The concept of the town band which arose in the earliest days of the republic remains alive, although in reduced numbers, in this 21st Century in our region. Most of the bands remaining from the town band heyday in the 1880s have undergone significant changes in instrumentation although most have abandoned local identity in favor of regional status in response to lifestyle changes and the modern mobility of available audiences. Most Missouri town bands that survive date from the last two decades of the 19th Century. This is the case with Carthage’s town band tradition which insistently keeps being born again after several periods of silence. The one such body in our district that has held firm without interruption and with a strong continuing schedule is the El Dorado Springs Municipal Band, which is among the most durable of surviving ensembles.

By contrast, Kansas, even though it is a younger state, has at least one such ensemble dating from the early 1870s. That is the Arkansas City Community Band which now is moving forward under the baton of Carthage native Chris R. VanGilder, an alumnus of Carthage Senior High School and Missouri Southern State University and who is the son of this writer and wife Irene of Carthage. He is leading the historic ensemble into its 137th season, having been the bandmaster several years after an eight-year stint as its assistant conductor.
 

With the research assistance of Wilbur Killblane, Bandmaster VanGilder reports the ensemble began in the 1871 Reconstruction Era as the Buckskin Border Brass Band. The border mentioned in the original title was the line between the state of Kansas and what then was Indian Territory before becoming the youngest of the four states.
 

The present band leader is careful to accredit as many of his predecessors as now can be identified, beginning with E.J.  “Buckskin Joe” Hoyt and continuing with J.C. Greenleaf, who assumed the podium when it was the Arkansas City Military Band, as well as Fred D. Walker, W.D. Johnson, August Trollman, David Hodges, Leonard Barnhill and Gary Gackstatter
 

Bandmaster VanGilder announced the season would open with a May 5 rehearsal and will include weekly rehearsals each Monday through July 14. Highlighting the season with a special Independence Day presentation in conjunction with the Arkansas City fireworks exhibition, the band plans concerts in the town’s Wilson Park rotunda each Thursday night through July 17.
 

As a former member of the El Dorado Springs Municipal Band and former conductor of the Carthage Community Band, it is with a sense of pride that I point to the continued impact of the town band idea, one important remnant of our district and regional history that refuses to die in spite of the competition of more recent means of sound reproduction and changes in the nature of entertainment in general.
 

Here at least is the evidence and the proof that the fact of passing years is not a reality strong enough to justify termination of a good idea, a creative impulse that still has a message for humanity and still carries the torch of American ideals loud and clear across the region and beyond.      
 

If you have a moment to spare, pause to attend a town band concert during this new season and enjoy a spine-tingling musical adventure that spoke clearly to many generations of your ancestry and still has a good, wholesome reason for being. The members of any such ensemble will welcome you with pleasure and with sounds you will not forget.