Tappe
received an offer to play the Memorial day, 1881, services at Springfield, Ohio. After
conferring with the local officials it was learned that they could not offer nearly the
amount Springfield offered even in view of the expense of transportation incurred, so
Tappe’s band played at Springfield on that Decoration day, much to the indignation of
the local citizens. In January 1880, Tappe’s band was awarded the silver horn at the
Catholic festival here. At a band tournament at Troy, Ohio, they won the prize of one
hundred dollars in gold.
On the day of this tournament, their rivals, the Rebstock band were
giving a picnic in a grove at the north edge of town, known as the English woods. When the
news of Tappe’s success was received in Sidney, which was immediately after the
decision, the Rebstock boys planned a reception for them. When the train, bringing the
tired but jubilant band pulled into the depot at two a.m. the Rebstock band met them and
escorted them to the square, where, in the wee hours of the morning, they had to play one
of the prize winning numbers, "Crown of Diamonds," and listen to a lot of
eulogistic speeches, compliments and congratulations, while a prominent citizen held aloft
the five golden double eagles.
The supremacy of Tappe’s band can be attributed as in most cases,
to the skill of its director. That Mr. Tappe’s musicianship was not only of the showy
type is attested to by the fact that many of the numbers on his programs were of his own
composition and arrangement. His band flourished and prospered until about a year before
his death on Saturday, June 2, 1883, when failing health forced him into retirement.
The Shelby County Democrat of
that date contained the following in regard to Mr. Tappe: "He was a natural musician
and the organizer of several bands, one of which, under his leadership, was known
throughout the state. He was buried on Monday from the church of the Holy Angels. Members
of his old band, assisted by others, performed duty as escort, sounding the mournful
notes, which the silent tongue had taught them. His foibles, whatever they may have been,
are covered under the broad mantle of a music-loving peoples’ charity."
Klute: About
the time the Klute band was organized Sidney had a full grown epidemic of
"band," there being no less than five in active rehearsal at one time; but most
of them being composed of boys, they soon went out of "commission." The
organization of the Klute band was the strongest element in education of the musical taste
that ever flourished in Sidney. Its career, extending through exactly twenty years, was a
continued success. Its reputation and efficiency had a year by year growth. Mainly because
from the beginning, Mr. Klute aimed high always adhering to the rule he laid down, to play
good music.
Henry Klute came to Sidney for the first time in July 1878, when he was
asked to bring a band from New Bremen to play at the fourth congressional district
Democratic mass convention at which General Benjamin F. LeFevre, of Maplewood, was
nominated for congress the first time. Mr. Klute brought a band of six pieces to the
convention, the trip being made by canal
boat, one of the modes of transportation at that time. The band boarded the boat at New
Bremen, coming down the canal through Minster and Fort Loramie to Lockington, taking the
canal feeder up to Sidney from Lockington. That band so captivated the convention that
immediate steps were taken to bring Mr. Klute to Sidney.
He came here to reside permanently in 1880. He was a cigar maker and carpet weaver by
trade. When he was not working in the cigar factory of John Pfeil, he wove carpets at his
home which was located where the Dixie Oil station now stands (1938). Mr. Klute organized
his band in 1880 with but six members: Henry Klute, E flat clarinet; E. E. Kah, cornet;
Joe Burkhardt, tenor; George Faver, baritone; and W. P. Harmony, bass, their object being
mutual pleasure and improvement.
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