OLD TIME BANDS

This is a photograph of my grandfather, Scott Walter Dobbins, Sr. The image is lifted from a picture of the full Midway Railway Band of Colorado City, Colorado and probably was taken about 1898.

Scott was born in Lawrence, Kansas in 1873 to James Sellers and Nancy Corel (widow LaHay) Dobbins. Sometime around 1875 the family, which also included Scott's older brother Gaston, left Kansas for Las Animas, Colorado, where Scott lived for the rest of his life. His father homesteaded east of the town of Las Animas and that's where the boys were raised. When Jim died in 1902, the boys inherited the land; Scott bought out his brother and then sometime around 1908 sold the property.

Both boys were musicians. Gaston played the trombone and Scott the cornet. In those days every town of any size had a band, and the boys played in the Las Animas Band. But during the summers they also played in the Midway Railway Band in Colorado City (which is now the western side of Colorado Springs). The uniform that Scott is wearing in the above photo is that of a Railway conductor. However, for major performances and competitions, the band also appeared in full Indian regalia.

I have two pictures of the Las Animas Band. I'd guess this photo dates from around 1898. Gaston is on the right of the bottom row and Scott is barely seen on the right of the last row. All you can see of him is a round face with a shako.


This second photo can be dated around 1908. Scott is on the left side of the front row, and Gaston is behind him. The little kid in front is Percy, Gaston's youngest son. I suspect that the young man with the clarinet behind Percy is Traber, Percy's older brother. Traber played the clarinet and after high school began playing in the Sells-Floto circus headquartered in Florida.


What I have learned from my genealogy studies is that music played a large part in the life of the Dobbins families. Even James Sellers Dobbins's uncles taught in a shape-note singing school on the plains of Illinois back in the 1840s.
My father played, or rather played at, the banjo and the piano. And my generation dabbled at a few music lessons - violin, guitar, piano, bassoon - but no one ever ended up making much in the way of music! But I am proud to have the Dobbins musical heritage show up in my son Sean and his family. Sean and Brendan play horns and Nancy and Caitlin play flutes and handbells. All are accomplished musicians.

Although pre-genealogy I knew that my Grandpa Dobbins (who died in 1917, long before I was born) was a musician, it is from my genealogical research that I'm able to document by pictures just what form that musical talent took in the lives of my family.