A musical family passes the baton

More than a century after Capt. John F. Schuchert began the organization that became the Cape Girardeau Municipal Band, another Schuchert will again conduct the band -- if only for one song during tonight's concert.

The guest conductor is Ernest Schuchert, great-grandson of the band's founder and first conductor, and great-nephew of the band's second conductor, Dr. Clarence E. Schuchert.

John F. Schuchert conducted the Schuchert Concert Band in Cape Girardeau from 1900 to 1910. His son, a dentist, took over the band from 1911 to 1921.

To make the occasion more memorable, the band will present 75-year-old Ernest Schuchert, who resides in Chester, Ill., with the baton Clarence Schuchert was given by his band while he was a conductor.

Dr. Fred Goodwin, retired Southeast Missouri State University professor, has been in possession of the baton. It was given to him by the late Judith Ann Crow, former Southeast Missourian arts writer and critic, with the understanding that it be used "to underscore the history of the city," Goodwin said. Goodwin said he did not know how Crow came into possession of the baton.

Ernest Schuchert will only have the baton in his hands tonight. It will stay in Cape Girardeau.

Never having met John or Clarence, Ernest Schuchert learned most of what he knows about the two men through what he has read and to a lesser extent through stories he heard from his great-aunt, John Schuchert's daughter.

Aunt Molly mostly told Ernest Schuchert about the opera houses her father owned in Chester, Ill., and Cape Girardeau.

These opera houses, despite their names, did not bring operas to the towns. They attracted various performances by stock companies that ranged from theatrical to musical.

A German immigrant, John Schuchert moved to America in 1848 and worked as a grocer and store owner in Chester before opening the Chester opera house in 1875.

Around 1899, John Schuchert moved to Cape Girardeau to open an opera house in the building that now houses the Royal N'Orleans restaurant.

Four of his five children, including Clarence, came to Cape Girardeau with John. The oldest son, William, stayed in Chester to run the opera house.

Sometime around 1900, John Schuchert started a town band, the Schuchert Concert Band, for which he served as conductor until 1910.

John Schuchert has another claim to fame. The creator of Popeye, E.C. Segar, grew up in Chester and was a movie projectionist at his opera house.

Ernest Schuchert said his great-grandfather was the inspiration for the hamburger-loving character Wimpy. He said John Schuchert was always sending employees like Segar around the corner to pick up hamburgers for him between performances.

Clarence Schuchert began conducting the band, which was still known as the Schuchert Band, in 1911.

The band would experience two important moments under Clarence Schuchert's direction.

In 1917, Clarence and the whole band enlisted and became the official band of the 6th Missouri Regiment during World War I. The band broke up after three months. According to some reports, those who were too old or young for service -- Schuchert included -- went back to Cape Girardeau and started the Cape Girardeau Municipal Band. Other reports say Schuchert and the band came back together after the war was over.

The exact date the Schuchert Band became the Cape Girardeau Municipal Band is not known. Clarence Schuchert is credited with helping to get legislation passed in 1926 that allowed Missouri cities to impose a tax to support town bands.

After his time as conductor, Clarence Schuchert focused on his career as a dentist and eventually moved to Red Bud, Ill., where he died in 1931. His sister, Molly, was the last Schuchert to live in Cape Girardeau. She died around 1946.

About a year ago, dentist and longtime band member Dr. Dan Cotner found out about the existence of a direct descendent of the Schuchert conductors.

As it turns out, Cotner and Ernest Schuchert had been attending the same concerts put on by the Perryville Concert Association in Perryville and Chester. But they did not know each other until Cotner contacted Manley Limbaugh, a Chester and former Cape Girardeau resident who happened to know Ernest Schuchert.

"It's just wonderful to have somebody from that ancestry," Cotner said. "I'm just thrilled to death that he found him."

Ernest Schuchert, a retired postal worker, said he inwardly snickered when asked by Cotner to be the band's guest director about two months ago.

"I went along with it," he said, smiling.

Unlike his great-grandfather and great-uncle, Ernest Schuchert has no experience with conducting. He played the violin in school, but that was the last time he picked up an instrument.

"After Clarence, it faded. That was it," Ernest Schuchert said of the musicians in the family.

When he stood before the band at Monday's band rehearsal, Ernest Schuchert looked about nervously before counting to four. From there it was smooth sailing as he directed the band through John Phillip Sousa's "The Washington Post." He waved his baton back and forth rhythmically.

Ernest Schuchert's opinion on his first time conducting -- or at least, pretending to conduct?

"It wasn't bad," he said.

The Cape Girardeau Municipal Band concerts will continue to be held at 8 p.m. on Wednesdays in Capaha Park until mid-August.

kalfisi@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182