Last June 30, the popular Camp Bagnell Fish and Steakhouse at Old Bagnell burned. Here is the first press report of the incident from the Lake Sun newspaper:
Lake Ozark, Mo. —
A pregnant woman was reportedly taken to Lake Regional Hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation after her apartment and Camp Bagnell Fish & Steakhouse were destroyed by fire Thursday afternoon.
No other details were available as to her condition at press time.
The historic and popular restaurant, on Old Bagnell Road between Lake Ozark and Eldon, was leveled by a fire that started about 2 p.m., unofficial sources said. Preliminary reports indicate a bedside lamp in one of the adjacent apartments was the cause.
Melissa Moore, a five-year cook at Camp Bagnell, said she and others were cooling off in the campground pool when a young girl believed to be the daughter of a bartender came running out of the apartment yelling a bed was on fire.
A tearful, distraught Moore, who lives with her daughter in one of the apartments, said she lost all of her belongings in the blaze.
High temperatures and a lack of water at the site hampered firefighters. Tanker trucks shuttled back and forth to Lake Ozark throughout much of the afternoon. Exhausted firefighters were given aid with wet towels in the shade by ambulance crews.
Firemen from 11 departments responded and were still dousing hot spots long past 5 p.m.
The campgrounds were full at the time of the blaze, leaving campers in shock. Many were long-time campers and spoke of enjoying Camp Bagnell for years.
Les Clancy from Ozark, Mo., said he was meeting family and friends for a weekend of camping.
“My family has been coming here for 40 years,” he lamented.
Firemen from Lake Ozark, Osage Beach, Rocky Mount, Cole County, Lebanon, Iberia, Jefferson City, Mid-County, Moreau and Tuscumbia responded.
This popular restaurant which has been a fixture in Old Bagnell for quite a number of years was owned by Jerome and Pat Schulte, both natives of Miller County. Pat is the daughter of Bob Perkins, now deceased, who was the owner of Perkins and Law Chevrolet Dealership of Iberia. The restaurant was the location of the annual Old Bagnell Association gathering which I have featured on a previous Progress Notes.
Here are a couple of photos of the restaurant before the fire (photos 01 and 02):
01 Camp Bagnell Fish and Steak House
02 Camp Bagnell Fish and Steak House
Here are photos taken of the fire by the Lake Sun paper (photos 03 and 04):
03 Bagnell Fire Photo
04 Bagnell Fire Collage Click image for larger view
And here are some more photos taken by myself a week later which shows more of the buildings which burned (photos 05, 06 and 07):
05 Post Fire Destruction
06 Post Fire Destruction
07 Post Fire Destruction
For some reason, Bagnell has been plagued by fires through the years. The first big one was in 1923, but several others occurred after that as has been well described by Dwight Weaver:
Bagnell Fires
Dwight Weaver
History and Geography of the Lake of the Ozarks V II
p. 23
The village of Bagnell “boomed” during the construction of Bagnell Dam between late 1928 and early 1931:
“Two years ago Bagnell was a sleepy little village whose chief industry was digging gravel and ferrying motor cars across the Osage River,” said the Daily Capital News in Jefferson City on October 29, 1929. “Its hotel accommodations were virtually none, its only bank had failed and fewer than 100 persons remained. But today new life has been instilled in the town, its few streets are crowded throughout the day and most of the night and things are on the boom…Twelve shack restaurants are in operation…Several pool halls and a dozen or more buildings are under construction.”
At its height of growth Bagnell had, among other assets, two physicians, a telephone office, bank, post office, drug store, several general stores, a score of eating places, a butcher shop, poultry house, stock yards, livery stable, several hotels, a lumberyard, movie theater, community hall, blacksmith shop, a host of saloons, railroad depot, light & power company office, school and a church on the hill. There was also a ferry and a steamboat landing and tie yard for the Bagnell Timber Company.
Many of the business structures in Bagnell were hastily erected, poorly built, and constituted an oddball collection of shacks and “up and down slab buildings.” Unfortunately, most of them were connected, there were no firewalls, and the tenants were using every means possible to heat them during the winter. The scene was set for disaster and it all came together on the night of March 16, 1931:
“Two men perish in Bagnell fire: Damage $100,000 as Flames Consume 19 Establishments” said the headlines of the Miller County Autogram. The details followed:
“Consternation reigned at Bagnell from 3:00 a.m. to daylight Monday when flames swept away in fury more than half the business section of the town, leaving the charred bones of two men to tell a story of horror and destruction. The dead are Jesse Brown, worker at Osage dam, and an unidentified man….
“Jesse Brown…was from Ravenden Springs, Arkansas and had been until two or three days prior to the fire, an employee at the Stone and Webster camp. He was rooming in the Calkin building, where the fire originated…His upper and lower limbs were burned from his body…
“Late Sunday evening he (the unidentified man) came to Bagnell weary from walking. He said he had only 50 cents and asked Marshal Beeson for information as to where he could get lodging. Beeson referred him to the rooming house… He registered… (and then) remarked that he was tired and wished to go to his room at once. That was the last time he was seen alive, and the clerk does not remember the name under which he registered (It was later discovered that the register had burned.)
“Nineteen business establishments were destroyed, being that section east of the Missouri Pacific Railroad track between the A.M. Pope Lumber Company yard and hardware store and the bluff, with the exception of the row of buildings fronting with the Boots Garage and the Produce Exchange. Among the concerns were the R.L. Reed & Company yard and hardware store, the corner barber shop, three cafes on the corner, a jewelry store, the Western Utilities shop, four rooming houses, including the Calkin building where the body of Brown was found, and the Orient hotel building where the unidentified man lost his life, a grocery store, a recreation hall, the old Edwards post office building, a theater, Fritz Honer’s restaurant, the Jeffries hotel, tow residences, the post office, two dental offices, jail building, a doctor’s office and a butcher shop.
“There were no prisoners in the jail…There were about 25 guests in the Calkin and Orient rooming houses, and bedlam reigned as they rushed from their rooms to escape the flames.
“The blaze…was thought to have originated in the kitchen of a café on the first floor of the Calkin building…As the flames leaped from building to building, urgent calls were sent for help. The Eldon and Jefferson City fire departments answered, but they were hampered in not having fire plugs to connect with. A hose was laid to the river and water pumped from there. Men from Stone and Webster camp rendered aid by bringing dynamite, and prevented the spread of the fire by blowing up some of the buildings.”
Note: my Aunt Lena (Brown) Bear, who later was married to my mother’s brother, Arthur Bear, was staying overnight at the time of the fire with the Calkins’. She told me she saw the fire through the window and rushed outside. Immediately, she and others formed a bucket brigade to help put out the fires of several buildings as best they could. However, most of the effort was too late. At the time, Aunt Lena had not yet married my Uncle Arthur Bear; she often stayed in Bagnell overnight when she was baby sitting for various people. Her home farm was just across the river from Bagnell and it was easy for her to take the ferry back and forth.
The town’s boom days appeared to be over because the dam was nearly finished. Yet some residents of Bagnell had hopes of Bagnell becoming a resort town because of its proximity to the newly created lake. Some merchants began to quickly rebuild because several months were still left during which they could rake in cold cash from the thousands of laborers still on the job at the dam construction site.
Fate was to bring yet another conflagration down upon Bagnell hardly more than a month later when a second disastrous fire swept through the town, this one believed to have started in the Moore drug store. After the blaze wracked its havoc, little was left. “All the entire original town which now remain is the depot, the Pope lumber yard, a filling station and the telephone exchange. These were saved only by courageous and untiring work on the part of volunteer firemen.” said the Versailles Leader on May 8, 1931. The lots and buildings which had previously been a beehive of activity were transformed into a “mass of gnarled sheet iron, broken stone, brick and the remains of all kinds of machinery once useful in the hands of man,” said the editor of the Versailles newspaper. “Like the fiery breath of the mythical dragon which leveled to earth all the came within its scope, so had Bagnell been leveled to earth with only these smoke, discolored and flame scorched remains to mark the place where a town once stood.”
Stalwart citizens of the village began again to rebuild and affairs seemed to be getting back to normal when, in February 1932, a third fire occurred. It began in the rear of the R.C. Peterson grocery store and quickly spread to the Madison Bear Store where clerks Frank Martin and Ernest Abbett were asleep. Frank was awakened when heat and flames enveloped the room. He leaped out of bed, awoke Ernest, and with the help of a third man outside, they barely escaped. The roof of the burning building collapsed on their beds as they fled.
Note: There is more to the story of Ernest and Frank. Madison Bear was my grandfather. Ernest, who was obese, was Madison’s brother in law, brother to Madison’s wife, and Frank, a very skinny teenager, was Madison’s nephew, son of his sister Christina. Ernest and Frank hurried as fast as they could to put on their pants as they were running to the door to escape the burning building. Frank quickly and easily pulled his pants on but the door was locked and worse, Frank couldn’t find in his pocket the keys he had put there that night before going to bed. And Ernest couldn’t even get his pants on; they were stuck below his hips. Then Frank made a life saving observation: “Ernest!” he said, “You’re trying to put my pants on! Get my keys out of the pocket fast and give them to me!” So Ernest did as told and they escaped through the door which, I have been told, already was on fire. So a mistaken switching of pants almost cost the two their lives.
The people in town had hardly caught their breath when two mysterious letters were received from someone who called himself “the Smoke Man.” One letter was addressed to “Captain Miller” and read: “Frank Miller (has) 15 days to shut (the) pool room. P.S. This is fair warning. Frank Miller operates a pool room in the building next to the last of the five buildings which burned last week. His building was saved only by being covered with wet blankets.”
The second letter was received by a woman who lived in rooms above the pool room. It read: Last Notice. Beware Betty Fisher you must leave her at once and stay. Also, your pal Red Head.”
According to the Eldon Advertiser both letters were postmarked at Eldon. They were written on scraps of white paper and the characters were part written and part printed in an attempt to disguise the handwriting. Frank Miller posted his letter on the wall of his pool room offering a $25 reward for anyone who could furnish him with the identity of the “the Smoke Man.” People concocted plenty of theories but his identity was apparently never learned.
Late in April, 1935, four years after the first Bagnell fire, a lady by the name of Emma H. Bigham of Nebraska brought suit in the Miller County Circuit Court against the Bankers Life Insurance Company to collect on two insurance policies. She claimed that her former husband Gilmore O’Connell, was the unidentified man who had burned to death in the first Bagnell fire because she had last heard from him at Bagnell in July 1930. She asked for $12,000 plus attorney fees and costs expended in the case. But six month later, while her case was still pending, it was learned that O’Connell had died in an automobile wreck. The identity of the fire’s second victim was apparently never learned.
When construction of Bagnell Dam was complete, U.S. Highway 54 was re routed across the dam, by passing the village of Bagnell. With the highway gone, the Ferry soon closed, and most business establishments moved away. Then in 1943 came a devastating Osage River flood that wiped out the remainder of Bagnell’s long suffering merchants. The little community was many years recovering and becoming the sleep little resort and camp ground community that it is today.
Here are a couple of photos of the Bagnell fire of 1931 published in Dwight’s book (photos 08 and 09):
08 Bagnell Fire Ruins - 1931 - Weaver
09 Bagnell Fire Ruins - 1931 - Weaver
The Miller County Autogram published a story about the 1932 Bagnell fire which gave more information about the Madison Bear store since he was from Tuscumbia:
Miller County Autogram
January 11, 1932
Have Narrow Escape From Fire At Bagnell
Five Buildings Burn
Frank Martin and Ernest Abbett, Clerks in Bear Store, and Who Were Sleeping in the Building. Emerge from Room as Burning Roof Falls Onto Bed; Third Disastrous Fire at Bagnell in Past Year
Another devastating fire swept Bagnell early Tuesday morning which destroyed five buildings including the Madison Bear Store, the only remaining general store the town had. The fire was discovered at about 3: 40 a.m. in the rear of the R.C. Peterman grocery store, the next building to the south of the Bear store, and which had been previously occupied by O.W. Wright’s drug store. Frank Martin and Ernest Abbett, who were sleeping in the Bear store as clerks, came very near losing their lives in the flames. They were sleeping in a small room in the rear of the store building. Frank was awakened by the excessive heat as flames had enveloped the room which was covered with sheet iron which was almost red hot. He jumped from the bed and awoke Ernest. The latter mistakenly grabbed Frank’s trousers and tried to put them on, and as Frank had put the key to the room in his pocket Frank searched the wrong trousers (Ernest’s) for the key. They were trapped in the room with no instrument to break down the door. About this time Basil Payne, who knew the young men were in the building, called them and when he was told to break down the door he did so by crashing into it. The two escaped without their shoes and some other clothing which the fire destroyed and the roof of the building fell onto their bed just as they escaped.
Five buildings were burned but the greatest loss was entailed by Mr. Bear. He had recently taken an invoice and he estimates his loss at between $4,000 and $5,000. Owing to the nature of the buildings and previous fire losses, insurance companies would not take the risks, and Mr. Bear carried no insurance. There was very little merchandise in the Peterson store. Two of the other three buildings were vacant. One had housed the Asel Meat Market and the other a barber shop during the hey day at Bagnell while the Dam was being built. The two story Kelsay pool hall was saved by strenuous work on the part of volunteer fire fighters.
The small frame building, just to the rear of the Bear store, was also burned. Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Howard were living in the building, but were away from home visiting Mrs. Howard’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Flavy Buster of near Eugene. All their house hold goods, valued at $350.00 were destroyed without any insurance.
This is the third big fire which Bagnell has experienced in the past year, and very few business houses of the thriving boom town of two years age remain. On March 16 of last year, 19 business houses were destroyed by fire entailing the loss of $100,000 and costing the lives of two men. Then on April 30, six weeks later, fire obliterated another section of the town, leaving only a few buildings east or north of the Missouri Pacific tracks where the business section of the old original town was situated. Since those two fires, practically all the business of the town was in the new section built up between the Missouri Pacific station and Little Gravois creek.
Bagnell has no general store now, and citizens of the town are urging Mr. Bear to arrange to continue the business there on a new location. He also owns a store at Tuscumbia, and operated the two stores ever since work started on the Bagnell dam.
My mother sent me some of her memories of the years that Madison Bear, her father, had the store in Bagnell and also what she remembers of the fire in 1932:
“You may remember the photo of Dad's store at Bagnell; the inside of it looked just like a store might look that was in a Boom town…. things sitting around on the floor like a basket of onions with some of the outside dry skins fallen off around the basket (photo 10).
10 Bear Store in Bagnell - Frank Martin, Madison Bear, Unknown and Davd Bear
I went up there from Tuscumbia a lot for Dad came home every night & had to drive back the next morning so I always had a ride. How well I remember the night they had the big fire. We never had a phone over in goose bottom in Tuscumbia. The night of the fire Ila & Oliver Brockman lived behind us & she woke us all up in the middle of the night from the end of her sidewalk & yelling as loud as she could, saying "Madison your store's on fire down at Bagnell." I can still remember that call & how she sounded. There was lots of scurrying around & he hurried off down there. I wish I knew how old I was. I might add he had not a penny of insurance & as far as I can remember there never had been any talk of insurance. But he didn't hesitate & found a building across the road which coincidentally is the one that burned last month at Old Bagnell. To supply the new store he had to borrow from the store he owned at Tuscumbia to tide him over until he could get re-stocked for he still had a good business Bagnell.
Dad came on home from Bagnell every night & his nephew Frank Martin & brother in law Uncle Ernest kept it open after he left until closing time.
One night Frank was in there alone & a man came in with a gun & robbed Frank & took all the money. That next day was payday from all the stores to the workers & the robber knew that so that’s why he picked that night for the robbery. Frank was a young man & it scared him crazy. The next day Dad went behind a partition between the front & the back where he kept stored foodstuffs & he bored a pretty big hole in the wall. The next payday he planned to go back in there behind the wall where he could see if somebody came in & he could get a gun through there.
The cafe that burned down at Bagnell recently was where Dad located his second store after the fire. Later on after Dad left Bagnell, Ray Behrens raised turkeys in it.”
Thanks Mom.
Here are photos of Madison Bear, Frank Martin and Ernest Abbett taken years later after the Bagnell fire (photos 11, 12 and 13):
11 Madison Bear
12 Frank Martin in Uniform
13 Ernest and Laura Abbett
You can read more about the Bagnell fires at these previous Progress Notes:
The following is a collage of old Bagnell photos before the disastrous fires with explanatory captions (photos 14 - 30):
Click on any of the photo thumbnails to view a larger image.
Note: Once you click on an image below, a new window will open. It would be best to maximize this new window by clicking on the middle box in the upper right-hand corner of the window. When you move your cursor over the image in this new window, it will change to a magnifying glass. Once this occurs, click on the image and it will show in a larger format for easier viewing.
In the Progress Notes of August 1 of this year which featured the story of the Tuscumbia Homecoming Picnic I mentioned that one of the musical groups which performed at the picnic was the Doerhoff orchestra of St. Elizabeth. I remembered the orchestra well because the group featured much of the “swing sound” music which was very popular during those years of the 1930s and 1940’s. It also provided a venue for those couples who enjoyed dancing to that type of music. I thought some readers might be interested in knowing something more about the history of this very popular Miller County band which over a thirty year span had more than 1500 performances not only in this area but around the state.
So I travelled to St. Elizabeth recently to obtain more information from Cyrilla Doerhoff, wife of recently deceased Leonard Doerhoff, who had kept meticulous records of the band’s performances and history (photo 31).
31 Leonard and Cyrilla Doerhoff
Cyrilla still lives in the Doerhoff family home, one of the first in St. Elizabeth (photo 32).
32 Doerhoff Home
She showed me a photo of the orchestra taken early in it history. In the photo are brothers Ray, Norman, Leonard and Emil, their father Steve playing base, and Ida Bode playing piano (photo 33).
33 Ray, Norman, Leonard, Steve, Emil and Ida Doerhoff
Ida later married Steve Doerhoff who was a widower.
A short summary of the history of the Doerhoff Orchestra was written by Leonard several years ago. I will present it here and then follow it with an article Ginny Duffield wrote for the Autogram in 1999. Here is Leonard’s narrative:
Doerhoff Orchestra
Leonard Doerhoff
The Doerhoff name first appeared on the dance scene between 1910 and 1920 when Steve Doerhoff started taking his fiddle by horseback to play for country dances along with a variety of other musicians. In the 1920’s several of the Joe Doerhoff family members were playing as a group with Steve on fiddle, Pete and Otto changing off on “C Melody” sax and Cornie and Otto changing off on drums and usually with Ida Bode on piano.
The Steve Doerhoff family started playing as a group in 1938 with Leonard on sax, Ray on trumpet, Emil on drums, Ida on piano and Steve on fiddle and bass fiddle. This group started playing steady in September of 1940 when they played for 8 dances during that month. After WWII Norman joined the group as a drummer and Emil switched to sax. This 6 piece group with Steve doubling on bass fiddle and square dance fiddle played together for over 10 years. This was the time when Swing was King and the orchestra played as many as 5 dances per week. One year they played 119 dances, 16 dances in one month, and averaged over 100 dances per year during a four year period 1947-1950. This was a very busy schedule in addition to other full time employment but the family enjoyed playing together as a unit. Much of the credit for the popularity of the Doerhoff Orchestra must go to Chet Marrier of Escanaba, Michigan, who wrote all the arrangements, many of them specifically for this group.
By the early 1960’s several of Steve Doerhoff’s grandchildren, Alan, Dale, Carl, Gary and Daniel were all playing, or had played with the Doerhoff Orchestra. With the increasing popularity of rock music in the 60’s the era of orchestra music and also the Doerhoff Orchestra came to an end.
The Doerhoff Orchestra played for many “pay” dances in the small towns of Central Missouri area including school proms, clubs and also many wedding dances, wedding anniversaries and silver wedding anniversaries for these same couples. A search of our old records reveals the following information about wedding dances listed on the following pages. The first dance listed, Bill and Ella Kemna’s wedding dance, was originally scheduled for Saturday, April 19, 1938. The good Lord was willing but the creek did rise and they couldn’t get to town for the ceremony. They finally made it on Sunday, April 20, but since the orchestra had a dance scheduled at Kalaf’s Hall in Meta that night, Bill and Ella’s dance was rescheduled for Sunday afternoon on the 20th and the orchestra then played at Kalaf’s Hall on the same night.
The next article about the Doerhoff orchestra by Ginny Duffield was written in 1999 prior to a special fundraising appearance of the Doerhoff family orchestra for the St. Elizabeth Community Center. Ginny sat down with brothers Ray and Leonard Doerhoff for the interview (photo 34).
34 Ray and Leonard Doerhoff Click image for larger view
Doerhoff Orchestra
Strings Sat Silent For 30 Years
The Miller County Autogram-Sentinel
Thursday, Feb 25, 1999
Ginny Duffield
Rock and Roll finished off the big band sound in the minds of people born after WWII, but it is making a resurgence, with many of today’s youth learning to swing dance to the music that was so popular from the 1930’s until the 1950’s.
The Doerhoff Orchestra, using their own big band arrangements and made up of family members reared in St. Elizabeth, played at nearly 1400 dances from the late 1930’s until 1968. Some of the original members, joined by their children and grandchildren, will pick up their horns again Saturday, March 6, to host a benefit dance for the St. Elizabeth Community Center.
The dance will be from 8:30 to 11:30 p.m., with doors opening at 7:30 p.m. Admission will be charged and setups and sandwiches will be available.
They will be using the instruments they used for decades, all silver Martin made ones. They also will be seated at the commercially made music stands they used for so long. Orchestra member Ray Doerhoff has had them stored in his attic since the late 1960’s. Their first set of stands had been homemade.
Leonard and Ray Doerhoff sat down last Wednesday afternoon, February 18, to reminisce about the orchestra. They will be joined at the benefit by brother Norman, along with family members, sons Dale, Gary and Daniel, and grandson, Stephen. Stephen is Dale’s son.
“It’s just kind of fun to get together, “Ray said. The family has a long tradition in music, and most members play an instrument. But they don’t practice together, just individually, Ray said. He said as long as the people listening don’t have the music, he figures a wrong note once in a while will go unnoticed.
The two brothers said there was never any doubt that they would take up music as youngsters. Their father, Steve, had played at dances since before the 1920’s. Steve had started taking his fiddle by horseback to play for country dances with a variety of musicians. Most of those dances were held in homes.
During the 1920’s, the Doerhoff band had five members: Steve and brothers Pete, Otto and Cornie. Ida Bode usually played the piano if there was one at the home or dance hall. Pete and Otto alternated on the drums. Pianist Ida Bode later became Ida Doerhoff, marrying the widowed Steve.
Steve also played the fiddle, accompanied by pianist Pete Schell of Jefferson City. They often were on the air at WOS Radio in Jefferson City, a station noted for the extra height of its antennas, promoting good reception for listeners.
“Dad said you’re going to play and you’re going to go to school,” Ray said.
When Leonard and Ray were high school age, there was no high school at St. Elizabeth so they traveled to Tuscumbia. T.C. Wright was the superintendent there, and he was a musician. “He started a band there at the high school,” Ray said. Practices were during the lunch hour. Wright had a trumpet and his son had a saxophone. The Doerhoff brothers learned to play on those instruments, as they had none of their own. They stuck with those instruments after they were able to buy their own.
Leonard said they also learned to read music, something some self taught musicians never do. “I can’t play without notes,” he said.
Leonard has kept much of the memorabilia of the orchestra, including meticulous records of dances, where they were located and how much the band made. He also has some of the bills advertising the dances. “I’m a nut for keeping this stuff,” he said.
“The first dance we played as the Doerhoff Orchestra was January 1, 1939 in St. Elizabeth,” he remembers. The band charged $15. The admission prices advertised were Ladies 15 cents and Gents 35 cents. Spectators paid only 10 cents.
That first band had five members: father Steve on the upright bass and fiddle, mother Ida on piano, Leonard with the tenor sax, Ray with the trumpet and their late brother Emil on drums.
“Weddings were many times scheduled when the Doerhoff Orchestra would be available to play for the wedding dance. Couples were married all days of the week, not just on a Saturday as at present. Of the 1366 dances the orchestra played for, 183 were wedding dances.
“I played at my own wedding dance,” Leonard said. However, he admits he left the band stand more than once to dance with his bride, Cyrilla.
Their first wedding dance was for Bill and Ella Kemna. The wedding was scheduled for Saturday, April 20, 1938, but the Big Tavern Creek between their homes and the church was flooded. They got married the next day, and the Doerhoffs were scheduled to play at Kalaf’s Hall in Meta that night. The newly weds decided to have their wedding dance in the afternoon. The orchestra ended up playing for two dances that day.
They played 98 dances before brothers Leonard, Ray and Emil were called to serve in the Armed Forces during WWII. The last dance before the war intermission was give for free. “Many soldiers who were training at For Leonard Wood attended the dances,” Leonard said about the lake area.
The first dance the orchestra played after the war was on April 22, 1946. Musicians Steve, Ida, Leonard, Ray and Emil (who was now playing tenor sax) were joined by Norman on the drums. Brother Norman had been too young to serve during WWII.
By the early 1960’s, several of Steve’s grandchildren, Alan, Dale, Carl, Gary, Daniel, Neil, Bert and Randy, all were playing or had played with the Doerhoff Orchestra.
“We had a big following,” Leonard said, “We always had big crowds where we played.”
The orchestra sometimes played as many as five and six nights a week for several years. The members never missed work or school the next day because of that. Leonard said he doesn’t remember it but his wife says the income he earned as a musician was important to their young family.
Some of the night clubs the orchestra played in many times were Young’s, the Dam Club and the White House in Lake Ozark; Tan Tara Resort at Osage Beach: the Palais Club in Camdenton; the 54 Club in Eldon; the Musical Pig, Eagles Club and Missouri Hotel in Jefferson City; the Air Castle in Rolla; the Silver Star in St. Robert; the Officers Club and NCO Clubs at Fort Leonard Wood; and for four years they played every Saturday night at the Palace Inn at Schuberts, east of Jefferson City. People in the Westphalia area filled the Palace Inn week after week, Ray said.
“High school kids from here went to the White House all the time. That was the place,” Leonard said.
The Silver Star, located on the Fort Wood Strip, was a huge night club, Ray said. Even though it was full of soldiers, and the atmosphere inside “wasn’t too wild,” both said they were never aware of any particular problems among the patrons there or any other place they played.
“I can’t remember any serious incidents,” Leonard said.,
At the 54 Club, owner Clyde Talley always insisted that “The Star Spangled Banner” be the last number played.
We played for a lot of high school proms,” Ray said. They also played for some college fraternities.
“People enjoyed dancing in those days,” Leonard said.
Ray noted that dancing was one of the few “fun” things young people had to do. There are far more activities for them now, and dancing is no longer popular.
The orchestra had a trailer for its instruments, but sometimes traveled in two cars. “After you put a big bass fiddle in one car, there wasn’t much room left,” Leonard said. Even with the trailer, one car often had six musicians in it.
Many roads that are paved today were gravel in the early years and the orchestra endured many miles of jolts and dust. Twice the trailer doors were jarred open. Once, the fiddle fell out. “Needless to say, it needed repairing,” Leonard said. Another time one of the saxophones was gone when they arrived at the dance. Someone following them had picked it up but held it “hostage” until the musicians gave him $35.
Once when they were leaving Lake Ozark, a large rock fell off the bluff at the north end of the dam and hit one of their cars.
Once the orchestra arrived for a wedding dance and another band was setting up. Apparently the bridegroom had hired one group and the bride had hired another. “We didn’t want to start a fight,” Ray said, so the Doerhoffs didn’t play that night. They still don’t think that was the best start for a marriage but don’t know what happened to the couple.
At an outdoor dance in Owensville, they were set up on a lowboy trailer and their drummer disappeared. “The drums stayed there, but the drummer was gone,” Ray said. “He’d fallen off the back of the trailer.” After dusting himself off, the drummer resumed playing.
Often times they had to move a piano before the dance started, even hauling it up or down stairs. That was bad enough, but moving the instrument usually ruined any tune job, if it had been tuned. Sometimes one or more keys on the piano didn’t work, either.
“I used to carry a piano tuning hammer in my trumpet case,” Ray said.
“We certainly had our share of secondhand smoke,” Leonard said. Ray said it was common for the exhaust fan (assuming the building had one) to be behind the band. It pulled any smoke in the room right to them.
“I’m not sure many who danced to our music can recall how hot those dance rooms could become upstairs in summer without air conditioning,” Leonard said. But no one was used to air conditioning in the early days of the orchestra. “Nobody thought anything of it,” Ray said.
Ray and his girlfriend (now wife Rosetta) got left at Lake Ozark one night.
They had been at Young’s but there was a fight so they went over to the White House. The rest of the band members all thought they had gone home in the other car. “Finally, everybody was gone,” and the young couple was stranded, according to Ray.
Keith Knock of Eldon, now deceased, offered to take them home. Enroute on what is now Highway 54, a large rock on the gravel surface hit the flywheel of Knoch’s car. It had to be repaired, further delaying them.
“I was about afraid to take her home that night. It was pretty late,” Ray said.
We’ve added no new music,” Leonard said. However, they did acquire some stock arrangements of the big band era music for their grandchildren. Ray said the younger members of the family do occasionally try to get them to play other music.
The orchestra’s music library has 256 arrangements, today called charts, Leonard said. They were written and arranged by Chet Marrier of Escanaba, Michigan. Leonard keeps the handwritten charts in a binder. Marrier’s arrangements gave the six piece orchestra the big band sound and were done specifically for the group.
But times changed. Teen agers began listening to what eventually would become Rock and Roll on the radio. The twist, the frug and other dances, beamed into countless American homes via television’s American Band Stand, replaced the waltz, the two step and the livelier swing dancing. Young people no longer wanted to dance to music that had been so popular for decades.
“The Beatles came along, and Elvis Presley,” Leonard said. They played their last dance on May 23, 1968.
Until next week.
“We enjoyed doing it. There’s no doubt about it,” Leonard said about their years playing for dances. “We enjoyed it as much as the people dancing,” Ray said. “It was enjoyable.”
Ray and Leonard Doerhoff both attended Tuscumbia High School since St. Elizabeth had no upper level school at that time (photo 35).
35 Leonard and Ray Doerhoff
Later, Ray for many years was superintendent of the St. Elizabeth school. Leonard served a long career as the town post master. As noted above, Leonard unfortunately passed away just a few years ago. He was very meticulous in keeping records of the history of the orchestra as mentioned above; but also he arranged for the orchestra to record a number of its favorite songs. Also, Leonard had some of his father Steve’s fiddle tunes enhanced for recording for a CD.
Cyrilla Doerhoff, wife of Leonard, made available to me a couple of songs Leonard recorded. The first recording is of Steve playing one of his square dance fiddle tunes. The tune is simply called “Square Dance.” As you listen to it you will notice that on each repetition of the tune Steve adds more and more intricate patterns of notes requiring great skill to play, especially considering how fast he plays the notes:
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The next song by the orchestra was one of the most popular of the big band tunes of the 1940’s, “Little Brown Jug:”
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A new addition to our museum historical collection was donated by the William’s Cemetery Association. The donation was the original tombstones of John and Mahalia Williams, the original settlers of the Williams farm west of Iberia on Highway 42. The old tombstones were deteriorating from age and weather exposure and recently were replaced by new ones. They were very heavy to transport and move to the museum for which we are very grateful to members Jim Clark, Jack Brumley, Greg Keeth and Brice Kallenbach for helping us place the stones. Especial thanks go to Greg for loading the tombstones on his truck at the cemetery and bringing them to us. Here is a photo of these willing volunteers and also photos of the tombstones (photos 38, 39 and 40):
38 Jim Clark, Jack Brumley, Greg Keeth and Brice Kallenbach
39 John Williams Tombstone
40 Mahala Williams Tombstone
Yesterday, Sunday, August 14, 2011, we had almost one hundred visitors attend our showing of the old movie, “Glory Brigade,” released by Twentieth Century Fox in 1953, which was made in 1952 at Tuscumbia on the Osage River. We are very grateful to Mike Wieneman, originally of Eldon now living in Springfield, who provided us with the movie in VHS format as well as numerous movie posters, photos and other artifacts having to do with the movie. With these movie mementos and advertisements we made a display featuring the movie Glory Brigade for our museum. Most of those attending the movie were old enough to remember those days in 1952 when the movie was shot on the banks of the Osage River about a mile west of Tuscumbia. Stories and memories were shared among the audience members and several brought old photos. The photos included ones taken of members of the cast as well as the pontoon bridge built across the Osage River by engineers from Fort Leonard Wood just for the movie. The destruction of the bridge by explosives was one of the most impressive scenes of the entire movie. You can read more about this movie at these two Progress Notes:
Joe Pryor
