When William was a baby in 1870, his parents moved to Humbolt, Kansas. They went by covered wagon to Keokuk, Iowa, where they drove onto a steamboat and sailed to St. Louis. There they drove off of the boat and started across the state of Missouri to Kansas, where they settled on a homestead near Humbolt, in Allen County. His brother and sister-in-law later joined them there.
William remembered seeing his uncle buried in Kansas, and also the trip back to his native state, of which he gave in writing.
William said that they rode the covered wagon to Kansas City, with their cow tied behind. One night during the trip his mother woke up and not immediately finding the baby Joseph, then about 4 months old, feeling further about the bed and not being able to find him she quickly awakened the father who scrambled down out of the wagon and found him on the ground in front of the cow, where she was tied behind the wagon. He picked up the baby who laughed and seemed none the worse for his experience.
When they arrived at the railroad, the wagon, team of horses, the cow and all of their belongings were loaded on a freight train. The wife, Will, Charley, and Joe, came by passenger to Illinois, while Samuel stayed with the freight.
On returning to Illinois they moved to a farm near Powellton, Hancock Co., IL., where William attended the district school through the eighth grade.
After his marriage, he and his wife resided on a farm in their home community until August 30, 1899, when they had a public sale and quit farming. William studied pharmacy during the years of 1899 and 1900 at Des Moines, Iowa, and entered into the retail business in 1901, at Keokuk, Iowa. He operated his store there for thirty-seven years.
THE SIEGFRIED ORCHESTRA
This brief account of The Siegfried Orchestra is copied as written by William Henry Siegfried:
"This brief account of The Siegfried Orchestra, as we chose to call it, is written primarily out of our love for music and the association that goes with it, and not to leave the impression that we were professional. As a matter of fact we were just amateurs who enjoyed being together and to practice as to do commercial playing.
At the onset the members were William H. Siegfried (first violin), Charles R. Siegfried (bass), and Joseph A. Siegfried (flute) - all brothers, and Henry D. Siegfried (second violin), a cousin. For convenience, the writer will use the first name only when referring to an individual. William bought his violin during the winter of 1887 and 1888 for the price of three dollars and twenty-five cents and sold it in the year 1920 for twenty-five dollars. This instrument had good tone but did not carry well. Henry secured his violin through our teacher, his was a very good instrument. Charles and Joseph also had our teacher to order their instruments for them. Joseph took his initial lessons from a man named Edward Paggiott , a Frenchman who was a very good musician. After a few lessons Joseph had learned enough to join the three of us. Then we took instruction of Jule Wright of Nauvoo, Il. After a time, Mr. Wright moved to Ft. Madison, Iowa and we continued our instruction with him there. We always drove a team of horses hitched to a farm wagon, to and from town, as the base violin took up quite a lot of room.
Upon one occasion, after completing our lesson at Ft. Madison, we drove down the Iowa side of he Mississippi River to Montrose where Uncle John Lambert lived, and spent Saturday and Sunday with him and his family, going back to Ft. Madison on Monday for another lesson. All had a find time, for strawberries were in season and Uncle John had some mighty good cream and a big patch of berries on his place. Talk about boys having spinach hanging out of their ears - well, it was strawberries this time. We furnished the music of course, and we all had a treat, but our salary would have had to be rather high to have compensated for the berries consumed.
During the interval of our visit, our teacher composed a nice peppy little schottish and named it, "On the Road To Montrose." On our return to Ft. Madison on the Monday following, for our lesson we were given the new manuscript to learn. We did it quite well and got quite a kick out of it. I have lost the copy but I am still able to play it from memory.
After we had been playing for one or two years, Alexander A. joined the group with a cornet, a little later Mark H., joined playing a trombone. Soon after this however, the band became broken up due to various reasons - going away to school, entering business, or marrying and moving away. To the best of my recollection, the life of the organization was about six years.
It was very much worth while, it was good then and it seems beautiful now to look back over a period of more than fifty years and to see by the way of memory, those happy associations of former days. Those of the group who are living cherish the memory of Henry, Charles, and Joseph: they are at rest.
We of Henry's family have his violin and well remember him playing upon it his favorite tunes."
∼Buried on May 16, 1946 in a box by DeJong Funeral Home.
When William was a baby in 1870, his parents moved to Humbolt, Kansas. They went by covered wagon to Keokuk, Iowa, where they drove onto a steamboat and sailed to St. Louis. There they drove off of the boat and started across the state of Missouri to Kansas, where they settled on a homestead near Humbolt, in Allen County. His brother and sister-in-law later joined them there.
William remembered seeing his uncle buried in Kansas, and also the trip back to his native state, of which he gave in writing.
William said that they rode the covered wagon to Kansas City, with their cow tied behind. One night during the trip his mother woke up and not immediately finding the baby Joseph, then about 4 months old, feeling further about the bed and not being able to find him she quickly awakened the father who scrambled down out of the wagon and found him on the ground in front of the cow, where she was tied behind the wagon. He picked up the baby who laughed and seemed none the worse for his experience.
When they arrived at the railroad, the wagon, team of horses, the cow and all of their belongings were loaded on a freight train. The wife, Will, Charley, and Joe, came by passenger to Illinois, while Samuel stayed with the freight.
On returning to Illinois they moved to a farm near Powellton, Hancock Co., IL., where William attended the district school through the eighth grade.
After his marriage, he and his wife resided on a farm in their home community until August 30, 1899, when they had a public sale and quit farming. William studied pharmacy during the years of 1899 and 1900 at Des Moines, Iowa, and entered into the retail business in 1901, at Keokuk, Iowa. He operated his store there for thirty-seven years.
THE SIEGFRIED ORCHESTRA
This brief account of The Siegfried Orchestra is copied as written by William Henry Siegfried:
"This brief account of The Siegfried Orchestra, as we chose to call it, is written primarily out of our love for music and the association that goes with it, and not to leave the impression that we were professional. As a matter of fact we were just amateurs who enjoyed being together and to practice as to do commercial playing.
At the onset the members were William H. Siegfried (first violin), Charles R. Siegfried (bass), and Joseph A. Siegfried (flute) - all brothers, and Henry D. Siegfried (second violin), a cousin. For convenience, the writer will use the first name only when referring to an individual. William bought his violin during the winter of 1887 and 1888 for the price of three dollars and twenty-five cents and sold it in the year 1920 for twenty-five dollars. This instrument had good tone but did not carry well. Henry secured his violin through our teacher, his was a very good instrument. Charles and Joseph also had our teacher to order their instruments for them. Joseph took his initial lessons from a man named Edward Paggiott , a Frenchman who was a very good musician. After a few lessons Joseph had learned enough to join the three of us. Then we took instruction of Jule Wright of Nauvoo, Il. After a time, Mr. Wright moved to Ft. Madison, Iowa and we continued our instruction with him there. We always drove a team of horses hitched to a farm wagon, to and from town, as the base violin took up quite a lot of room.
Upon one occasion, after completing our lesson at Ft. Madison, we drove down the Iowa side of he Mississippi River to Montrose where Uncle John Lambert lived, and spent Saturday and Sunday with him and his family, going back to Ft. Madison on Monday for another lesson. All had a find time, for strawberries were in season and Uncle John had some mighty good cream and a big patch of berries on his place. Talk about boys having spinach hanging out of their ears - well, it was strawberries this time. We furnished the music of course, and we all had a treat, but our salary would have had to be rather high to have compensated for the berries consumed.
During the interval of our visit, our teacher composed a nice peppy little schottish and named it, "On the Road To Montrose." On our return to Ft. Madison on the Monday following, for our lesson we were given the new manuscript to learn. We did it quite well and got quite a kick out of it. I have lost the copy but I am still able to play it from memory.
After we had been playing for one or two years, Alexander A. joined the group with a cornet, a little later Mark H., joined playing a trombone. Soon after this however, the band became broken up due to various reasons - going away to school, entering business, or marrying and moving away. To the best of my recollection, the life of the organization was about six years.
It was very much worth while, it was good then and it seems beautiful now to look back over a period of more than fifty years and to see by the way of memory, those happy associations of former days. Those of the group who are living cherish the memory of Henry, Charles, and Joseph: they are at rest.
We of Henry's family have his violin and well remember him playing upon it his favorite tunes."
∼Buried on May 16, 1946 in a box by DeJong Funeral Home.
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