A photograph from around 1930 of the Boys’ Navy Band of Millersburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, assembled in front of the Miller Memorial in Central Square, Millersburg.
None of the boys in the photo are identified, but one of the adults is most likely Paul R. Kepner, organizer and director of the band.
According to information in the Millersburg Sesquicentennial Book:
During the summer of 1928, a native son of Millersburg, endowed with great musical talent, and one of the most accomplished flutists of that time, returned to Millersburg and fostered a desire better music into one of the best performing musical organizations of its day. Paul R. Kepner organized, directed and instructed as many as 65 boys between the ages of eight and eighteen years into a band with full instrumentation that played its first public concert in the Millersburg Square Bandstand late in the summer of 1928.
From the first appearance and concert, the band was recognized as a major accomplishment for Millersburg, and the enthusiasm of the individual members, parents and townsmen gained such momentum that the band earned state and national recognition.
The year 1929 saw the band dressed in light blue navy-style uniforms and after a very successful season, playing engagements as often as three times per week for community affairs, parades, fairs, etc., throughout central Pennsylvania, it grew to be a mature organization musically. By that time it was playing the standard band arrangements including overtures and the works of great composers.
One of the outstanding achievements of the Boys’ Navy Band occurred in 1930, when it won the state championship at the state American Legion competition in Harrisburg. That year also saw the band dressed in official navy uniforms, complete with chevrons of rank indicating individual musical ability and achievement. It was also a year in which the band received much publicity through nationally seen newsreels as well as radio performances and many fan letters from such public figures as the Lindberghs, Frank Simon, director of the Armco Band, and Boshumir Kryl, director of the world famous Kyrl Concert Band.
The boys went on to win the state American legion competition in Easton in 1931, and at Pittsburgh in 1932, thus setting a precedent as the first junior band to win first place honors for three consecutive years. Several successful seasons followed, with professional concerts at such places as Hershey Park Band Shell and many other places over the entire state. Every performance and each new community visited by the boys on tour brought credit and recognition to Millersburg until the depression years of the 1930s, when, in 1935, the boys were disbanded as an organization.
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The photo appeared in the Souvenir Book for the Millersburg Sesquicentennial Celebration, published in 1957. For availability of copies of this book, contact the Millersburg Historical Society.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.