The Cadet Band of Augusta, Maine

 

It's always the drum head.
 

Whenever I first look at a vintage photo of a band
I always check the bass drum
for a place and name of the musical group.
It was such a common advertisement for a band
that it's unusual when it is missing,
which would have been the case
with this particular photograph
except that someone helpfully wrote
the band's name in big block letters
onto the otherwise blank space of the drum head.
Augusta Cadet Band

 

 

There are 15 towns or cities named Augusta scattered around the United States, so a proper identification might have taken longer to discover except that when I purchased this photo it came with a few other photos from a family estate in Augusta, Maine. With this information it was easy to find the band in the Augusta and Kennebec County directories. The director and manager of the Augusta Cadet Band was Frank A. Dennis. He is the man holding a cornet who stands behind the drum.

 

1905 Kennebec County, Maine
Resident and Business Directory

Frank A. Dennis ran an business advertisement for his music store at 233 Water Street in Augusta where he bought, sold, exchanged and rented musical instruments. Besides the Cadet Band, he also directed the Dennis' Orchestra. Both had twenty-five men, which is the count we see in the full photograph.

 

 

 

It's a large 9½ x 7 inch photograph, unmounted on thin photo paper, and marked on the lower left with just the photographer's name, Mansur. Posed on a small indoor stage, the 25 bandsmen are all dressed in modest military cadet uniforms and hats, though two have fancier embroidered tunics. Two men have hat badges that read Augusta, but most are simple music lyres. However Mr. Dennis' hat badge is an eagle with an gold leaf trim, a suitable insignia for a band leader. Other than the name written in ink on the drum, there are no other marks, except for a little eye shadow and lip gloss applied to one clarinetist's face. To judge from their uniforms the photo might have been taken any time from 1900 to 1930, or even 1950.   

 

If only there was a good clue to date the photo.

 

 Surprisingly it is right there
in the good old star and stripes.

 

46 star flag of the United States of America
4 July 1908 – 3 July 1912
Source: Wikimedia

Hanging on the wall behind the Augusta Cadet Band is a large American flag. Though not all of it is visible, there are enough stars showing to see that it is not the pattern of our present day 50 star flag, or the preceding 49 and 48 star flags. It's the 46 star banner issued on 4 July 1908 after the admittance of the state of Oklahoma. It lasted just four years until July 1912 when New Mexico and Arizona joined the union. That puts the photo of the Augusta Cadet Band in a relatively small window of time between 1908 and 1912. My suspicion is that the band was preparing for a concert on Memorial Day, Flag Day (June 14), or the 4th of July.

 

Augusta is the state capital of Maine, situated on the Kennebec River about 109 miles inland from the Atlantic coast. In 1910 its population was 13,211 citizens, which is pretty small for a capital city. Over the past century that number has changed very little, as Augusta's 2020 census count is now just 18,899. In comparison, Portland, the largest city in Maine, had 58,571 people in 1910. We saw a few of them in my story about a 1870's photo of another Maine band, Before the Parade.          

 

Like the Portland brass band in that cabinet photo,  of the Augusta Cadet Band was a band of professional musicians engaged to provide concerts for all kinds of events like parades, political rallies, fraternal society conventions, and county fairs. For indoor events like balls and graduations, Mr. Dennis could produce an orchestra, hiring string players to augment his best wind soloists. But the Cadet Band was likely the best known group in a capital city like Augusta.

 

Source: Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives
Hazen Collection of Band Photographs and Ephemera
Augusta Cadet Band, Maine

The Smithsonian archives has two photos of the Augusta Cadet Band, found in the Hazen Collection of Band Photographs and Ephemera. Both are taken outdoors at some park and both are undated. The first has 25 musicians and a bass drum with lettering very like the handwritten name on my photo, which suggests they were both taken about the same time. Perhaps the drum was a new acquisition for the band and had not yet been painted. Several faces find a match between the photos. Mr. Dennis stands at the back, left center, behind two trombones. His distinctive eagle hat badge is clear. In the background are several men wearing fez caps eating at tall plank tables, so I think this is an oyster roast for a Masonic lodge. 

 

 

The second photo of the Cadent Band is at a similar, if not the same, park location but there are only 20 bandsmen. This time the bass drum has different lettering. Perhaps the drummer struck a bit too hard and busted the drum head, requiring a replacement. That would be another reason for the blank drum head in my photo. Again there are several musicians who appear in all three photos. The horn player with the handlebar mustache is one, as is the tenor saxophonist. Here the band's leader, Frank A. Dennis, is standing to the right of the bass drum and clearly is the tallest man in the group.

 

 

Source: Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives
Hazen Collection of Band Photographs and Ephemera
Augusta Cadet Band, Maine

From the 1870s to the 1920s, the cornet was the premier solo instrument in America. Many talented cornet players like Frank Dennis built successful careers by performing and teaching their instrument. Born in 1868, the second youngest of a farming family of seven children, Frank Arthur Dennis was only 20 years old when his name was listed in the 1888 Augusta city directory as leading three different ensembles: the August Concert Band, the Dennis Orchestra, and the St. Joseph's Brass Band. Forty years later he was still listed as leading his orchestra and the band. 

 

It was not uncommon for a band leader/cornetist to set up a music store. A music shop on a city's main street that offered music lessons, sheet music, and musical instruments provided a cultural hub for meeting fellow musicians and clients looking to book a band or a music teacher. In many ways, Frank Dennis' life follows Ralph L. Reinewald, a cornet player in nearby Portsmouth, New Hampshire, whose story I wrote about in The Leader of the Dover Cornet Band. 

 

That 2014 story was also based on a small collection of antique photos I found listed from an estate. For the Augusta Cadet Band, I acquired several photos that I believe came from one of Frank A. Dennis' descendants. It included this handsome photograph of a young trombonist. 

 

 

It's a very nice 3/4 portrait in an oval mount cabinet card. The camera lens caught the fine detail of the trombonist's fancy embroidered tunic, the engraved pattern on his trombone, and even the music notation on the music stand beside him. His name is written on the back:

 

 Chas. Pike
played in
father's band
and orchestra.

 

 

Charles Albert Pike was born in 1886, and his portrait has the look of a graduation picture. The photographer, E. E. Bond, operated a studio in Augusta only from 1901 to 1904, so judging from Charles' fresh mustache I think the photo was taken in about 1903-04 when he was about age 18-20. The studio at 239 Waters St. was in the same block, if not the same building, as Mr. Dennis' music shop at No. 233. Curiously Bond's studio was taken over in 1905 by Clarence B. Pike, so there may be a family connection. Charles Pike  appears in all three photos of the Augusta Cadet Band and may have been the principal player. According to his draft card and the U.S. consulate registration papers  papers, Charles chose dentistry as a career and for a time lived in Winnipeg, Canada with his wife Sarah Ingalls Pike. 

 

 

 

The Augusta band could boast of a formidable low brass section with four trombones, two helicons, and a tuba. It also had three French horns which were not common in small town bands, and usually found only in larger so-called "military" or "marine" bands. Military bands typically included a bassoon which the Augusta does not have, but its tenor saxophonist was a good substitute for that musical color.

 

Sharp-eyed readers may have spotted an unusual brass instrument next to the drum. It's a double-bell euphonium, similar to the instrument I featured my story of The Citizen's Band of South New Berlin, New York back in May 2021. In the 1900-1920 era, the double-bell euphonium was not uncommon to find in large bands like the Augusta band or even small brass bands like in South New Berlin. Its musical function was as a novelty solo instrument where the valve configuration allowed the player to instantly change the sound from the larger baritone bell to the smaller treble bell. But the euphonium in Augusta has a contrary twist to its plumbing design which positions the little bell on the player's left side, the mirror opposite of the euphonium in South New Berlin.

 

 

The Augusta euphonium appears in the first photo from the Smithsonian's Hazen collection but not in the second which adds another clue that suggests my photo was contemporary to the time of that first park photo. Taken all together, the musical life of Frank Dennis and his Augusta Cadet Band was not much different from other American bands of this era. Except for one thing.

 

There was one instrument that set the Augusta Cadet Band apart, not only from other town bands, but from every professional and amateur musical group too. It was a musical oddity that I have never seen in any photo of an American wind ensemble. It was so unusual that Frank Dennis took a photo of it all by itself.

 

 It is called an Ophicleide.

 

The ophicleide is a keyed brass instrument invented in 1817 by a French instrument maker, Jean Hilaire Asté, (also known as Halary or Haleri) with a patent date of 1821. Its sound is produced just like other brass instruments by the player vibrating their lips into a cupped mouthpiece. But instead of an assembly of tubing linked by valves, the ophicleide is a fully conical instrument, not unlike a folded-up alphorn, with 9 or sometimes 11 holes covered by keyed pads that open to change its pitch. The name ophicliede comes from the Greek words for keyed serpent. Though it superficially resembles a saxophone, the key mechanism of an ophicleide does not follow the principles of woodwind instruments and has an entirely different fingering system.

 

 

On the back of the small photo, written in ink, is a note. "Backroom (looking out on Kennebec River) as Dennis' Music Store - 233 Water St., Augusta, used for Augusta Cadet Band rehearsals."  The note is a bit confusing since the river is not pictured, but the connection to Mr. Dennis and the Augusta Cadet Band it clear. But why would Frank Dennis have such a thing in his band?

 

The 1817 ophicleide of Jean Hilaire Asté, predates the first piston valve tuba, which received a Prussian patent in 1835. The Belgian instrument maker, Adolphe Sax (1814 – 1894) did not get a  patent on his piston valve saxhorns until 1845, and his saxophones a year later in 1846. In the 1820s the ophicleide added a new baritone or bass voice to a band, at time when only the bassoon could play notes in the lower register. Though the ophicleide was designed as a complete instrument family of different sizes from soprano to contrabass, it was the bass model, like this instrument in the Augusta band, that found favor with opera composers like Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer, Verdi, and even Wagner, who scored their instrumentation to include a part for ophicleide. However as tubas, tenorhorns, and euphoniums soon proved to be more versatile, and easier to play well, they became the dominant low brass instruments and by the 1890s the ophicleide was rarely found outside of France, Belgium and England and then only occasionally in opera orchestras and church bands. To see a British example of an ophicleide from the 1870s, check out my story from May 2019, The Happy Couple.

 

Certainly in America the ophicleide never took hold in brass bands or orchestra, so that's what makes this photo so special. The ophicleide's tone color is similar to the French horn which is why this bandsman stands on that side of the band. But how did he find one and learn to play it?

 

  

A few French music instrument companies continued to manufacture the ophicleide in the 1900s, though it seemed to be marketed for church choirboys. I would expect Frank Dennis had a number of their catalogs in his music store, as French-made piston valve cornets, tubas, and assorted other brass were still popular in American bands. Dennis also seemed to have a connection to England too, as there was a cabinet photo of a British army bandsman which came with the Augusta Cadet Band photos. And of course, Quebec, Canada is not too far from Maine. So it is not impossible that Dennis ordered an ophicleide for a French-Canadian or English musician who lived in Augusta. Or maybe he just liked the sound of it from hearing it in a British military band. 

 

 

 

 

Frank Arthur Dennis died in 1930, aged 62, as did his wife Minnie M. (Dyer) Dennis a few months before, also at the same age. They had two children, Ruby and Raymond. Their son, Raymond Dennis, died in 1928 and is buried next to his parents at the Mount Pleasant cemetery in Augusta. The reference to "Father's band and orchestra" on Charles Pike's photo leads me to believe the annotations were made by Frank's daughter, Ruby M. Dennis Marquardt, with whom Frank was living at the time of his death in the 1930 census. But as usual there are gaps in my research that prevent me from being certain I have all the family history correct. 

 

 

 

 

 

The sound of an ophicleide is surprisingly more mellow than its size and shape would suggest. I think the tone color is less brassy and more woodwind-like emphasizing a bit more treble than bass. Here is a splendid demonstration of an ophicleide quartet cleverly performed by Francesco Gibellini on an ophicleide in C.  Extra points if you can sing the words to the tune.     In the original French.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where time is not measured in calendars 
but in photographs.

Winter Sports in old Austria

 It's a universal trait
that humans like to go fast.
And sliding down an ice covered track
in a bobsled is certainly one way to achieve it.

 

 

This colorful postcard of a four man & one woman bobsleigh taking a dramatic downhill curve was produced by one of my favorite postcard artists, Fritz Schönpflug ( 1873 – 1951), an Austrian artist who created hundreds of clever, humorous caricatures of Viennese and Austrian life. Despite the wintry scene this card was mailed in the spring on 31 MAJ (May) 1920 from Hungary, and the writing is, I believe, in Hungarian. Notice that the fellow on the right is taking a picture of the sled with a box camera.

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

Schönpflug painted a similar picture of another bobsled with three men and a woman going to the other side. Again he has a man to one side trying to take a photo. I wouldn't expect that co-ed crews were very common in early 20th century Austria, but the woman's purple head scarf adds an appealing touch of excitement. Under Schönpflug's signature is 909, meaning 1909, which followed a common Austrian/Hungarian convention of leaving off the first numeral.

The postmark is dated 27 November 1910 from Bayreuth in northern Bavaria, Germany. It is the city best known for its annual Bayreuth Festival where the operas of German composer Richard Wagner are performed in its grand Festspielhaus.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

Risking a tumble in a bobsled like the quartet in this next postcard is part of the thrill of going fast. But I'm not sure what it has to do with wishing someone Fröhliche Weihnachten! ~ Happy Christmas! Some things are best left lost in translation. 

 

This card was never mailed, but Schönpflug's distinctive crazy signature has (1)909 at the end. 

 

* * *

 

 

No matter the vehicle or sport, drinking and driving are never a good idea. But that rule doesn't seem to apply it you are just a passenger like the backseat rider on this two-man bobsled. The poor hapless driver, on the other hand, may need a drink when the two finally get down the slope.  

I can't work out where the card was sent from, as the postmark ROTTACH-E doesn't match any modern or old German place name, but it was posted to Berlin on 26 November 1908. I think the writer's language is French.

 

 

 

I first added Fritz Schönpflug's postcards to my collection because of his lighthearted depiction of Viennese musicians. But I've since acquired many more because, unlike the photographers of his time, his artist's eye could capture color, movement, and other peculiarities of the people of his time. Though he continued painting into the 1930s, the best of Schönpflug's postcards preserve a unique record of Austrian society just before the collapse of the Hapsburg royal dynasty in 1918. 

 

Click the following link to see more of my Schönpflug collection.

 

 

 

 

To demonstrate the thrill of bobsled speed,
here is a 1932 video
from the British Pathé archives.
 

It's entitled:
"America. The Sport ... Dangerous! 

Germany's crack Bobsled Team crashes at 65 mph
during tryout for Olympic Games."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where winter in a city park
can be fun too.

The Mountain Beauties of Hendricks, West Virginia

 

Meet Grayce and Nina
on cornet and alto horn.

 

 

 

 

 And Fannie and Olive.
Alto horn and snare drum.

 

 

 

 

 

 Along with Pearl, Adda, and Gertrude,
the low brass trio
on tenor horn, baritone, and bass tuba.

 

 

 

 

 

 And finally Lottie
playing the bass drum.

 

 

 

 

 

They were all sisters,
and members of
the Mountain Beauties Band
of Hendricks, West Virginia.

I know this
because their names,
or nearly all of them,
are written on the back of their photograph.

 

 

 

These eight young women are posed playing brass instruments outdoors on a rocky embankment, a suitable backdrop for a group from West Virginia. They each wear identical dark uniform dresses with a simple T-pattern on the lower edge and soldier-style broad brimmed campaign hats. The band's instrumentation of a single cornet, two altos, a tenor, baritone, and bass, and two drums, is very like the standard brass band sets furnished in the 1900s by many American music instrument companies.

 

It's a small photo, 3¾ x 5½ inches, mounted on plain dark green cardstock. The edges were cut down which may have removed any mark of a photographer. But the annotation on the back certainly makes up for that with the name of the women's band, it's location, and at least seven of their first names and   instruments played neatly written in cursive. This made it easy to quickly find a report of the "Mountain Beauties" Band in the Baltimore Sun newspaper of 3 April 1899.

 

 

 

Baltimore Sun
3 April 1899

The ladies' cornet band at Hendricks, Tucker county, W. Va. is attracting much attention. Their visits to neighboring towns have been occasions of unusual interest. The band is known as the "Mountain Beauties," and is composed of twelve young ladies. They have been under the instruction of Prof. Herbert Blake of Davis, W. Va., since last August and now can play remarkably well.

Those composing the band are: Grace Craver, Flodie Roy, Frankie Biegler, solo cornets; Mary Harper, first cornet; Addie Craver, baritone; Edna Biegler, first tenor; Pearl Craver, second tenor; Tacy Bowman, first alto; Fanny Craver, second alto; Gertrude Craver, tuba; Lottie Craver, bass drum; Nina Craver, tenor drum. The drum players are the youngest members.

The 1899 report supplied the one crucial clue missing from the note on my photo—their surnames. And the big surprise was that it was just one surname, Craver. It also supplied the name cut off at the top of the photo, Grace Craver, the cornet player. The only name left out was Olive.

 

Like a key in a lock, the names opened the doors of the history archives to reveal the whole Craver family in the 1900 US Census for Hendricks, West Virginia. All eleven of them.

 

1900 US Census Hendricks, Tucker County, West Virginia

 

The 1900 census listed Joseph Craver, age 52, as the head and lone male of an otherwise all-female household of eleven family members. Joseph and his wife Anna, or Anise, age 43, were the proud parents of nine daughters!  Listed from eldest to youngest they were Charlotte Craver (Lottie, bass drum), age 24; Emily A. ( Adda, baritone), age 22; Mary P. (Pearl, 2nd tenor), age 19; Mary G. (Gertrude, tuba), age 18; Grace (Grayce, cornet), age 16; Francis M. (Fannie, 1st alto), age 13; Mary B. (Nina, 2nd alto), age 10; Marion (olive, snare drum), age 7; and Mary Adalane (Mary Evelyn), age 2/12.

 

Joseph Craver, the father of this band of sisters, was born in Pennsylvania in 1848. His parents came from Baden, Germany and lived in Susquehanna Township in Cambria County, PA, east of Pittsburgh,  where his father, Lewis Craver, was a farmer. Joseph's occupation in 1900 was recorded as Hotel Keeper in Hendricks, WV. Two of his daughters, Mary Pearl and Mary Gertrude, were listed as School Teachers, though they were then only age 19 and 18. [Fun fact: Pennsylvania has four Susquehanna Townships scattered around the state.]

 

A ladies' cornet band was not an unusual ensemble in America during the 1890s-1900s. But a brass band made up of eight sisters from the Appalachian mountains of West Virginia was definitely something to attract attention of newspaper editors. Especially if there was a photo.

 

Philadelphia Inquirer
4 June 1901

This photo of the Mountain Beauties' Band appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on 4 June 1901. The eight Craver sisters wear the same uniform dresses, described as natty here, but black with gold braid in other reports, and flat caps almost like a sailor's. They are arranged in a close reverse pyramid at a photographer's studio and have their director, Mr. Blaker, of Davis, WV standing at the back. Unfortunately their surname, along with Prof. Blake/Blaker's,  is misspelled as Ceaver instead of Craver. The paper does not say if they performed in Philadelphia, only that the band had made a trip to Cumberland county which is next to the state capital Harrisburg.

 

Hendricks, a small town on the Black Fork and Cheat rivers, tributaris of the Monongahela River in eastern West Virginia, was first settled in 1803 by a German settler, Henry Fansler, who optimistically named it Eden. It was incorporated in 1894 and renamed after Thomas Andrews Hendricks, a politician and lawyer from Indiana who served as the 16th governor of Indiana and the 21st vice president of the United States. After his inauguration in March 1885 with President Grover Cleveland, Hendricks served only eight months before his unexpected death in November 1885. 

 

The population of Hendricks was 317 residents in 1900 which is just a little more than its present 2020 population of around 260. However in 1900 the population of the surrounding Tucker county had doubled from the previous decade to 13,433, and by 1910 it reached its peak of 18,675. This was due in part to a boom in its lumber industry which tragically clear cut its virgin forests to the point that by 1914 the county was virtually denuded of standing trees, and had suffered through several devastating forest fires. 

It seems likely that Joseph Craver's hotel served as a important focal point for the little community of Hendricks. He probably engaged the music instructor, Herbert Blake, to coach his daughters and produce an in-house band to entertain his hotel's patrons. From other reports, the girls evidently did not have much prior knowledge or experience in music, but this may have been marketing hyperbole used to enhance their natural talent. There is no mention of any programs or what kind of music they played. But by 1901 they were good enough to perform on the Chesapeake Bay, 300 miles east of the mountains of West Virginia.

 

Newport News VA Daily Press
6 September 1959

 

On 6 September 1959, the Newport News Daily Press ran a story on local shipbuilding history with the headline "First Vessel to be Named 'Newport News' Enjoyed Long, Colorful Career."  The article focused on the steamship Newport News built for the Norfolk and Washington Steamboat Company in 1895 to work the shipping route from the port cities on the James River: Norfolk, Portsmouth, Hampton, and Newport News to the cities on the Potomac River: Alexandria and Washington. It was 274 ft in length overall with a beam of 46 ft. The typical travel time between Washington and Norfolk was about 12 hours. 

 

In October 1901, the steamboat company and two railroad companies offered a promotion to 500 West Virginians for a "Grand Seashore Excursion" on the Newport News passenger steamer that departed from Washington and steamed down the Chesapeake Bay to Newport News, the "magic city of the Atlantic Coast." It would include a special event, the launching of a new Pacific mail ship, the S.S. Siberia, then the largest ship ever constructed in America at 683 ft long. 

 

The entertainment for the West Virginian excursionists would be their own Mountain Beauties Band. A Mrs. Julia Parsons Murphy provided a photo of the band which I believe is possibly the same one that I have acquired. Mrs. Murphy even had the names and instruments of all eight Craver sisters, unfortunately misspelled again as Craven.

 

 

Newport News VA Daily Press
6 September 1959

The trip down the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay to Newport News must have been a thrill of a lifetime for these young women from a small mountain town. The Wikipedia entry for the Norfolk & Washington Steamboat Company includes a photo of the steamboat's grand central parlor with ample space for a small brass band, though they likely played outside on deck.

Steamboat Newport News
Interior of central parlor
Source: Wikipedia

In 1918 a fire at the company's warehouse spread to the steamboat Newport News and nearly destroyed it. It was rebuilt and given a new name, the Midland, but suffered another fire in 1924. The waterways of the great harbor of Hampton Roads remain much the same today as they were in 1901, but the cities are now connected by a vast network of highways, bridges, and tunnels. Today a road trip to Washington D.C. might take only 3½ hours, but it wouldn't be nearly as fun as traveling on a steamboat with the Mountain Beauties Band. 

Steamboat Newport News
Norfolk & Washington Steamboat Company
Source: Wikipedia

As might be expected, the Craver sisters' band soon began to break up as each sibling grew up and found a husband. The band may have continued playing in their hometown of Hendricks, but reports in national newspapers disappeared after the steamboat trip in 1901. 

 

In September 1907 Mary Bertha Grayce Craver, misspelled Carver, married Edward Augustus Schoolfield of Baltimore. The announcement made note of her many sisters and her short career as a cornetist in the Mountain Beauties Band. 

 

 

Baltimore American
11 September 1907

 

I regularly use Ancestry.com as my primary resource for identification of the subjects in my photo collection. I usually do my own research to find records on people, and generally don't use the Family Trees that many descendants post on this awesome website. However in the case of Joseph Craver and his family there was actually only one useful census record with all his daughter's names. There was nothing for 1910 or later, and of course, finding a woman's name after marriage is always a very challenging hunt. 

 

But fortunately a descendant of Joseph Craver's family posted a very detailed tree that proved very useful in confirming the family's surname and checking the sisters' individual names against the annotation on my photo of their band. It provided Joseph Craver date of death as 1 May 1919 at the age of 71. His wife's full name was Anise Sophia Glass Craver and she survived him until 1925. The family tree also listed the life dates for all nine daughters too.

 

What was especially interesting about this family was that Joseph and his wife gave each of their girls the first name Mary. I haven't found other records that confirm this, but this Craver family tree is otherwise very accurate so I have no reason to believe it is mistaken. I've not encountered this name convention before. Perhaps it is a tradition that came from Joseph's German parents as their homeland of Baden had largely a Catholic population in the 19th century and earlier. In any case it added another curious element for this a special photo.

 

 

I have a number of photos of family bands which I have featured on my blog. But the Craver sisters Mountain Beauties Band is the first all-female siblings ensemble. But the real prize was finding the identical photo printed over a half-century ago with the same names. That's what makes this a special treasure.

 

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where cycling is the way to go.

The Pittsburgh Ladies Orchestra

 

 To take a good photograph of a group requires
focus, timing, and above all, good light.
But a photographer's skill is only the half of it.
For a photo to be truly great
the participation
of the subjects
is required.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The photographer might arrange each person,
but ultimately it is their choice,
either deliberately or involuntarily,
to put on their best expression.

As each face turns toward the lens,
some smile easily on command.
Others have to think about it.

 

 

A roll of the eyes,
a turn of the cheek,
or just a lift of an eyebrow
conveys charm
character,
and wit
better than a thousand words.

Yet the photographer
has but a split second
to capture that moment.

 

 

 

 

 When the shutter clicks
sometimes a magical image is produced
so delightful, so intriguing,
that it takes your breath away.

 

 

Today I showcase
three postcard photographs
of the same musical group,
all taken within a short time frame.
There are subtle differences in each setting,
and the roster of musicians changes a little bit.
But each photo shines with an intriguing beauty
that highlights each individual personality.

I am very pleased to introduce
the Pittsburgh Ladies Orchestra.

 

 

 

 

 

It was the summer of 1914, as noted on the postcard's caption. Ten young women and one man pose close together at the top of a flight of wooden steps that descend to a river. They are in a park, perhaps near an outdoor stage where they will give a concert. Most hold musical instruments, a trombone, two cornets, a flute, a snare drum, two violins, and a double bass. The women wear long white dresses but are not in anything like a uniform. The man is dressed in a cream colored suit with an artist's long bow tie. 

It's a fine photo, possibly taken by an amateur photographer. The postcard was never mailed so there are no clues to the location, but I suspect it is somewhere overlooking one of Pittsburgh's three rivers — either the Allegheny, the Monongahela, or the Ohio River. The choice of an outdoor setting was probably deliberate in order to emphasize the refined and wholesome nature of the ensemble. Unlike the somber serious faces seen on photos made in earlier eras, here the women's smiles gleam with a warm sincerity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next photo postcard was taken in a studio with flattering side lighting so it is certainly the work a professional photographer. This time the Pittsburgh Ladies Orchestra has 12 women, along with the same man, their conductor, Albert D. Liefeld, as printed on the front caption. The use of a portrait format instead of landscape composition is unusual, and no doubt the result of someone with an understanding of classical art forms. The pyramidal arrangement leads the eye to follow each figure and face so that we meet every woman. It's a beautiful effect made better because the variety of expressions.

 

 

This postcard was sent from Syracuse, New York on 24 October 1913 to Miss Sopia Cutnell of the Cameraphone Theatre in Pittsburgh. This was one of several new cinema theaters in Pittsburgh that presented "photoplays" and "vitagraphs", i.e. silent films, sometimes accompanied by educational-type lectures or appearances by actors. 

 

The stamp is an unusual 1¢ commemorative with the profile of Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the Spanish conquistador. It was issued in 1913 to publicize the upcoming 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco which would celebrate Balboa's so-called "discovery" of the Pacific Ocean in 1513 as well as the 1914 opening of the Panama Canal.

 

 

 

 

The leader of the Pittsburgh Ladies Orchestra was Albert D. Liefeld. Born in Wisconsin to German immigrant parents, in 1913 he was 44 years old and married to Minnie Liefeld. Albert had studied music in Chicago and Boston, and was an accomplished pianist, mandolinist, choir director and composer too. In the 1890s he settled in Pittsburgh where he made a career as an instrumentalist, mainly on mandolin, and as a teacher establishing his own music school for both voice and a variety of instruments. In August 1912 he placed an advertisement in the arts section of the Pittsburgh Daily Post where he listed himself as the director of the Pittsburgh School of Music, the Liefeld Orchestra, Glee and Mandolin Clubs, and the Pittsburgh Ladies Orchestra.

Pittsburgh Daily Post
 August 1912

From the start of his musical work in Pittsburgh, Albert Liefeld became associated with the Chautauqua assemblies, a novel form of entertainment series that was then becoming popular in America's small town communities. These festival-like events were typically held outdoors in the summertime and presented a variety of lectures and musical performances. It was first started in 1873 at a site on Lake Erie in Ohio as a kind of outdoor summer camp for training Methodist Sunday school teachers . The following year in 1874 a second assembly was produced on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in western New York, not far from Pittsburgh, which was where the movement took its name. By 1910 there were hundreds of independent Chautauqua assemblies scattered all around America, but predominately in the Midwest.

 

Typically scheduled for just a weekend or a week, the Chautauqua borrowed ideas found in the earlier Lyceum movement which sought to improve the social, intellectual, and moral framework of society by presenting notable lecturers, entertainers and readers to the public. Both movements were partly a reaction to the vaudeville theater and circus entertainments which were viewed by some communities to be indecent and immoral. However  most Chautauquas tried to be non-denominational and apolitical in order to appeal to the broadest number of people.

 

Chautauqua patrons could expect lectures on a wide range of topics like world travel, science, social and civic issues, interspersed with renditions of great plays or comical skits and musical groups of all kinds. The Chautauqua summer season was filled with concert bands, opera singers, string quartets, and many other music ensembles. The Pittsburgh Ladies Orchestra was one of them.

 

The Pittsburgh Ladies Orchestra
Source: University of Iowa Library

By the 1900s there were so many competing Chatauqua assemblies that agencies were organized to provide an efficient booking system for the hundreds of performers and speakers who appeared each season. The University of Iowa special collection, Traveling Culture: Circuit Chautauqua in the Twentieth Century, has several brochures that Albert Liefeld produced to promote his Pittsburgh Ladies Orchestra. He started this group in 1911 and it continued until at least 1929. His earlier group of around 12 female musicians was considered large, though it was much smaller than the women's concert bands like Helen May Butler's All American Girls. In 1916 he put on concerts with about twice that number.

The third photo was also taken in the summer of 1914. It is marked Pittsburgh Ladies Orchestra at the Watch Tower Park, Rock Island, IL. There are 10 women posed on a stage, possibly outdoors, with Albert D. Liefeld standing at the back. Though this formation of the group is typical of photographs of many groups like this, I think the fine light and clear focus makes this an exceptional photo that lets us easily imagine the personalities of the ten women.

 

The orchestra has similar instruments as in the previous postcards with one flute, four strings, three brass, snare drum, and an upright piano in the background. This photo was not taken at a Chautauqua but was at a mid-week concert in Rock Island traveling between Chautauqua appearances in Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Rock Island IL Argus
1 August 1914

The company included Miss Gertrude Harris, the "famous" Welsh soprano; Miss Edna Keary, violin soloist; and  Miss Marie Dauberger, cornet soloist. I can't be certain, but I think the woman standing second right may be Miss Harris, the soprano; and the women seated in front of her with the cornet is Miss Dauberger; and the violinist seated left is Miss Keary. But it is just a hunch.

 

The postcard was addressed to Mrs. Harry Rasche, of Oakland, Maryland and is dated.

 

 

Dixon, Ill
8/17 - 14.

 

 Dear Harry & Mollie
Had this taken in a
park, where we gave our
concerts so it isn't a bit
good, but thought you
might like one any-
way.  Are having one
swell trip.  Delight-
ed with the west.  We
play at the Y.M.C.A.,
S. S. Chicago on the 8th,
then go on to Nebraska.
We have dates in Mich,
Wisc, + Iowa, also Ohio on our
way home.  More later.   Love, V.R.

 

It is rare to find self-referential postcards, which I consider special treasures in my collection. Readers may remember my two-part series from March 2020, On Tour with the Metropolitan Ladies' Orchestra. That story featured a set of photo cards annotated by a musician with that group which made a similar tour of America and Canada in 1912. The challenge for me was figuring out which musician wrote the notes.         {Spoiler alert!   It was the cellist!}

 

Here the clues in the addressee, Mrs. Harry Rasche, and the writer's initials make it easier. It did not take long to determine that V. R. was Miss Vera Rasche. In 1914 she lived in Monongahela, PA and the newspaper there was very good on reporting the local society news. Several reports stated that Vera played the double bass and her talented older sisters, Estelle and Agnes were also musicians. In July 1914 all three Rasche sisters joined Prof. Liefeld's ladies orchestra.  

 

Monongahela PA Daily Republican
28 July 1914

Vera Rasche appears with her double bass in all three photos. Agnes played cornet and I believe she is the cornetist seated center in the park photo, above Vera's shoulder in the studio photo, and in front of Albert Liefeld in the Rock Island photo. I've been unable to discover Estelle's instrument so I'm uncertain about identifying her. In August 1914 the Wausau, WI Daily Herald ran an advertisement for the Pittsburgh Ladies Orchestra that would appear at the Chautauqua there. It used the same photo that Albert Liefeld used in his brochure which was printed years later. Only a few faces are recognizable and the bassist is definitely not the same. So I think this was taken in 1912-1913 with a different roster of musicians.

 

 

 

Wausau WI Daily Herald
19 August 1914

 

What I do know is that the Rasche family was not from the Pittsburgh area. I found them in the 1900 census for Oakland, a small town in western Garrett County, Maryland. The head of the family was Kate, or Katherine Rasche, born 1851 of Irish parents in "Irish Canadian", wherever that is. She supported six children working as a music teacher. Kate was not listed as a widow. so presumably her husband Harry was alive but not living at home. His nativity was listed as Germany on his children's line for father's place of birth. The oldest child was also named Harry Rasche, born 1880 in Maryland; followed by Leo  J. Rasche, born in 1882. Curiously both listed their occupation at ages 19 and 17 as composer. That seems very unusual, so I wonder if this was not a musical employment but instead a job in maybe a printer's shop?

 

Estelle Rasche was next, born in 1884 in Maryland, so she would be 30 years old in these 1914 photos. There are only a couple women who look about 30 years old, and I think it may be the slender woman standing right of Vera in the park photo, and again on back right in the studio photo, and finally second from left in the stage photo. Even great photos still can have an element of mystery.

 

Vera had another brother, Dennis, born in 1887. He was followed by her sister Agnes, who was born in in Minnesota in 1889, as was Vera, or Veronica, in 1893. In the 1914 photos Agnes would be age 25 and Vera age 21. It all fits a pattern that I have found in my research on other female musicians from this era. Very often talented girls were the daughters of German or Austrian parents, and many had sisters who performed in the same ensemble. 

Vera and her sisters may have moved to Pittsburgh because that was a city noted for its superior music teachers and as a place with more opportunities in the light music industry where female groups were accepted. It's possible that Vera may have studied with Prof. Liefeld. as I found her name listed as a singer at one of Pittsburgh's vaudeville theaters in 1911 and 1912. Perhaps she and her sisters had a musical family act and were already experienced traveling entertainers on the theater circuit. 

I don't think Vera played more than two of three seasons with Albert Liefeld's Pittsburgh Ladies Orchestra as after 1915 her name does not return connected to Pittsburgh. I do know that she continued working as a musician playing bass and saxophone in small all-women groups. In 1924 she married William Robertson, a newspaper editor in Layfayette, Indiana.

According to newspaper reports Agnes Rasche was still playing cornet with the group in 1916. Like most of the larger ensembles, there was a constant change in the roster, especially with young women who married and then quit the profession. Every season Liefeld would have to recruit new musicians for his group, probably advertising for positions in the national music trade journals. 

 

As America entered the war in Europe, his ladies orchestra diminished in numbers and it became just a chamber group of six women plus Liefeld and his young son, Theodore Shaffer Liefeld, on solo trumpet. Yet Liefeld managed to keep his little orchestra performing on the Chautauqua circuit for several years more, the last event I could find was in 1922. In 1921 the Pittsburgh Ladies Orchestra was reportedly the first orchestra to make a radio broadcast, performing on Pittsburgh's radio station KDKA, but I suspect this was also a very small ensemble with mixed instrumentation and nothing like a real symphonic orchestra. 

Albert D. Liefeld died in Pittsburgh
on 20 July 1945 at age 77.

He had a good ear for musicians
and a great eye for photographs.

 

 UPDATE:

Because early cameras needed lots of light to expose the glass plate or film negatives photographs of interior rooms are not common. But as film technology improved the camera came indoors and captured a scene like this of a man seated at an upright piano. When it came up in my daily search on eBay I instantly recognized him as Albert D. Liefeld. It's especially interesting as he is in his music studio—a musician's workshop, which is a very rare setting to find in vintage photos. 

He is seated on a ornate stool that matches the decorative carved wood patterns on his piano. A folding chair behind him would be where he sat when he taught lessons. Along the rail above the keyboard are a few stacks of sheet music and on top are two mandolins. On the wall behind him are photos of musical ensembles, but the focus does not reveal much. I can recognize a guitar in the larger one which seems to be a group of men.

The full 8" x 6" photo shows a room filled with clutter that is a musician's habitual abode. Many framed photographs line the walls and there are several music cabinets even though there are several piles of sheet music scattered around. It looks much like my own studio.  Though the room is not very wide it has a high ceiling and seems to accommodate enough chairs for rehearsing a small ensemble. To judge by his appearance, Liefeld is still a young man and looks to be around the same age as in the postcards, so this photo was likely made 1910-1914, I think. On the back, lightly written in pencil is: Brother Albert & his Music Studio, Pittsburgh. 

In January 1943, two years before his death in July 1945, the Pittsburgh Press ran a flattering bio on Albert D. Liefeld. It describes his background, his musical accomplishments as a performer and composer, and his family, too. It's actually much more useful to genealogists and researchers like myself than an obituary. Since it includes his portrait, too, I will add it in order to complete his history with the Pittsburgh Ladies Orchestra.

Pittsburgh Press
3 January 1943

   

 

 

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where everyone longs for the good old days
of smiling unmasked faces.