The Maple City Band was organized in April of 1900 by the consolidation of the Honesdale and Lawyer bands. The Honesdale Band was established about 1880, tracing its origins to the first regular band, organized in 1841 by Allen Plum, and the Silver Cornet band led by John Broad in 1849. By 1899, the Lawyer Band appeared on the scene, organized by a young shoe-factory worker and cornet player named Edwin Lawyer, who was joined by a talented trombonist from Seelyville named Fred Gill. By the next year, after Gill moved to Ohio to join a circus band and Edwin Lawyer also left the scene, the bands merged to form the Maple City Band. The story of the Maple City Band and all the other bands that throve in Honesdale over the years is told in the book “Discoursing Sweet Music,” by musicologist and Honesdale native Kenneth Kreitner (University of Illinois Press, 1989).

From the collection of the Wayne County Historical Society 810 Main St., Honesdale, open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. For more information see WayneHistoryPA.org or call 570/253-3240.