hand and the rhythmic acrobatics of the right hand was a full-bodied piano sound that required no other accompaniment. This style of performance became known as "ragging" or as "ragged time" at some point in the nineteenth century, a term that likely served as the source for the generic title "ragtime."

By the turn of the century, the ragtime craze was in full swing, so much so that highbrow critics felt compelled to attack it. "Ragtime's days are numbered," declared Metronome magazine. "We are sorry to think that anyone should imagine that ragtime was of the least musical importance. It was a popular wave in the wrong direction." That same year, the American Federation of Musicians ordered its members to desist from playing ragtime, declaring that "the musicians know what is good, and if the people don't, we will have to teach them."