Trolling for Bemidji band stories

My friend Laurel says she can always tell when my life gets hectic – I stop blogging.  It’s true, I have not had much chance to blog lately.  My other (paid) writing gigs and all the end-of-the-school year concerts and events have filled my schedule.  But I did have the chance yesterday to spend an hour and a half at the Minnesota History Center library, and it felt great to be back amid the microfilm machines.

There are so many loose ends to the G. Oliver Riggs project, it’s difficult to decide which one to pick up and follow when I have an opportunity to do more research.  I knew I didn’t have enough time to glean the Louis Hill files for more Montana Cowboy Band information – a mission for this summer – so I decided to troll for newspaper stories from the early days of G. Oliver’s stint in Bemidji, Minnesota.

The Bemidji Boys’ Band, September 1922

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you might recall that my great-grandfather's Bemidji Boys’ Band played at the Minnesota State Fair in 1922 and was declared “The World’s Most Famous Boys’ Band.”  The band’s state fair success came three years after G. Oliver formed the band upon moving to Bemidji from Crookston in 1919.

I spent some time two years ago researching the boys’ band and the state fair trip, but I had never done any research on the adult band G. Oliver directed in that city.  In the short amount of time I had yesterday to look through newspaper articles from June and July of 1919, I learned that the band was called the Bemijdi Military Band.  The use of the word military here is deceiving; it doesn’t indicate an affiliation with a military organization but instead means that the band was made up of both woodwind and brass instruments, as well as percussion.

The band gave its first open air concert of the summer at the city’s Library Park on Thursday, June 12 (a great day – it’s my son Sebastian’s birthday), and the program was composed of eight songs:
• “America”
• March “Hail to Old Glory” by Fred Jewell
• Overture “Greeting” by Franz Mahl
• “Sons of Australia” by Alex Lithgow
• Waltz “Vera” by Alex Lithgow
• Selection from “Fiddlers Three” by Alexander Johnstone
• March “Pozieres” by Alex Lithgow
• “The Star Spangled Banner”

An article from the Bemidji Daily Pioneer

Judging from the list of songs, I’d say G. Oliver was on a Lithgow kick.  I’d never heard of Lithgow, so I looked him up.  According to the National Library of Australia, Alexander Frame Lithgow was a famous composer and bandmaster who was born in Scotland in 1870 (the same year as G. Oliver) and moved to New Zealand when he was 6.  A musical prodigy, he joined the Invercargill Garrison Band at age 11; by age 16 he was its principal cornet soloist, and by age 20 he had become its bandmaster. 

I can see why G. Oliver took a liking to him. 

(If you’re interested, you can read more about Lithgow’s career here.)

Music from the operetta “Fiddlers Three” (which was not by Lithgow)

In addition to its regular weekly concerts in June and July, the Bemijdi Military Band also played for the opening of Bemidji’s Diamond Point Park; it played at the train station to welcome the 2,000 Northern Pacific Railroad employees and spouses who came to Bemidji for their annual outing; it played a concert at the Birchmont Hotel (now known as Ruttger’s Birchmont Lodge) to welcome the attendees of the Northern Minnesota Editorial Association conference; and it played for the city’s Fourth of July celebration.  As was typical, G. Oliver kept his band busy with appearances at community events.

Another thing I learned from scanning the Bemidji Daily Pioneer on microfilm yesterday is that G. Oliver formed an additional band that summer, the United Community Band, which was made up of 32 farmer boys from the townships around Bemidji.

The members were: Charles Hoffer, Ed Niemeyer, Clarence Travis, Herman Gregg, Roy Travis, Percy Maule, Bernhardt Hass, Clarence Wild, Erwin Krohn, Harry Falls, Clifford Travis, Martin Ketchum, Alfred Hass, Martin Hass, Eldin Niemeyer, Arthur Niemeyer, Clarence Pfeile, Herbert Swenson, George Hofer, Gotfred Hofer, George Lundergreen, Alfred Wild, Leonard Wild, Alvin Green, Laval Pfeile, Harry Fox, Roy Runick, Sidney Kruger, Roy Gregg, Tilman Gregg, Charles Bryant and Frank Sydow.

(It appears that Clarence and Roy were the Jacob and Ethan of popular names in 1919 – at least in rural northern Minnesota.)

I don’t know where G. Oliver found the time to form all these bands, instruct the boys, direct rehearsals and plan the concerts.  If blogging had existed in 1919, I suppose he would have fit that in, too!  What an overachiever.