FRENCHTOWN CORNET BAND – In the winter of 1868-69 William A. Person (1835-1887) organized a 10-piece Frenchtown orchestra. He was not just a Bridge Street haberdasher; he was Mr. Music – organist for the Frenchtown Methodist Church and director of a band in his hometown of Belvidere. He played piano, violin, cornet, guitar and base viol, but not all at once.
The orchestra was a year old when Person suggested replacing it with a brass band, thereby creating a long-lived Frenchtown institution. The Frenchtown Cornet Band's first order of business was instruments. It had none, and some of the members couldn't afford to buy any. Expert solicitor Fletcher Bray (1820-1877) went calling on possible donors and raised $525.
Person and Charles Joiner, editor of the Frenchtown Press, went to Philadelphia and bought 16 instruments that were distributed in July of 1870.
Person, the director, would play an alto horn (like a mellophone) and handed other alto horns to Frank Eggert, Charles Stout, A.P. Brink; cornets to William H. McClain, E.B. Kachline and Josiah Butler; a piccolo to Morris Morgan; tenor horns to A.P. Brink and Joseph Rogers; a baritone horn to Edwin G. Williams; tubas to Albert P. Williams and John Wood; a bass drum to R.J. Dalrymple; snare drums to Clement Wood and Isaac Wilgus; and cymbals to A.V. Kugler.
In six weeks the bandsmen were ready to appear on a public street and play four tunes – two quicksteps, a polka and “Hail Columbia.” In 1871 the band was hired to play the Flemington Fair and they were on their way. And so was Person. He resigned after the fair and by the end of the decade he was a farmer in Virginia.
Before long the musicians were fully uniformed with plumed hats and epaulets, and had their own horse-drawn wagon for their many trips, ranging as far as Philadelphia and New Castle, Del. In 1876 they marched in a parade at the national centennial celebration in Philadelphia. In the Star's 1922 history book, an anonymous band member wrote that over the years “We have had four sets of uniforms and at least three sets of instruments; and two band wagons.”
There was plenty of churn in the membership. Luminaries cycling in included merchant/undertaker G.W. Hummer, spoke maker William R. Shurtz, harness maker I.W. Swick, and milkman George F. Bloom and his borough-clerk son, Preston.
Ruth Apgar recalled that in the summer the band “would parade down the street in their uniforms” and then play in front of Mulberry Park or in her yard – the big front lawn of 12 Bridge Street. “They also played for many Harvest Home picnics and local picnics, also on certain holidays.” The band's tenure was interrupted once or twice by brief periods of dormancy.
In 1920, the band needed new uniforms – three previous outfits had been worn out – and a couple of new instruments. Their public appeal for funds, included this snapshot of that year's membership and instrumentation:
Henry J. Pater (an Italian piano tuner) was director; Charles Robinson, solo cornet; Chester Robinson and Chester Bellis, first cornets; Reuben VanHorn, baritone; Wilson Hager and William Butler, clarinets; Preston Emmons, solo trombone; George Kinney, first trombone; Harry Carver, second trombone; Harry Slack, bass; John Bellis, solo alto; Charles Johnson, first alto; Clayton Stains, second alto; George Bloom, tenor drum; Preston Bloom, bass drum; and Edward Bennett, cymbals.
Riegelsville, Pa., Milford, Lambertville, Pittstown and even Everittstown also had cornet bands.
Frenchtown's band was still performing in the 1930s. I don't know yet when the band gave its last gasp. Beginnings are often better-documented than endings, which usually go untrumpeted.
From "Rick's Frenchtown Encyclopedia"
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