By Paul Hobe
From the antislavery movement through to Carnation City Festival activities the Alliance City Band was willing and able to provide excellent music and entertainment for the greater Alliance area whenever it was needed or desired. The Alliance City Band was called upon to provide band music for various patriotic and political events in addition to the traditional Memorial Day – even as early as the 1870s—and Fourth of July events. In 1872 the Alliance Silver Cornet Band was one of the “bands of music” at various corners at a Grant Rally. It is likely that the band represents Alliance as one of sixteen bands present for a reunion of the Grand Army of the Republic in Canton in 1880.
It could be counted on to help send off or welcome home Company K and other troops involved in the Spanish-American War or the First World War. The City Band is perhaps the one that represented Alliance as one of sixteen bands present at the preceding reunion of the Grand Army of the Republic in Canton in 1880. During the late 1950s the band would provide a concert for Flag Day events held on the Alliance Elks (Glamorgan) lawn. In 1902 and 1908 (Youngstown) they played at a Republican meeting then in 1910 at a Democratic convention. A photo from November 12, 1916 shows the band at the laying of the cornerstone for the new Alliance post office. In May 1919 the band played a march, “Welcome Home Our Heros,” composed by Rinkendorf. In 1919 it led the civic division of the funeral parade for Col. Charles C. Weybrecht.
Besides asking the community for support, the musicians were willing to support the business community as well. It led a parade of farm mowers in 1872. During the Mannerchor era the band was often found giving concerts downtown at public Square on Saturday nights. The stores would have their windows all lit up for passersby to observe their wares. The Mannerchor played a parade and concert at “Clerks Day” at Silver Lake. In 1906 they were featured at a real estate auction as mentioned in a Liberty Heights ad.
The Depression provided the band several opportunities to add to the economic recovery such as being included in a parade that included several other bands and many beautiful floats and other units to publicize the National Recovery Act in 1933 and a similar parade in 1938 “to stimulate sales.” The band marched in the Carnation parade in early years and almost always had a concert at Silver Park for the Carnation Festival.
A medley of activities could include: cornerstone laying at Sebring Church of Christ and Lisbon High School and a concert at the Morgan estate to raise money for Boy Scout Troop 3. It raised $106. Venues before the Rinkendorf era include Goddard’s (skating) rink (1887), Public Square band stand, People’s Theater, Fairmont Children’s Home, Lake Park for the second annual Smith Township unemployed outing, Country Club, Congress Lake, and at a bandstand at Kiwanis Park at the “outskirts of the city.”
Rinkendorf era venues involved a large religious and patriotic community Christmas event on public square, big tree, and lights ablaze; and a concert series at Mount Union. They performed at the opening of a new playground, “Pleasant Heights” on the south side of Sebring (1924). We can add Brady Lake, North Park, the new dining pavilion at the new Silver Park, Molly Stark, Beloit, Stanley Park, Salem Kiwanis, Hazel Park, and the Alliance High School stage. In 1938 they marched in a parade that was part of a “sales stimulation parade downtown, a parade that “rivaled the NRA (National Recovery Act) parade of a few years ago,” at South Liberty School, and at Early’s Hill.
Post Reinkendorf events add to the list Minerva Park Day, Carnation parade, Minerva Parade, and Sebring Fireman’s parade. In 1979, the band performed in the new band shell at Silver Park, the site for the reenactment concert July 4, 2026.
[Pictured above: Alliance City Band marching in a parade in Minerva, Ohio]