By Paul Hobe
Wouldn’t it be remarkable if there were a photograph of one of the first noteworthy performances of the Alliance City Band in existence? In essence there is. These seminal historical events are revealed in two newspaper reports and one telling photograph.
It is generally well-known in the Alliance community of the involvement of the J. Ridgeway Haines family, the Underground Railroad and the Civil War. Antislavery meetings were often held at the Haines farm. One such event was for young people on a warm August 13, 1859. These gatherings included nationally-known activists, entertainments and music. An article in the Antislavery Bugle states that “a tune from the band” followed a talk: “We know no law for Slavery” by J. J. Freeman.
Another meeting occurred in Alliance in August 1860. At that meeting the “friends of freedom” met at the town hall and then formed a procession “with the Alliance Brass Band in front followed by ladies and gentlemen, two-by-two and then buggies and carriages brought up the rear.” After parading around the principal streets of Alliance they ended up at the “Haynes” Grove. It is recorded that the band played as part of the program. However, we will just have to picture that event in our minds.
But a real photo does exist and it came as a surprise to me!
The story of Abraham Lincoln stopping for lunch at the Sourbeck House on his journey from Pittsburgh through Alliance to Cleveland and then to Washington D.C for his inauguration also is acclaimed in Alliance. Might the band have been part of the welcome for Lincoln at this event?
There is no press record of an Alliance band playing at the event. However, support for the Alliance Band playing at the Lincoln visit comes from an article: “An Old Photograph” published in The Alliance Review in 1919. That article states: “S. W. Seacrist is exhibiting a photograph in the latter part of February 1861, showing the Alliance Cornet Band as it appeared upon the occasion of Abraham Lincoln passing through Alliance enroute to Washington to be inaugurated president of the United States.” It mentions that “the picture shows the band men standing in one of T. F. Stanley’s livery wagons.”
It turned out that I had a modern glossy black and white print of that photograph in some items I had been given years earlier.
That short article also lists three men who were in the picture and still living then (1919). They are “Tump” Haines of Detroit, David Johnson of Mount Union, and Mr. Seacrist of Alliance. The only person I can identify in that photo is Haines, third to the left of the bass drummer but in the back row. He stands just behind the bass horn player and has a mustache. Remember that face; you will see it in the next blog. The keen observer will notice that the bass drum has the words “Haines Cornet Band” painted on it. What do you suppose those bandsmen were thinking, having just seen or anticipating seeing Lincoln, when the shutter was clicked?