Shreve's Decoration Day Parade (1949) Forgive the quality of this picture: it's the band parading down North Market Street, just after where Des Essenhaus is today.

Shreve's Memorial Day Parade (1995) The Triway Band marches down North Market Street:  this picture was taken at almost the exact same place as the one to the left, 46 years later!

One of the biggest challenges in learning about the history of the Triway band is trying to dig up music history of the time before the Triway Local School district existed.  I don't know how far back the band or orchestra goes, but according to the school building history, it seems as though the band was started soon after the new school building was built (after 1923).  Jack Berry, son of former Shreve music teacher Vera Berry, tells me the earliest year for a band and chorus director that his family can recall is 1925.

While Wooster Twp & Franklin Twp were only grades 1-8 which then funneled into Wooster High School and what used to be Fredericksburg High School, the village of Shreve had a school with grades 1-12.  This meant it had its very own high school band and chorus, and usually an orchestra, although there were never too many strings in those orchestras!  There were also many singing groups like the boy's quartet and the girl's sextette, octette, or ensemble, depending on the year.  Since the school was 1-12, younger children were a part of what would be considered the "high school band" or "high school chorus".  Majorettes could also be younger than high school age.  There were a few years in the 1950's where a "band" and "junior band" existed, and the same division existed for the chorus.  In these instances, the upper band was made up of only high school students.  However, there are quite a few yearbooks I haven't seen yet, so I'm not sure how often the younger kids were made into a separate band in the 50's and into the 60's before the consolidation.

The Band Mothers' Club was formed on February 13, 1939, to raise money for the purpose of purchasing new uniforms for the band.  Those uniforms were worn, as far as I can tell, until the consolidation and the formation of the Triway Band.  They were mostly red with white striping.  On October 27, 1950, the Band Mothers' Club became the Parents Music Booster Club.  Once Triway was formed, it became known as the Triway Music Booster Club.

Pictures from History of Shreve and Community 1853-1953, edited by Vera Kauffman:

The original Shreve school building was on Jones Street.  Another building, a one-room schoolhouse, was on Willow Street.  In 1867 it was decided to build a new, bigger school building on Market Street, which is no longer standing.  Its last graduating class was 1923.  It was deemed "inadequate", and a bigger building was needed since students outside of the town limits were now attending the school.  The new school, still in use as part of Shreve Elementary, was built during the years of 1922 & 1923.  An extensive addition with a larger gym was built onto the north side in 1952 & 1953.  The Shreve High School mascot was the Trojan and the school colors were Red & White.

According to the 1941 annual, Shreve started publishing yearbooks in the 1937-38 school year (called "The Memo" in 1940 and "The Trojan" thereafter).

A school newspaper began in 1939-40 (called "School Scoop" that year and "Trojan" thereafter).  Student Council began in 1937, according to the 1942 annual.  The first year for Kindergarten at Shreve was 1952-53 or 1953-54.

From at least 1939 on, Shreve High School fielded a boys' basketball and baseball team as varsity sports.  Track as a boys' sport began in the 1945-46 school year, and the first football season was during the fall of 1955.

The history of the Shreve High School Music Department ends in 1962 with 3 schools (Wooster Twp, Franklin Twp, and Shreve) being consolidated into one new school district, the Triway Local School District.  For the first semester, the students attended class at Shreve until they moved into the new Triway High School on February 11, 1963.

To learn more about Shreve and its school, please visit http://www.triway.k12.oh.us/shreve/.

I don't know when the first Shreve High School song was written, but here are the words to several original school songs (courtesy of Barbara Barnes Teague, SHS Class of 1951).

"Fight Song"

In conversation with Barb Teague, she told me the tune for the fight song came from a book of marches often used by the band.  I spoke to Don Carpenter, first band director at Triway, and asked him if he remembered anything about the music.  He recalled that it came from a Bennett Band Book which was a book of marches written for beginning bands.  "Harold Bennett", the composer of The Bennett Band Book No. 1 and three subsequent sequels, is a pseudonym for Henry Fillmore, a well-known composer from Ohio.  He composed his beginning band music using the Bennett name.

From the book Hallelujah Trombone: The Story of Henry Fillmore by P Bierley:

"Sixteen new Harold Bennett pieces were published in January, 1923.  These were later put into a collection called The Bennett Band Book No. 1, and several million copies were sold.  This collection became the most widely used of all beginning band or orchestra books, and three other Bennett Band Books eventually were published."

When I find out exactly which piece the fight song came from and if it did indeed come from one of the Bennett Band Books, (and if it's a trio, as I suspect), I will let you all know!

Harry Morris (THS Class of 1963) was kind enough to write me: "When Don Carpenter arrived at Shreve in 1957, he was responsible for keeping the song, and when Triway was formed and the transition with the students from Shreve to Triway, Mr. Carpenter kept using the song."

Thank you to everyone for the helpful information that helped to make this webpage possible!