It was the last Monday in April, and a group of McLeod County Historical Society members had gathered at the museum for our monthly Breakfast Club meeting. For those who aren’t familiar, the museum’s version of Breakfast Club is a monthly meeting where members are invited to the museum for coffee, snacks and some good conversation about local history.
At this meeting, several guests brought items that held some historical significance for them. One such item was an old push-button accordion. The instrument was small, red and could only play two notes, yet it spoke to a part of our history that is often overlooked: the importance of music for the early settlers of McLeod County.
Music has always been important to humans and has changed greatly over time. As far back as we can imagine, humankind has put melody and beat together to form a sound that is pleasing to our ears.
The origin of music is hard to determine. It likely began with singing, clapping of hands or beating them on some type of surface to create a unique sound that kept time. Of course, there is no archaeological record for it, but it’s likely that it’s one of the first “discoveries” by Cro-Magnons, whom archaeologists assert were the first “modern” humans. If that is truly the case, one could argue that music is one of the traits that makes us uniquely human.
In America, music has undoubtedly been prevalent among societies since the first humans came to the continent via the Bering Strait. In the 16th century as more and more Europeans began coming to America, they brought along their own brand of music that was heavily influenced by the regions from which they came, and that helped develop the cultural characteristics of the area that they would settle.
For the settlers that came to McLeod County in the mid-19th century, music was an important facet of life. Many of those first settlers were of west-central European heritage and their taste in music reflected it. Among the meager possessions brought along for the journey west were push-button accordions, concertinas, violins, harmonicas or any other small instrument that could be carried easily while traveling long distances.
In those early days, with electricity being far into the future, most settlers looked to music as one of the main forms of entertainment. After a long day of chores being completed, people often grabbed an instrument and began playing, stopping only for a meal or for bed.
Eventually, technology made it possible for music to be heard via radio. By the 1920s and ’30s, as electricity became a reality, more and more people began dropping their instruments and tuning in to the radio for their evening pleasure. In central and south-central Minnesota, bands such as Whoopee John, the Six Fat Dutchmen and Frank Yankovich began playing across the airwaves. Their music was heavily influenced by the German and Czech style of playing that was brought to the area back when the first settlers began arriving.
There’s no doubt that music has changed greatly since the 1850s. Today our ears are treated to (or mistreated by) synthesizers, Auto-Tune and electrified instruments that can be heavily altered in music studios. No one can deny that music is a major part of our lives, yet its historic significance and the story it tells about our regional identity are parts of our history that are often overlooked.
Perhaps a day will come when our culturally-historic music will make a renaissance of sorts. Until then, however, it will remain locked away in the annals of history.
