The Star Ball Bearing Axle Band

It only takes an instant.
In a blink of an eye,
or more accurately
​_¹⁄125 th of a second
the camera shutter
captures an image onto the film. 

But as any photographer knows,
to take a good group photo
you need much more time.

First choose a good background

to arrange the frame.
Then decide where to place the camera.
Too close risks clipping a head,
but too far loses the details
and increases the shadows.

But the biggest challenge of photographing
a large group of people
is getting their cooperation.

Assemble into an orderly line.
Short folks in front, taller ones at the back.
Everyone look at the camera.
Smile, please.
Click.

On one November day in 1908
at the Princeton, Illinois Farmer's Carnival
an unnamed photographer
got it all to work perfectly
and recorded a beautiful photo
of the Ball Bearing Axle Band.

Thirteen bandsmen, most dressed in white military-style hats and long duster coats stand outside on the pavement in front of a barber shop. Around the doorway are starry banners with a decorative sign spelling out the shop name, Abel's Parlor, in little flowery paper disks. In the windows hang two small notices announcing CARNIVAL.

On the right is the stern bandleader holding a cornet. An older man in his 60s with grizzled beard and spectacles, he wears a dark suit with formal white tie and vest. His hat, an older kepi style, is different too, probably worn to distinguish his bandmaster position and previous musical background.

The ensemble is typical of a so-called "cornet band" with mostly brass instruments and a clarinet and piccolo to cover the descant treble parts. But what makes this band especially unique is that there are two men of color among the musicians. Standing in the center is an African-American man with a tenor horn. And on the left is a man with a piccolo in his coat pocket whose dark complexion and high cheekbones suggest, I think, a Native-American ancestry. Finding musicians like this in a music ensemble from 1908 is very rare to see.

It is one of my favorite postcard photos of a small town band. The lighting, the camera's clear focus, and the arrangement of instruments and musicians are all flawless. But it is the way the photographer  chose exactly the right moment to record the eyes, smiles, and expressions onto the film that makes this photo so appealing. I'm certain when the photographer saw the positive image revealed in his darkroom, he thought to himself, "Ooh, this is a good one!"

The postcard was never mailed but was sent in a letter, presumably in 1908,
to Miss Anna Halberg, Princeton, Illinois..

Many thanks
for lovely
birthday card
which was
such a happy
surprise and much
appreciated. Your Friend
Mrs. Scott R. Coppine

The writer was Caroline Coppin, the wife of Scott R. Coppin, one of the co-owners of the Star Ball Bearing Axle Company in Princeton, Illinois, who may even be one of the musicians in his band. It seems odd that Caroline chose to sign with her formal married name, but in 1908 she was age 36, and the recipient of her postcard photo was a much younger woman and of a different class. Anna Halberg, age 17, was one of five children in a Swedish immigrant family. In the 1910 census, she and her older sister were employed as servants in a Private Home, so I suspect Mrs. Coppin is graciously thanking Anna, her young housemaid, for her thoughtful card.

Ada OK Evening News
8 April 1908

Mr. Coppin's company manufactured an improved wheel bearing for horse-drawn carriages and wagons. Marketed around the Midwest for blacksmiths and cartwrights, their agent's advertisements asked, "Why Grease A Buggy? When this Dirty Disagreeable Duty is definitely dispensed with by using the Star Ball Bearing Axle?" These fittings could save draft, drain, drudgery, Grease, Grain, Garments, temper, time and money. Warranted for Three Years and wheels need not be removed bu once a year in ordinary use. Its One of the One-ders of the 20th Century. 

Princeton IL Bureau County Tribune
24 October 1902

When it started in about 1900, the firm was called the Star Ball Bearing Axle Co. but in  1905 it changed its name to the Evans, Coppin, & Starks Company. However its product line retained the Star brand name. I don't believe the company ever developed into a large manufacturer but more likely remained just a modest-sized machine shop.

The town Princeton, Illinois, is located about 100 miles west of Chicago, and in 1910 had just 4,131 citizens. Some of the bandsmen may have been employees at the company but several of their hat badges read: Princeton. So I suspect that the Star Ball Bearing Axle Co, were merely sponsors of the band. It's curious too that the company called its product the Star Ball Bearing Axle, but the bass drum has a 1/4 moon shape on one side labeled Crescent with a five-pointed star on the other side labeled Star. It suggests a kind of masonic connection, but maybe Star was just a reference to one of the firm's partners, Mr. Starks.

In this era rural communities often promoted a local business and vice versa. The local newspaper was a county weekly and on the occasions it referred to the Star Ball Bearing Axle Co. it was for their baseball team. The band was just called the "Princeton Band."

The occasion in 1908 was the Farmer's Carnival, an annual fair held in Princeton, which was the county seat of Bureau County, Illinois. That year it was scheduled for the first week of November and of course there would be the typical circus-type entertainments, carnival fun, agricultural competitions, and music from the local band.

_ _ _

But the amusements at the Princeton Farmer's Carnival of 1908 were marred by a freak tragedy witnessed by over a thousand people. As a lead attraction for the five day fair, the carnival committee hired a "Professor" Peter Kramer from St. Louis to demonstrate balloon ascensions. On Tuesday that week he was forced to abandon his first attempt because the wind was so strong that it threatened to blow the balloon's canvas covering into the flame heater he was using to inflate the hot-air balloon. Infuriated that he missed out on $50 promised for his first ascent, "Prof." Kramer declared he would go up the next day no matter what the wind.

The weather on Wednesday was still too brisk and the Princeton authorities enjoined him from flying at the fairgrounds because there were overhead wires that made it unsafe. They promised to cover his expenses and let him make more ascents on the remaining days of the fair. Still Kramer insisted he would take his balloon up, and that afternoon he found another open field near a church that he claimed was enough protected from wind that it would be suitable for his balloon's ascent.

Dixon IL Evening Telegraph
6 November 1908

The balloon, which included a primitive parachute, was only partly inflated when Kramer abruptly ordered his crew to let go of the tether ropes. Suddenly the wind blew the balloon across the field and over the church, where Kramer struck a tall chimney. Torn loose from the balloon, he fell onto the steep roof and tumbled thirty feet to the ground.

Nearby, a group of school children had assembled to watch the ascent. A seven-year-old boy was struck on the head by a chimney brick and seriously injured. The concussion broke the boy's skull which necessitated emergency surgery, but luckily he recovered.

Prof. Kramer however did not survive and died minutes after being taken to a doctor's office. He was only 26 years old and deemed not the expert balloonist he claimed to be. Instead his foolhardy fatal stunt revealed him as a raw amateur. Further inquiries pointed to Kramer's past work as a helper for another aeronaut, from whom he had picked up an old used balloon in an effort to set himself up as a traveling carnival showman.

_ _ _

Photos of larger groups
require more planning,
but the rules are the same.
First choose a good place
for the people and the camera.
Steps are always useful
to insure that everyone,
and every drum, 
is in the shot.

The good photographer pays attention
to the time of day and the position of the sun.
You don't want squinty eyes or turned faces.

Hats are okay,
but need to be pushed back on the head.,
Eyes front toward the camera.
Everyone ready?
Okay?
Now.

It's another year and another carnival, and the Star Ball Bearing Axle Band of Princeton is back for another photo. This time they are joined by another band from LaSalle, Illinois, a town on the Illinois river about 27 miles east of Princeton, for the Red Men Carnival of 1909. There are 27 bandsmen altogether posed on the steps of the Princeton Apollo Theater. The LaSalle bandsmen are dressed in dark uniforms with kepi style hats, while the Princeton bandsmen wear light color wool suits or coats with white hats. In the front center is the distinctive bass drum of the Star Ball Bearing Axle Band. The photographer left a logo, Dunham Photo, which may be the same that took the photo in 1908. This postcard has a slight imperfection in the print which left a shadow outline distortion.

The Princeton band still number 13 but some faces are new, replacing musicians in the earlier photo. The band leader is the cornet player to the right of the the bass drum and he looks different from the leader in 1908. His LaSalle counterpart is the cornetist on the front right. he 1908 band. I leave it to the readers to see how many players are the same. The obvious one is the black tenorhorn player standing top right.

Princeton IL Bureau County Tribune
15 October 1909

The occasion was not the theatrical production advertised on the posters behind the bands. That show was As You Like It by Shakespeare. It was appearing on Saturday night, 16 October, 1909 with the eminent actor Mr. William Owen as the lead actor. His company was in the middle of a six month national tour playing two tragedies, Othello, and The Merchant of Venice, with the comedy, As You Like It.

That weekend there was a big crowd in Princeton, but few people had come to see a high class Shakespeare farce. Instead most of the county turned out for a convention of The Improved Order of Red Men. The Princeton chapter of this a fraternal organization was hosting a benefit carnival, as several hundred members of the society gathered to conduct official business. One of the quirks of this society was that its members, all white men, put on parades and events dressed as American Indians in imitation of the Sons of Liberty, the group credited with instigating the Boston Tea Party.

_ _ _

Two images from a book of historic photos of Princeton, Illinois record this same Red Men Carnival of 1909. In this picture we can see Princeton's main street set up for the fair with a throng of people. In the background is a temporary bandstand, and if you look carefully you can spot the bass drum of the Star Ball Bearing Axle Band.

The second photo of that carnival day shows a circus aerialist demonstrating a daring stunt. No doubt many in the crowd watching it, remembering the tragic accident of the previous fall, became very anxious as the string of pennants shows that the wind is blowing pretty hard too. Once again the Ball Bearing Axle Band's bass drum is there.

As far as I can tell the Star Ball Bearing Axle Band stopped performing shortly after 1909. Members may have moved away or changed bands. The Red Men Band was supposedly one of the best fraternal order bands in the region, so maybe some bandsmen joined that group. For the next century Princeton continued to be fond of its fairs which continue today. But by the decade of 1910, the days when greasing your squeaky buggy axle was a worry had passed, and the Evans, Coppin & Starks Co. ceased making ball bearing axles. I wonder if the bass drum survived for a bit longer.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where delivery is always free.