SIDNEY FAMOUS FOR ITS BANDS

Shelby County residents have enjoyed another season of courtsquare band concerts, a tradition stretching back more than 100 years. The Sidney Civic Band carries on where once played the Taylor band of Civil War days, the short-lived "high-class" Bunnelle band, and the famous Tappe and Klute bands.  Founded in 1977 by Richard Reidel, Dick Pope, and Frank Neville, the Sidney Civic Band provides free band concerts for the Sidney/Shelby County community. Directed by Frank Neville, the 45-member band draws crowds numbering from 300 to over 1,000 people. Twenty-one years of consecutive band concerts have provided patriotic, classical, and popular music. Plans for the band include a place to store equipment, dressing rooms, proper lighting, and audio equipment in place. 

Before the days of the automobile, radio, and Big Bands, nearly every small community in Shelby County had its own band, numbering from around perhaps 4 to 14 members. Franklin Schaefer, who organized a band in Sidney in the 1930’s, prepared an article about these bands for the Sidney Daily News in 1938. In the following excerpt from the article, Schaefer lists the Taylor band as one of the earliest Sidney bands and was the old Army Band of Civil War times. Following Schaefer’s article are excerpts from the Sidney Daily News and Columbus Dispatch featuring the Sidney Kiwanis Band, disbanded during the Depression.

Haleman: Next came the Haleman band. It was organized soon after the Civil War and was composed almost wholly of musicians who had served in the Union army during the war. Some of the members were: DeWitt Halemen, Henry Heineman, Charles Nessler Sr., Ene Johnston, George Kah, Captain Wm. H. Taylor, and A. J. Rebstock. As soon as Adam Heineman Jr., was old enough he began playing in his band with his father.

Sidney's Dutch Band.  From left:  Charles Martz, Joe Wurstner, August (Pink) Schearer, Adam Heineman, and Frazier Horr.