The Town Organizes a Band
Businessmen gather at Sigrist Hall to form a permanent, incorporated musical body for the benefit of the community.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The businessmen of Oroville and others particularly interested held a meeting Saturday evening at Sigrist Hall for the purpose of systematic and permanent organization of that valuable adjunct to civic life and improvement: a well-trained, well-organized, competent, and proficient musical body—the brass band. Oroville is fortunate in having among its residents sufficient musicians who, in years past, in different places, have been identified with musical organizations of this class of more or less local renown. It is an unquestioned fact that a band can be chosen from among our residents that will be a credit, pleasure, and benefit to the town. The band association will be incorporated as a stock company, with shares at $10 each, the shares redeemable at the directors' discretion as funds warrant. The aim is to have the instruments, etc., at all times the property of the town, or the business men of the town, so that members changing their residence to some other point would not inconvenience the organization by taking their instruments with them. The association elected the following officers: Geo. Bartell, president; A. S. Murray, vice president; K. S. Taylor, secretary; Bert Mills, treasurer.
“The aim is to have the instruments, etc., at all times the property of the town... so that members changing their residence to some other point would not inconvenience the organization.”
Community arts organizations remain a pillar of small-town social infrastructure. This 1909 model of incorporating as a stock company shows how early Oroville residents sought to guarantee the permanence of local institutions through collective ownership.
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