Music has a knack for bringing people together. It can connect immigrants to families across the globe, connect different generations, and create a cozy gathering during cold winters. Highlighted below are the stories of two men who were prominent musical leaders in Scott County communities- J.W. Komarek and Al Hagie.
J. W. Komarek
J.W. Komarek was born in Chicago on July 25th, 1871, but his family relocated to New Prague soon after his birth. Komarek showed an early aptitude for music, and as a youth received lessons from prominent local musician John Sery. At age 14 Komarek moved to Minneapolis and was employed by a painting contractor with the hope of learning the trade. After a few years in the city, he returned to New Prague and started up a business painting commercial and residential buildings. Soon after he was wed to John Sery’s daughter Mary.
J. W. Komarek. Photo from the New Prague Times, May 3, 1945
In 1893, Komarek founded the Bohemian Brass Band of New Prague. Brass bands were very popular in the late 1800s. They played at town gatherings, parades and festivals and were even used to advertise products. These bands were a source of civic pride, and traveled throughout the region representing their community at fairs and musical competitions.
Like many other brass bands of the time, Bohemian Brass Band featured drums, trumpet and cornet. Komarek’s group also added a local flair with the fiddle and bohemian bagpipes that nodded to the Czech ancestry of many of New Prague’s residents.
Over time, Komarek’s musical work took precedence over painting, and he moved full time into his role as a music teacher and band leader. He recalled as one of his proudest moments when he was presented with a recording of music played for him by some of his students- a rare treat in the early 1900s.
The prominence of Komarek’s musical career eventually pushed him into public service. He was elected council-man at large and later served as New Prague’s Mayor. After retirement, Komarek was a trustee of New Prague Community Hospital
W. Komarek passed away in May of 1945. He was survived by his 5 children, including two step-children from his second marriage to Anna Remes. On the day of his funeral, the town of New Prague decreed that all business should be closed from 1:30-3pm, allowing all community members to attend the service.
The Bohemian Brass band lives on through a mural that still graces Main Street in downtown New Prague.
Al Hagie
John Nicolin was a prominent member of one of Jordan’s most prominent families. The Nicolin house is still well known for it’s wealth and majesty, and in the late 1800s John Nicolin owned numerous area business, including the musical Nicolin Opera House. The story goes that Nicolin had a desire for more musical talent in the Jordan community and, in a testament to his local power, plucked Al Hagie from a group of traveling musicians and convinced him to stay.
Al Hagie and the Jordon Cornet Band. Hagie is a short man in white shirt and suspenders to the right of the frame. He his standing next to his young son. Photo from the SCHS collections.
In fact, Hagie had spent great deal of time in Jordan before finally settling in the town in his mid-twenties. Albert Hagie was born in Switzerland in 1862. His family immigrated to the United States when Hagie was 8, settling in St. Joesph Illinois. Al’s father was employed as a taylor and passed the trade on to his son. Al Hagie was also known in his youth as a talented musician, and by his early teens was skilled in several instruments, most prominently the cornet and the violin.
At 16, Hagie accepted employment with the Davern and Hopper shows as a musician. For the next 10 years he traveled with the troupe throughout the Midwest. This journeying included long stays in Jordan, Minnesota. Hagie was said to have attended every 4th of July celebration in Jordan for all of those 10 years, and, later, every Scott County Fair after it’s beginning in 1914. During these visits, Hagie met Theresa Meyer of Jordan. She, and the insistence by Nicolin that Hagie lead a Cornet band in Jordan, convinced him to settle down. Al Hagie and Theresa Meyer were married on April 29, 1892. The Jordan Cornet Band was officially formed the same year.
Along with his skill as a bandleader, Al Hagie followed in his footsteps and started a taylor shop of his own. For nearly 4 decades he plied his trade. He was described as “a careful and thorough taylor, taking great pride in his work”.
His time with the band was not without stories. The Jordan Cornet Band would travel between local communities for performances and competitions. In the summer the journeys were undertaken by wagon, and in winter the band traveled in horse drawn sleighs. On one particularly icy winter day, the sleigh overturned, spilling band members and instruments into the drifts. Their trip was delayed as the men had to find and dig their trumpets, cornets and drums out of the snow.
It was well known that Al Hagie and his band were favorites of John Nicolin. Like any prominent family, there were those who were frustrated with what they saw as John Nicolin’s hold on the town of Jordan. Once, a competing band was formed for a town festival, just to provide and alternative for Hagie’s group and thereby spite Nicolin. The legend is that the second band only had time to learn a single song, but they played it on repeat all day long in an act of protest.
Hagie led the Jordan Cornet Band for nearly four decades, from 1892 until his death in November of 1930. In his obituary, Al Hagie was remembered as having “loved the simple life. There was no vain show, n ostentation about him”. He was also described as “a bluff, hearty, convivial, optimistic, forthright man”. During his funeral celebrations, 30 band-men from the Jordan Cornet Band, and brass bands from surrounding communities gathered to honor his musical career, playing marches and dirges throughout the event. The service ended with a rendition of “Abide by Me” played at Al Hagie’s grave-site.
Written by Rose James, SCHS Program Manager