The Imperial Ladies' Band of Chicago Junction, Ohio

Imperial is a word that's fallen out of fashion. There's not much need in the 21st century for a term signifying empire unless its applied to stormtroopers or stout. But in earlier times the world was filled with royal monarchs of all kinds, including a few bona fide emperors, so the adjective "imperial" implied a majestic grandeur that everyone recognized. So attaching it to the name of a band from a small town must have added a classy, even regal, quality to their music. In fact I've already written stories about The Imperial Boys' Orchestra in August 2012 and The Imperial Girls Band of Reading, Michigan in December 2011. It seems that imperial was once a popular modifier for band names.

 

Today I present
the Imperial Ladies' Band
of Chicago Junction, Ohio.

 

 

The ladies, all 17 of them, are carefully arranged outdoors in a park so that they fill out the camera frame. Dressed in summer-weight white skirts and jackets, carefully protected from grass stains by a rug, the young women appear to be around ages 13 to 19. Following a tradition of band photos the photographer has placed the bass drum front and center to best display the name of the band on the drumhead. The band has a typical instrumentation of three clarinetists and two drummers balancing the remaining brass players. In the back row is a gentleman holding a cornet who is surely the band's leader.

 

Though the postcard was never posted the back of the postcard has a note that confirms the location and adds a small detail. 

 

Grandma
     from
        Corrine

Ladies Band of
Chicago Jct. O.
They say this is the
largest ladies Band in
the state.

 

The Imperial Ladies' Band came from Chicago Junction, in Huron County, Ohio, now known as Willard, Ohio. The town was originally named just Chicago when it was established in 1874 by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company as a depot along an expansion line that would connect Chicago, Illinois to central Ohio. In 1882 the B&O line recognized the public's confusion caused by this small station's name, so Chicago, Ohio, with its population of about 800, was renamed Chicago Junction. It's population grew after the B&O finished laying more track eastward to Pittsburgh in 1891 making Chicago Junction an important hub for several lines serving Ohio. By 1910 nearly 3,000 people called it home.

 

Unfortunately train station boards apparently did not have enough room for the second word "Junction" so it was abbreviated to "Jct." This continued to confound passengers and postal workers who still got the name mixed up with the big city of Chicago, so in 1917 the town's name was changed to Willard, Ohio in honor of Daniel Willard, (1861–1942) who was then the president of the B&O Railroad, and managed it from 1910 to 1941.

 

The photo of the Imperial Ladies' Band of Chicago Junction has no date, but my research uncovered a newspaper that thought their photo was worthy of publication in 1912. In July of that year the Cleveland Plain Dealer printed their picture under a heading that loudly proclaimed "WOMEN MUSICIANS COMING TO CLEVELAND."

 

 

Cleveland Plain Dealer
28 July 1912

The report said that the Chicago Junction's Imperial Ladies' Band, "the only organization of its kind in Ohio, will be brought to Cleveland for the annual national convention of the Eagles." The band was organized in February and had already filled about twenty engagements.  But even better than the featuring just the photo was that the paper included the names of each musician with their instrument.

 

The musicians are: Director: Clint Pitcher; cornets, Miss Fay Beelman, Miss Lizzie Sennett, Miss Anna Simpson, Miss Katherine Heinbaugh; clarinets, Miss Ruth Wheeler, Miss Ruth Jeffries; tubas, Miss Genevieve Forbes, Miss Winona Campbell; baritone, Miss Nina Howe; altos, Miss Frances Raymond, Miss Alica Hedden, Miss Grace Richards; trombone, Miss Milda Berk, Miss Letha, Beelman; drums, Miss Grace Bunschu, Miss Grace Rex, Miss Berk.

 

 

 

Sandusky OH Register
17 August 1912

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three weeks later, under a snarky headline "PLEASE NOTICE THEY'RE ALL UNDER TWENTY", the Sandusky Register ran a notice that said:

 

 "The Ladies' Imperial Brass Band of Chicago Junction, Ohio will give a concert on the campus in front of headquarters, at the Soldiers' Home, Sunday afternoon at 2 o'clock. A program of old time war songs, war music and plantation melodies, that will awaken memories in the hearts and minds of the old soldiers, will be given, together with other selections that will please the visitors present. Now that the women are asking to be placed on an equal footing with men, so far as suffrage is concerned, here is a practical demonstration of what they can do in the art of music.

   "The band is composed of young women, all under 20 years of age. They are all talented musicians and are fully competent and capable of giving a merited and pleasing concert."

 

 The notice continued by listing the names and instruments of the band's musicians. One of the clarinetists was left out but the seventeen names in the Cleveland paper exactly corresponds to the number of young women in the photo, though I think one of the clarinetists was mistaken for a drummer.

 

_ _ _

 

 

 

 

 

The band's director and instructor was Charles Clinton Pitcher, or Clint Pitcher. In the 1910 census he was living with his wife Mary and three children in Venice, Ohio, about 10 miles west of Chicago Junction. He was born in Ohio in 1871 and according to census records held various occupations as a house painter, dairy farmer, and interior decorator.

Clint Pitcher evidently had musical talent and I found his name in a brief report from 1893 that said he and a partner provided music on violin and mandolin at a social event in Plymouth, Ohio, about 7 miles south of Chicago Junction. That Clint also played the cornet is not unusual since many musicians in this era were largely self taught and learned to play several musical instruments. However it is a testimony to his skill as a music teacher that he succeeded in training a group of young women to perform concerts after only a few months of rehearsals.

But the Imperial Ladies' Band did not just play music sitting down.
They also played while marching too.

 

Sandusky OH Register
2 October 1912

In October 1912 the Sandusky Register ran another photo of the Imperial Ladies' Band, this time in parade formation.

The free band concert to be held on the public square at Milan, Wednesday evening promises to be of more than ordinary interest.  The band consists of eighteen ladies of Chicago Junction.  The members are of the best families of that town, and they have made a decided hit in their line.  They are a novelty as a band, because there are few ladies' bands.  They are under contract to go to a Masonic convention in Denver Colorado next summer, and their time is so generally taken up that the people of Milan are fortunate in securing them at this time.  The band has recently secured new uniforms at a cost of about $500, which gives them a very nebby appearance. In case of rain the concert will be held Thursday evening.

 

 

The newspaper's grainy photo of the Chicago Junction Ladies' Band was taken from another postcard photo which I've recently acquired. Here the women are wearing the same white uniform skirts and jackets as in the previous photo, but with the addition of floppy white hats. They stand at parade rest on a residential dirt street with a few people watching in the background. Tubas and trombones lead the way with their director Mr. Pitcher at the back. One has to wonder what condition those white uniforms were in after marching on such dusty/muddy roads.

Contrary to the newspaper's report, all-female bands, both amateur and professional, were not uncommon to hear in concert during this era. However to see one marching and playing was unusual and the Imperial Ladies' Band was clearly doing its part to show that its female musicians were every bit as capable as the musicians of a mens' band.

 

I don't know where this photo was taken. Possibly in Milan, Ohio which is about 25 miles north of Chicago Junction, beyond the bigger town of Norwalk, Ohio, the county seat of Huron County. This postcard was sent from Chicago Junction on 10 March 1913 to Mrs. Geo. Sheriff of Mansfield, Ohio.

 

 

Chicago Jct. O.  Mar. 10.
Mrs. Sheriff :-   Guess you
will think I am slow
in sending you a card
but this is the first I
have been to town since
the Sun. I came home. How
does this find you?  We are
feeling much better but
mama has been sick.
Expect to come home next Tues.
        Your friend Mrs. Gralmiller.(?)

In 1913 the Imperial Ladies' Band provided music for the opening of a poultry show in Milan;  marched in the Mansfield, OH Labor Day parade along with bands from several trade unions; and bought new black velvet uniform dresses for the fall/winter season. In 1914 they played for a convention of former railroad employees in Fort Wayne, Indiana, 240 miles west of Chicago Junction; performed at the county fair in Medina, Ohio; and went to the big conclave of the Knights Templar in Columbus, Ohio where the young ladies of Chicago Junction were the only female band in a parade with over 100 bands. In 1915 they appeared at a convention of the Fraternal Order of Eagles in Elyria, Ohio; then at a summer Chautauqua in Carrollton, Ohio about 100 southeast of Chicago Junction.

They were a busy bunch considering that the young women were still in school and no doubt Mr. Pitcher had other work and responsibilities to take care of. I suspect the band received support from businesses in Chicago Junction. This was a decade when boosterism was hot and it seems every small town in America was vying to become the next big little city. Certainly Pitcher secured formal contracts when his lades' band would travel which probably paid for expenses, new instruments, uniforms, and his fees too, but I doubt the girls ever earned anything from their music.

What made this small town Ladies' Band successful was its location in north central Ohio where all the railroads north to south and east to west connected. In this era travel was measured not with a road map but with a train timetable. I expect that a large number of the entertainers, bands, and orchestras in my photograph collection passed through Chicago Junction at one time or another. I believe it was too small to support a theater or newspaper, but passengers may have stopped to change trains and get a bite to eat at the station cafe.

In 1912-15 the biggest employer in Chicago Junction was the B&O rail yard where trains would stop so that their steam engines could refuel on coal and water. The puff of smokestacks, the hiss of steam cylinders, the clatter of boxcars, and banging of carriage doors must have been familiar sounds to the girls in the band. No doubt many of them learned the train schedules by heart since their brothers, fathers, and eventually husbands too, worked on the railroads.

 

 

This postcard of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Yards in Chicago Junction, Ohio gives us a small idea of how trains once powered the town's economy. I imagine that today there are rails that date from 1912 or even earlier that are still carrying train traffic.

 

 

The postcard was sent to Mrs. Harry Pierce of Carey, Ohio from Chicago Junction on 18 September 1913.

 

                                                                     9-17-13

Dear Friends  As Scott and I expect
to go away next week for a
couple of weeks tho't may be
you would want to come after
your trunk and chickens before
we went.  the rats of a cat
got another chicken last
night one that would
weigh 2½ lbs  ate about half
of it and I expect will be
after the rest tonight.  how
is Mother better I hope.  Old
Man Dye was buried 2 weeks
today Hallie went to Columbus home
Roy to the Childrens home at Norwalk
and the home is broken up the
people have not moved in our house
yet their goods have not come
no more room so by by  Mrs S.S.

 

 

The trains still stop in Willard, Ohio but not for passenger service anymore. In modern times the network of interstate roadways have replaced most passenger rail lines in America. I think that the depot in Willard/Chicago Junction does look much the same, though without the steam engines and coal chutes. The view from Google Earth gives this image of the turntable used to point the diesel engines in the right direction. Click this <LINK> for a better birds-eye-view.

 

 

 

By the 1920 census Clint Pitcher and his family had moved northeast to Cleveland. And of course many of the young women in the Imperial Ladies' Band were now older than twenty. So the ladies' band seems to have folded around 1916 as I could not find any trace of it after that. 

 

 

Except for one special event.

 

 

 

Mansfield OH News
1 August 1934

 

On 1 August 1934, the Mansfield OH News ran a notice about an event in Willard called 'Old-Timer' Day. The occasion was an invitation to former residents of Willard/Chicago Junction to return to the town for a celebration of its history. In addition to a parade and baseball game, there would be music provided by "a Willard Band of 20 years ago directed by Perry Palmer, and the girls' band of two decades ago, believed to be the first girls' band in the United States. The latter group of musicians will be directed by Clint Pitcher of Attica."

 

I wonder if the Imperial Ladies marched in the parade? Did any of them bring along their daughters to play in the band? Did they still have the bass drum?

 

Charles Clinton Pitcher died in November 1965 at age 94.

 

 

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where the trains always run on time.