On 12 July 1930, the Harrisburg Evening News published a photograph of Bartel Schade, then the director of orchestras and bands in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. The caption under the photograph indicated “the Valley View Band, of forty-five men will render a concert at Hershey Park tomorrow afternoon and evening… under the leadership of Bartel Schade.”
Bartel Schade was born 22 October 1878 in Schadebich, Germany. As a young man, he played in the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, as well as other notable groups in his homeland. After coming to the United States, he first played at the Hipporome Theatre in Pottsville, and shortly afterward moved to the Hegins Valley where he was employed to develop the instrumental music program at the Hegins Township Schools, Hegins Township. Schuylkill County. Newspaper records confirm that he was the instrumental musical director of the Hegins Township Schools from the mid to late 1920s well into the 1930s. During his tenure there, he was responsible for the program which began in the 4th grade, continued through high school, as well as participation of members and former members in community musical groups. After leaving Hegins Township, he moved to Newark, New Jersey, where he operated a boarding house.
Throughout his time in the Hegins Valley, and afterward, he made frequent trips to German for health reasons, taking in the mineral baths in various locations there. There is no indication that he ever married.
The last report about him from available local newspapers was in 1955, when he sailed to Germany for the purpose of conducting orchestras there. It is possible that he never returned from that trip.
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From Harrisburg Evening News, 12 July 1930, via Newspapers.com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.
One story I heard often from locals of the Hegins Valley is that Mr. Schade left his teaching position and, for a period of time, returned to Germany, answering Hitler’s call for true Germans to return to the Fatherland. Local stories also have a teacher from the Berrysburg area doing the same thing. Allegedly, both were Nazi supporters, prior to the outbreak of WW II.