The Band of the Round Oak Stove Co.

 

With all the trombones, trumpets, clarinets, and drums
this group looks like a typical concert band
that probably played a lot of marches
and maybe a few waltzes and polkas, too.

But actually they were into heavy metal. 

Closer examination of this large format 9½" x 7½" photo
revealed that though their uniforms were mostly alike
there were small difference in their cap badges.
This fellow, a clarinetist seated front and center,
had a name on his cap:
OUND OAK
and a very large patch on his shoulder
that looked like a face inset into a circular rosette.

His younger companion next to him 
had no cap badge but the patch
was more legible.
The first word was:
ROUND 

It was enough of a clue
to find the full name of the band's employer:
The Round Oak Stove Company
of Dowagiac, Michigan.

Round Oak Stove Company sign
Dowagiac, Michigan
Source: The Internets

The Round Oak Stove Company was established in 1871 by Philo D. Beckwith in Dowagiac, Michigan. Like many entrepreneurs of the 19th century, Beckwith started first by making an invention for his own use, a heating stove for a room at his foundry shop where he made agricultural tools and plow points. His design for a small cast-iron heating stove fueled by wood caught the attention of a Michigan railroad company that needed an efficient heater for its stations. Orders were placed and Beckwith's foundry was expanded. Soon his "railroad" stoves were adapted for coal to heat residential homes as "parlor" stoves which proved very popular with the public. This "Round Oak" parlor stove was embellished with ornamental features but still simple to operate, yet strictly for heating, not cooking. 

Beckwith chose Dowagiac as the site for his stove factory and as his company prospered so did his town. In the 1880s he helped fund civic projects, sponsored a baseball team,  and served as mayor. He is still remembered as "arguably the most important person in Dowagiac history" according to a brochure prepared by the Dowagiac Area History Museum.  

Philo D. Beckwith died in 1889 but his company continued operations under his son-in-law, Fred E. Lee. In the 1890s the Round Oak railroad stove was reworked into larger commercial and residential furnaces. By 1900 the company expanded with a line of cast-iron cooking ranges and then coal/wood/gas-fueled cooking ranges made from porcelain enameled steel. The factory in 1905 covered 15 acres and employed 600 men. Though the Round Oak stove design was imitated by many competitors, it became the largest and best selling brand of heating systems in America. 

Round Oak Stove Works
Dowagiac, Michigan
Source: The Internets

In this bird's eye view of the Round Oak Stove Works, the circular vignette at the top left is a picture of the Beckwith Memorial Theatre, which was built to order by P. D. Beckwith and completed in 1893 after his death. It had a seating capacity of 700 with a stage fly space large enough for thirty-six hanging drops that were capable of creating seventy-six different set combinations. At the time it was considered one of the finest theatres in America. It ceased presenting theatrical shows in 1928 and was demolished in 1966. 

Round Oak Stove
Source: The Internets

This example shows a Round Oak stove with its cylindrical firebox mounted on four clawfoot legs and topped with a decorative nickel plate finial. It was attached to a chimney by a smoke pipe exiting out the back of the stove.

7 September 1918
Saturday Evening Post

This Round Oak advertisement from 1918 for the Beckwith Company, as it was now called, features pictures and description of the Round Oak "Moistair" Heating System furnace; the "Chief" Boiler Iron Range; the Three-fuel Combination Range; and the Original Round Oak Square Base Heater. The company's slogan was: "Makers of Good Goods Only." 

At top right is a picture of Chief Doe-Wah-Jack, a fictional Indian who was created in the 1900s to be the Round Oak emblem used on the company's products and advertisements. The mascot's name was invented, supposedly, to help people unfamiliar with the pronunciation of Dowagiac. The town's name is actually derived from the Potawatomi word dewje'og meaning "fishing [near home] water".

     

Round Oak Stove
Source: The Internets

Round Oak stoves remain popular collectibles in the 21st century, displayed in homes even if not used as they were originally intended. This example shows off the stove's shapely curves accented with nickel plating. 

Round Oak Band, circa 1895
Source: The Internets

The Round Oak Stove Works had a company brass band in the 1890s, a time when most towns and many factories set up bands for self-promotion and maintain good employee morale. Often a band leader and, sometimes, talented instrumentalists were recruited from other places. They might be given regular employment in the factory while also playing in the band, or hired just occasionally for band events. 

 

Round Oak Concert Band, circa 1930s
Source: Dowagiac Area History Museum

In this more formal photo of the Round Oak Concert Band taken in the 1930s. the band's hats and uniforms are similar to those in my photo. Two men on the right show the same patch of Chief Doe-Wah-Jack. Both groups have 24 members but this band has two sousaphones, four saxophones, and a young female musician. The two clarinetists that I featured at the top of this story are pictured here standing on the left. So I expect it dates my photo to either the late 1920s or early 1930s.

At its peak in the mid 1910s, the Beckwith Co. employed 1200 people at the Rounds Oak Stove Works, while the population of Dowagiac was around 5,000 residents. After the First World War, the company struggled against rival stove companies that built factories in Dowagiac. The first was the Rudy Furnace Company which opened in 1915, followed by the Premier Furnace Co. in 1920, and Dowagiac Steel Furnace Co. in 1929. The Second World War added more stress even though Beckwith secured some government contracts. In 1946 the company discontinued production of stoves and in 1947, sold its remaining buildings to the Kaizer-Frazer Company to manufacture automobile engine parts. The Round Oak trademark name was sold to Peerless Furnace, which continued to make repair parts for Round Oak furnaces and stoves until its closure in 1965.

I was unable to find any newspaper reports of the Round Oak Concert Band's performances or events. I suspect that it played for parades, employee gatherings, and civic holidays. And surely every town band had to play for July 4th and, for a company band, maybe Labor Day, too. I assume that these men were all employees but its possible that some musicians worked outside of the Round Oak Stove Works. Perhaps one day I'll find a list of their names. 

But rather than the band, what I really wish I could hear are the daily sounds at the Round Oak Stove Works. The constant din of hammers, chains, and shovels clanging throughout the factory.  The roar of blast furnaces melting 120 tons of pig iron a day. The shouts of men coordinating their teammates as they pour molten iron into mold boxes. That's a kind of music we rarely hear in America anymore.

To better illustrate the Round Oak Stove Works

here is a British Pathé short film 

Casting In Iron (1940-1949)
which shows how the burner rings
for a gas cooker stove are made.
It's British but the process would have been
largely the same in Dowagiac, Michigan. 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where no good wheel goes unturned.

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.

The Sanford Mills Band

They look like musicians.
Drummers, trombone players,

clarinetists, and cornet players.

They wear sharp looking band uniforms
with music lyre badges pinned to their military caps.

In the center is a drum major
wearing a tall bearskin hat
and holding a shiny baton.

The bass drumhead even tells us their name:
the Sanford Mills Band
of Sanford, ME

But music was not the principal occupation
of these 23 bandsmen.
 

They are were employed as
weavers, winders, warpers,
burlers, combers, crimpers,
dyers, mixers, finishers,
spinners, spoolers,
twisters, tearers,
block printers, loom fixers,
bobbin setters, robe cutters, wool sorters,
and at numerous other jobs
at the Plush and Worsted Mills of Sanford, Maine,
manufacturers of Mohair Plushes,
Automobile Robes,
and Horse Blankets.
 

Sanford Mills advert
1919 Sanford, ME city directory

The Sanford Mills was an industrial complex of about 7.5 acres in Sanford, ME. It was developed by Thomas Goodall, an English immigrant, in 1867 on the site of earlier mill industries. His Sanford factories produced coarse woolen blankets for horses and mules; warm robes for drivers and passengers of automobiles which had no heating; and decorative plush mohair fabrics used in commercial upholstery. The seats in Pullman railway cars were covered in this heavy material. The next postcard image of the Sanford Mills suggests a quiet, pastoral landscape which was probably very far from the reality of a large factory employing hundreds of workers.

Sanford Mills, Sanford, ME c. 1919
Source: Wikipedia

The men in the Sanford Mills Band were predominately young. Only one cornet player, seated center on the floor, looks to be 40+ in age. Most of them worked at the Sanford Mills in either one of the jobs listed above or in some other capacity like a clerk, electrician, carpenter, plumber, etc. These skilled trade occupations were attached not only to the census records but to names listed in the city directory too.

Some of the bandsmen may have been employed in other Sanford industries like the lumber mill or shoe factory, but all of them certainly lived very close to the mills and either walked or took a trolley line to work. The reason the mills were located in Sanford was the water power from city's Mousam River. The town counted 9,049 inhabitants for the 1910 census. Sanford. ME is about 35 miles southwest of Portland, ME and 35 miles north of Portsmouth, NH.

The band was organized around 1909-10 and may have been sponsored partly by the mill owners. For some company bands, the rehearsal space was at the workplace, and the band would rehearse and perform during the factory lunch hour. This may have been the case for the Sanford Mill Band early in its history but by 1924 the band kept a rehearsal space on the top floor of a downtown building next to a city park which was a short 5 minute walk from the mill. Company bands were very much a part of the worker's community and the band would perform for all kinds of civic events. American small towns loved parades, and the tall drum major at the back of the band is evidence that the Sanford Mills Band was a marching band. With only three clarinets and seven cornets they were also more of a brass band than a wind band. 

My first simple search for the Sanford Mills Band turned up the most useful information. In July 2015, Vic Firth, the celebrated timpanist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra passed away at the age of 85. He was a very talented percussionist who won this position when he was only 20. In his memorial tribute, he attributed his start in music to growing up in Sanford where his father, Everett E. Firth, was a music teacher and director of the Sanford Mills Band from 1910 to 1954.

Having a name made it easy to find more details on Ancestry.com and I found Everett E. Firth listed in the 1913 city directory as a shoeworker and conductor of the Sanford Mills band. He was also living at home with his father Joseph E. Firth, a clerk as the Hotel Sanford. At the time he was only 19 years old.

1913 Sanford and Springvale, ME city directory

Unfortunately the internet archives have not digitized any Sanford newspapers, but sometimes Sanford's community news were published in Boston newspapers and the band got a brief mention. In January 1915 it was reported that the band had elected officers and Everett Firth was appointed as conductor of the band. Between 1917 and 1919 his name was not in the directory, as according to his draft card he was employed as a weaver at a cotton mill in Lowell, Massachusetts. When the United States entered the war in 1917, Everett was one of hundreds of musicians who were sent to France where he served as an assistant band leader for the 303rd Field Artillery band. On his return he moved back to Sanford and was listed in the 1920 census as Musician, Theatre. In the 1923 city directory he was again identified as conductor of the Sanford Mills band, while his father, Joseph, worked as an operative in the Sanford Mills.

In the photo, one musician's hat is different. It's the cornet player seated right. He has an insignia that is difficult to read as the focus is not clear, but with digital correction it looks like:

F. 1st Regt.
of K O S M

He is also the only musician with a bow tie which stands out because of the high collar on the uniform jacket. I've been unable to figure out the meaning of the initials, K.O.S.M. or H.C.S.M.?, perhaps it's a fraternal society, but 1st Regt. does suggest a quasi-military group. In any case, though I don't know the answer to this puzzle, I think this young man's dress statement marks him as the band leader. And I believe he may be Everett E. Firth.

The photographer of this large 9.5" x 6.5" photo was Fred C. Philpot who operated a studio in Sanford, ME beginning from at least 1893 to 1923. Philpot died in 1925 at age 69, so the band's photo was certainly taken before that. I believe the photo's style and the possible identification of its leader dates it from around 1914-16.


Company bands were more than just a recreation for workers. They were an organization that represented an entire community without connection to church or politics. Factory towns like Sanford, at the beginning of the 20th century proudly promoted the promise of the new industrial city. Here are two postcards to illustrate the Sanford Mills where these men worked and made music.

Sanford Apr 13
Dear Father and
Mother  I got here all right and work this after
noon  it is awful cold and
my room is cold so I am going to bed
I am well  will write soon
C. W. W.

The postcard was sent to Mr. G. H. Willey of Newfield, Maine
on April 14, 1908.
Newfield is about 17 miles north of Sanford
and in 1910 had a population of 620 people.
The photographer was Philpot,
the same studio that took the band photo.

This second postcard is not a photo but an etching of a large factory complex with impressive smoke stacks.

I am sorry but
I cannot exchan
ge souvenir spoons
or magazines
with you for
they are too ex-
pensive for me.
You know I
have to work
pretty hard
for a living I
am alone to
work with one
of my sisters to take care of the house and my dear old
mother and father.  so it makes it quite hard for me.
Hope you will find someone else to exchange with you.
Mary Menard.

The back of the postcard has no stamp or address, but like the previous postcard is "undivided" to be used only for the address. In the United States this officially changed in March 1907 when a sender was permitted to write a message on one half of the address side of a postcard. So Mary's note likely dates from before 1908.



The Sanford Mills Band disappeared from the city directory in the late 1920s, but evidently it continued performing for various civic functions like fairs and mill employee picnics. Eventually it became the Sanford community band which still continues the tradition of band music in Sanford.

In 1953 the Goodall family sold its Sanford Mills to the Burlington Mills Corporation which closed the mill operation in 1955. After many years of vacancy and decay, the remaining buildings were finally scheduled for demolition by the property owner. But concern over losing an important piece of community history motivated the city of Sanford to intervene. Arrangements were made to sell the land to a developer which then cleaned up the existing environmental contamination and rehabilitated the property. Using the remaining brick shell of the main mill building, 36 income-restricted apartment units and 22,000 square feet of commercial space were created.

In June 2017, one of the largest building of the old Sanford Mills was destroyed in a terrible fire.  Fortunately the buildings were unoccupied at the time, but two days later three boys, two 13-year-olds and a 12-year-old, were charged with felony arson. Demolition of this site began in September 2018.

Fire at Sanford Mills, Sanford, ME 23 June 2017
Source: Wikipedia

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
click the link to find more good yarns.

The Music of Bricks and Mortar

Bricks and mortar.
It's still a common phrase
for a physical building,
even though the construction industry
now relies on many more engineered materials
than just bricks, blocks, and stone to build structures.

But a hundred years ago
one of the principal skilled trades
that helped build modern America
was that of the bricklayer.
It was work that required
specialist knowledge of construction methods,
mathematical calculations, and stamina.
Lots of stamina.

In fact the ancient tools of a mason,
the compass and the square,
became the symbols of Freemasonry,
a fraternal society which originated
in part from the medieval craft guilds of stonemasons.

However those first masons did not use any musical tools
like the tuba, clarinet, or cornet in their guild's order.
But these brickies from
Pennsylvania certainly did.

They are the
Bricklayers Band
of the Bethlehems PA. Union No. 8.

This large photo about 4" by 10"
shows 26 men dressed in a simple uniform
of white duck trousers, white shirt and broad cap
standing on a brick sidewalk and portico
and holding various wind band instruments.
 

The plural Bethlehems on the bass drum head
refers to the collective townships
of Bethlehem, South Bethlehem, and West Bethlehem,
which are divided by the Lehigh River and Monocacy Creek.
In 1917 they merged into the singular community of Bethlehem, PA.
This wonderful birds-eye view map of Bethlehems
from the Library of Congress archives was made in 1878
and shows off dozens of major structures -
churches, banks, factories, and homes,
all made of brick and stone.

1878 Birds-eye view of Bethlehems, PA
Source: www.loc.gov

Except for the bass drum, the photo is unmarked. But the name and place of the band was enough to quickly find it in the October 1912 edition of The Bricklayer Mason and Plasterer, the aptly named official journal of  the Bricklayers, Masons, and Plasterers International Union of America.  This trade union was formed in 1865 and is the oldest labor organization in North America as it also represents Canadian workers hence the "international union" label. In 1912 its journal included sections written in French, Italian, and German, the later printed in the old Fraktur typeface.

October 1912 The Bricklayer, Mason, and Plasterer
Source: Google Books

Subtitled "An Illustrated Monthly" the Bricklayer, Mason, and Plasterer was filled with dense reports on union affairs; lengthy lists of building contracts; numerous ads for levels and trowels; admonishments to Smoke Union Made Cigars and Tobacco; and a surprising number of photos.

_ _ _

August 1912 The Bricklayer, Mason, and Plasterer
Source: Google Books

 
In 1912 bricklayers were evidently suspicious of concrete construction, as this "new" engineering was considered inferior to fireproof brick and susceptible to catastrophic failure. Every month the journal reported on building collapses with photos of cracked or disintegrating concrete. Interestingly in 1912 the journal also reported on the finishing work on the Woolworth Building in New York City. With 57 floors and a height of 792 feet it was the tallest building in the world from 1913 to 1930. It required an enormous number of bricks.

_ _ _

But my real reason for reading through an old trade union journal was found on page 248 in the journal's "mail bag" section. It is a copy of the identical photo, captioned Bricklayers' Band, Union No. 8 Pa.  A letter accompanies the image:

October 1912 The Bricklayer, Mason, and Plasterer
Source: Google Books

No. 8 Pa. Takes Part in Labor Day Parade.

The Bricklayer, Mason and Plasterer:
     Under another cover we are sending you a photograph of the Bricklayers' Band of Union No. 8 Pa., which made its first public appearance on Labor Day, accompanied by about 130 members of the union. We proceeded to Bangor,  Pa., on two special cars to take part in the Four Cities Labor Day parade.
    Our Bricklayers' Band was organized May 8, 1911, and under the leadership of our worthy vice-president, Brither Steyers, it has become a grand success.
    With best wishes to one and all, I remain,   
    Yours fraternally,
      Emery Haney,
      Secretary No. 8 Pa.
      Bethlehem, Pa., Septermber 29, 1912

* * *

The Bricklayers' Union Band of Bethlehems had a short life to judge by the absence of any reports of the band in Pennsylvania newspapers after 1917. As the war years disrupted so much of American manufacturing and industry, employment for bricklayers probably became too challenging for the union to keep up its musical subsection.

Laying long repetitive courses of brick is hard methodical work. The sound of tapping bricks and slapping mortar into place is actually quite a rhythmic skill that trains the ear for a steady tempo. So did bricklayers whistle while they worked?

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where everyone needs another brick in the wall.