CedarRapidsbandstreetconcert
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Two postcards of the 52nd
52nd Regimental Band

About These Images

On Thursday, June 2, 1910, a delegation consisting of 125 members of the Cedar Rapids Commercial Club visited several towns in northwest Iowa, including the towns of Stratford and Odebolt pictured above. The businessmen were on tour to promote their various enterprises. Accompanying them was the "52nd Regimental band" whose job it was to play ballyhoo music to draw a crowd. The band and businessmen had to work fast since some of the stops lasted only 20 minutes.

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The fact that one of the 1910 newspaper accounts below identifies the band as the "52 Regimental band" poses something of a mystery since the band was been renumbered as the 56th Regimental Band almost a decade earlier.

Newspaper Accounts

THE STRATFORD COURIER, June 2, 1910

The Cedar Rapids Commerical club, accompanied by the 52nd Regimental Band, will visit Stratford this morning. The train will arrive here at 8:20 a.m. and remain until 8:41 a.m., twenty minutes. Come out and hear the band. [5]

 

THE STRATFORD COURIER, June 9, 1910

The Cedar Rapids commercial club train arrived here Thursday morning as scheduled and quite a large crowd had gathered to witness their arrival. The boosters visited every store in Stratford and proved themselves to be a jolly and lively bunch. The 52nd Regimental band, which accompanied the club, rendered a number of splendid selections. H. E. Whiteman of Webster City, representing Howard-Holt Co., of Cedar Rapids, was one of the boosters. F. A. Johnson of this place accompanied the club to Gowrie, returning on the morning freight. [5]

 

THE [Odebolt] CHRONICLE, June 9, 1910

One hundred and twenty-five representatives of Cedar Rapids jobbing and manufacturing interests stopped in Odebolt last Thursday afternoon [June 2, 1910] and spent forty minutes with our citizens. Sixteen automobiles were placed at the service of the visitors and they were taken over the town. They were greatly pleased with their reception and declared that Odebolt was the prettiest town they had seen on their trip and the country around it the finest in Iowa. They travel in a special [train] and have with them an excellent band which is greatly appreciated by all who love good music.

Newspaper clipping cited in The Odebolt History Pages.

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The October 12, 1905 edition of the Seymour Leader contains a similar item about a delegation of businessmen traveling with a band:

The commercial club of St. Joseph Mo., passed through here yesterday, going west on the Rock Island on an advertising tour of southern Iowa and northern Missouri. There were about fifty of St. Joseph's representative business men in the party and they were accompanied by a fine brass band. They stopped in Seymour and played a tune. [8]

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Stratford

Odebolt

Author's collection

Post card

Author's collection

Post card

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