The Racket

 

Long before the internet,
before television, movies,
radio, and record players,
music required real musicians to play it live.
It was an artform intended to be shared with people.
So if you heard the sound of a band
it attracted your attention
because you knew
something special was happening

 

 

The Wellsville band,  Decoration Day.

 

 

 

 This postcard was postmarked from Wellsville, Kansas on August 4, 1908

(the stamp imprint was smudged and it looks like 1998)

and addressed to:

 

Mr. & Mrs. Ed McGill

Erie L.

Pa.

No. 15 Hickory St.

 Vacation days are

over,  back in harness
temp. 100° in shade
W. L. Upham 

Wellsville KS Globe
29 May 1908

The writer with the neat penmanship hand was Mr. W. L. Upham, the manager of The Racket, a dry goods store on Main St. in Wellsville, Kansas, a small town in Franklin County, Kansas, about 45 miles southwest of Kansas City, Missouri. Mr. Upham advertised regularly in the Wellsville Globe, a weekly newspaper, offering stylish clothing for men and boys with custom tailoring too. No doubt it was Mr. Upham who took this cockeyed, slightly fuzzy photo, and understandably he tried to focus his camera more on the name of his store than on the bandsmen. 

His full name was Wilbur Lincoln Upsham and he was born in Pennsylvania in 1860. His store was one of a small chain of haberdasheries owned by Mr. F. J. Miller that were scattered in towns around the county. Next to it was Mr. W. R. Holman's meat market, and next to it was Mr. A. P. Van Meter's grocery. Wellsville's current population is around 1,953 but in 1910 it only had 648 residents. But since it was on a railway line connecting big cities north, south, east, and west, The Racket catered to a lot of traveling businessmen passing through Wellsville. 

In 1908, Decoration Day, also known as Memorial Day, was observed on May 30th. It was a time Americans traditionally honored and remembered those who had died while serving in the U.S. military. In 1908 this meant primarily men who had fought in the terrible Civil War of 1861–1865.

Wellsville KS Globe
29 May 1908

The band pictured on the postcard is preparing to lead a procession to Wellsville's cemetery where a ceremony was scheduled for that afternoon. The Globe reported on the participants in the event which included an outpost of the Grand Army of the Republic, the veterans organization for former soldiers and sailors of the Union Army, who would help with decorating the graves of  their comrades in arms. A pastor from Ottawa, the seat of Franklin County, would deliver the address and another minister from Baldwin, a nearby town, would speak on behalf of the ladies' circle. It was now 43 years after the end of the war and there were now fewer veterans and more widows than in previous years. 

Wellsville KS Globe
12 June 1908

The following week the Globe reported on how well the citizens of Wellsville conducted themselves that day. Practically every business was closed until the end of the service. Many stores and residences were decorated with patriotic colors. "The procession to the grounds was the largest that had followed the veterans for years. The boys of the Midcontinent band took part in both the morning and afternoon exercises, a feature that added to the interest of the day's program.  The Globe is glad to be able to say thar the day was fittingly observed here and that there were no amusements or desecrations of the day permitted, or even planned."



In May 1915, the editor of the Wellsville Globe, Mr. Asa F. Converse, took advantage of his in-house writing talent by publishing a poem that his wife, May Frink Converse wrote for Decoration Day. Though it is written in a sentimental style rarely seen in our century, I think it still conveys the way many people feel about preserving the memory of our ancestors and commemorating their sacrifice for our country.

Decoration Day.

                My grandpa came to live with us, right after grandma died;
                He grew to be so fond of me—called me his pet and pride,
                While I though more of him than I did anybody else—
                It seemed to me that no one was as nice as Grandpa Belts.
                He made all sorts of things for me, a wagon and a sled,
                And a hobby-horse whose mane and tail he took from our old Ned;
                A jumping-jack, and whistles that make a funny sound,
                And the cutest little windmill that goes around and round.
                He'd tell me lots of stories, 'bout when he was a boy,
                And how much fun he used to have with his big brother Roy;
                And how, when he was just sixteen, they went away to war,—
                To help save their country, was what they fighted for.
                They had all sorts of 'speriences, and then, one dreadful night,
                His brother Roy was shot and killed, beside him in a fight,
                And he was put in prison, 'till at last the war was done'
                And North and South united, and the nation kept as one.
                So Grandpa said that I must love my country and its flag,
                And never, never in the dust to let its colors drag.
                But Decoration Day I liked the very best of all;
                He'd let me march along with him beside the soldiers tall,
                And we would carry wreathes of flowers to decorate each grave
                Where sleep the soldiers who had helped their country dear to save;
                The band would play, the flags would wave, and everything be grand;
                And then, when all was over, we'd come home hand in hand.
                It's Decoration Day again—I just can't help but cry,
                For somehow I had never thought, my own grandpa would die.

                                                                                    —May Frink Converse

Wellsville, Kansas, Main Street c.2020
Source: The Internet

Today the buildings seen in Mr. Upham's photo are still standing, but the businesses have changed. The A. P. Van Meter grocery is now a wedding and event venue. Mr. Holman's meat market has been, until recently, Smokey's BBQ, but since covid time it has closed and not reopened. And The Racket is now a tax and accounting firm.

 

 

 

 

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where there's always service with a smile.