The Depot Band at Jefferson Barracks

 

Back in the day
every photographer
had to carefully arrange a military band
so that the drum major was clearly visible.
It helped if the man was wearing a tall bearskin hat
but if not, then putting him with his long staff
to the side of the band was acceptable.

 

Likewise the band's director
needed to be recognizable too
especially because he wielded a much smaller stick.
If there was a band mascot, it might be next to the drums
or near the leader, ready to yowl the alarm
for the bandsmen to get into formation.

But the most important person
to feature in a military band's photograph
was the good fellow who kept everyone fed.
His nickname was Cookie
and his musical instrument
was appreciated three times a day—everyday.

Of course there were lots of exceptions
to these rules,
suggestions really,
since not every band had all the characters.

But this one did.
It's a great example
of the musical traditions
in the United States Army.

They were the band at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri.

The full photo shows 24 bandsmen (not counting the cook, the bandleader, or the mascot) standing outside the broad porch of a brick building. A caption on the postcard identifies the band as the:
 14th Co Band   Jefferson Barracks Mo. The musicians were servicemen in the United States Army stationed at Jefferson Barracks which is located on the Mississippi River just south of St. Louis, Missouri. Established in 1827 and named in honor of President Thomas Jefferson who had died the year before, this post is one of the U. S. Army's oldest commands.  

Jefferson Barracks has a long history as a rest and supply station and a center for army recruitment and training beginning with the Black Hawk War in 1832 and continuing up to World War II.  From its revolutionary inception the United States chose not to maintain a large standing army. In 1898, before the onset of the brief war with Spain, the U. S. Army had roughly 2,100 officers and 26,000 enlisted men divided into five regiments of artillery, ten regiments of cavalry, and twenty-five regiments of infantry. But after the national call for volunteers it increased its size to 216,029 troops by August 31, 1898. All those new recruits along with numerous state militia and guard units had to be organized somewhere and Jefferson Barracks was perfectly positioned for this purpose. Soldiers back then did a lot of marching and for that a good band was a very necessary army unit for a post like Jefferson Barracks to maintain.   

Aerial view of Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery
Source: Wikipedia By Mrouse - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

In 1946 Jefferson Barracks was decommissioned as a military post and much of the land was transferred to St. Louis county. However the Missouri National Guard and U. S. Air Force still maintain small headquarters operations at Jefferson Barracks. It is also the site of the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery which was established after the American Civil War for the interment of military veterans. It is the final resting place for over 237,000 veterans. 

A second postcard shows the band in a similar outdoor location, maybe even outside the same band barracks. I think it may be the same photographer too as they've made a variation of the other photo.  Here the bandleader is on the left next to his cornet and clarinet sections, but the band's mascot seems to have run off.

On the right is the same drum major and bass drummer. The double-bell euphonium and helicon players are now switched to opposite ends of the top row. 

It's a larger band with 29 bandsmen, without its mascot and cook. It's a typical instrumentation of a U. S. Army band of the 1900s, but I find it interesting for the instruments that are absent. Usually a military band, unlike a civilian town band, included double reed players on oboe and bassoon,  but here they are missing, perhaps because these instruments are more difficult to learn and have never been common in America. There are also no French horns either, another instrument regularly found in European military bands. (The horn-like instrument in the first photo, second from left in the 2nd row, is a mellophone, not a French horn.) The band has just one flute player with a blackwood instrument but no piccolo. (Though most flutists can double on piccolo.) Instead the high descant melody line would have to be played up by an E-flat clarinet.

This postcard has a lengthy message printed on the front.

                          United States Depot Band,  Jefferson Barracks, Mo.
        Mr. C. G. Conn,    1909
                        I congratulate you upon the great work you have
        done  for musicians and for your untiring efforts to supply Army
        musicians with Instruments that makes their work both pleasant
        and efficient.                            FRANK J. WEBER, Bandmaster.

The note is a testimonial to Charles Gerard Conn (1844 – 1931), the founder of the C. G. Conn musical instrument company in Elkhart, Indiana, at this time, the largest manufacturer of musical instruments in the world. Conn's innovations in brass and woodwind instrument designs and his promotion of band music were a major influence on musical culture in America. Conn owned a newspaper in Elkhart which also published a monthly music journal that regularly featured dozen of photos of bands like the Depot Band of Jefferson Barracks with testimonials from musicians and bandleaders on the merits of Conn band instruments. I wrote more about C. G. Conn in my story from March 2024, How to Make a Saxophone. 

Washington, D. C. Evening Star
2 August 1913

The bandmaster, Frank J. Weber, was regarded as one of the best musicians in the U. S. Army. He was born in 1861 in Mishawaka, Indian near South Bend where he learned to play the cornet. In July 1882 at the age of 21 Frank J. Weber enlisted in the army listing his occupation as musician. His first assignment was with the band at Jefferson Barracks. After a few years serving in both cavalry and infantry regimental bands he left the army to play with orchestras and theater bands in St. Louis. During the Spanish-American War, Weber joined the 3rd U. S. Volunteer Engineer regiment and for 10 months led its band while in Cuba. On his return to St. Louis he became director of the Letter Carriers' Band as well as playing in the St. Louis Symphony. 

In 1906 Weber re-enlisted to lead a reorganization of the Depot Band at Jefferson Barracks. Initially he had only 15 musicians in his charge but expected to have 28, the regulation number of bandsmen. He was responsible for purchasing all the band's instruments and music as well providing instrument instruction, too. His success entered him a good reputation as an army bandleader and in August 1913 he was selected to replace the retiring bandleader of the Engineer Band stationed in Washington, D. C. 

The Washington Evening Star was impressed enough to include Weber's photo along with the report.

_ _ _

The Engineer Band was one of several military bands in our nation's capitol that regularly gave public performances from 1914 to 1918. However, as far as I could determine, the band and Bandmaster Weber never served in France. After the war ended in 1919, General John J. Pershing, promoted to General of the Armies of the United States in recognition for leading the American Expeditionary Forces in the war, decided that America's army bands needed an upgrade to match the level of military bands he had heard in Europe. In January 1922 he established the United States Army Band, also known as "Pershing's Own", as the premier musical organization of the United States Army. 

Washington, D. C. Times Herald
5 December 1920

In the lead up to forming the band, bandleader Frank J. Weber, was put in charge of organizing a music school at Columbus Barracks, Ohio called the Seventh Recruit Depot Band. It was expected that he would supervise the training of 200 musicians for the army's regimental bands. The school would also for the first time offer a higher level of music instruction for qualified musicians to become bandleaders. 

Between December 1920 and February 1921 newspapers around the country ran a report on this peacetime appeal for recruiting more army musicians.  "We can take a man who knows enough to whistle a tune," says Band Leader Weber, "and make a musician out of him.  Regiments are have trouble in keeping enough bandsmen because after three years of army training [the standard enlistment period] a man can get an easy job in some industrial plant, where he is immediately assigned to the band, now an important part in welfare work among the large corporations."

In 1925 Bandmaster Frank J. Weber retired after over 33 years of accumulated army service. In that time he had risen from a private to a non-commissioned officer rank and in the 1920s was one of the first bandmasters to attain a warrant officer's rank of captain. He and his wife Catherine, with their daughter Katherine M. Weber continued to make their home in Washington, and in retirement Weber worked as director of the veterans' band of the American Legion post there. 

On 19 May 1932 Capt. Frank J. Weber died at his home in Washington after a long illness of five weeks. He and his wife are buried at the U. S. Soldiers' and Airmen's Home National Cemetery in Washington, D. C.

The United States military currently has 137 regular and reserve bands. Eleven of these are designated premier ensembles, including four U. S. Army bands, two U.S. Marine Corps bands. two U. S. Navy bands, two U. S. Air Force bands, and one U. S. Coast Guard band. Within these bands are far more sub-groups that Bandmaster Weber would not recognize, including choruses; string ensembles; and many jazz, rock, and pop combos. The premier bands and the smaller regional reserve bands play concert tours throughout America and in foreign lands too. The bands of course are now more representative of America with musicians male and female, and from  every ethnic background. The music too has evolved to include far more tunes than what the Depot Band played in 1909. However I suspect the modern army band performs far fewer military parades than in Frank Weber's day. 

My dad was an army officer whose career took him to many military posts in America, Korea, France, and Germany. Growing up I remember watching him march in regimental reviews to  music from an army band. That flourish of drums and flash of wind instruments accompanying the rhythmic cadence of the troops captured my attention and introduced me to music in a way I still marvel at, even though I chose a different path to become a musician in an orchestra rather than a band. 

There was one tune that every army band played for those parades that became my favorite march, and maybe the first music I can recall recognizing and learning of its composer. It's  "The Thunderer" by John Philip Sousa. He composed it in 1889 for a chapter of the Knights Templar fraternal order which was participating in the Twenty-fourth Triennial Conclave of the Knights' Grand Encampment. [By coincidence I wrote a story about the Twenty-sixth Conclave, The Grand Parade of the Knights Templar. Those knights likely heard "The Thunderer" when it was still a fresh novelty. ] 

So I'll finish this story of Bandmaster Frank J. Weber and his Depot Band of Jefferson Barracks with a march that I feel certain was his favorite too. Here is "The Thunderer" by John Philip Sousa performed by the Concert Band of The U.S. Army Field Band.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where no one can be too house proud.