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As It Was: Early Montague Brass Band Plays Baseball, Too

During the late 1890s and early 1900s, the Montague Brass Band toured Siskiyou County, providing music for special events.

.Many of the members belonged to Montague’s popular baseball team, a shared experience that increased each group’s popularity.  Frequently a concert would follow a baseball game, attracting as many as 2,000 people who filled the Opera House Restaurant balcony to hear the band in their colorful uniforms.

Andrew Terwilliger led the band. Members included Emory Parshall, Charles Schock, Charles Wright, Bill Young, Tony Machado, Fred Coatney, Adolph Gisbrecht, George Coatney, Bill Hudson, John Musgrave, and Lotus McClellan.

To provide transportation, the band purchased a “band wagon,” painted bright red with white trim, and often seen in Montague parades and in Yreka and Redding, Calif. 

The two organizations shared money they raised.  The band was also well known for its occasional bizarre behavior; once at a St. Patrick’s dance the group played only one tune—“The Wearin’ of the Green”—over and over, varying only the tempo for each dance.

Source: Dow, Betty. “Montague Band Wagon.” Siskiyou Pioneer, The, vol. 2, no. No 2, 1952, pp. 25-26.

Gail Fiorini-Jenner is a writer and teacher. Her first novel "Across the Sweet Grass Hills", won the 2002 WILLA Literary Award. She co-authored four histories with Arcadia Publishing: Western Siskiyou County: Gold & Dreams, Images of the State of Jefferson, The State of Jefferson: Then & Now, which placed in the 2008 Next Generation Awards for Nonfiction and Postcards from the State of Jefferson.