Dickinson City Band
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A city band has been part of Dickinson's history since three years after the settlement began. It was May 5, 1885, that residents of the community first met to organize a band to perform at local festivities and plans were made to order I0 instruments from Chicago to get the organization started.
Officers for that first group were James Collister, president; W.H. Richards, secretary; D.E. Bailey, treasurer; and Joseph Taylor, instructor. The new group was to be known as the Silver Cornet Band and community people began the task of raising money to make it a reality.
A Christmas ball during the 1885 holidays attracted between 60 and 70 couples and raised $80 for the effort and the appearance of "The Alabama Blacks" at the city rink in February of 1886 netted another $30 for the project. The band made its debut in the city at the famous 1886 Fourth of July celebration at which Teddy Roosevelt was the guest speaker. Some 15 members were led by D.E. Bailey and, according to accounts of that occasion, made a big hit with the listening public.
By spring of 1887 a bandstand had been erected in the city so that summer concerts could be given for music enthusiasts and these appearances became a regular part of the city's entertainment before the turn of the century. A news article in 1894 said the band was planning a basket picnic social at Fisher's Grove on the Green River, another favorite gathering spot. As the century drew to a close, the Silver Cornet Band was on hand to salute the departing members of Company K as they left for the Philippines in 1898 and to welcome the veterans home in the winter of 1899.