Time Machine: Remember Frank Kouba’s band?

Frank Kouba had lived in Iowa City for about five years when he decided in 1872 to move north to a village of a couple hundred people.

He was standing on a Cedar Rapids street a few days later and heard a brass band playing. He followed his ears and the crowd that was following the music. The Light Guard Brass Band was marching toward a hall to perform for the evening's revelers.

A music lover, the young Kouba stayed and listened to the band play marches, quick steps and waltzes for a long time before approaching a member of the group to ask if he could join. The musician told him that if the leader was all right with it, he could take his place.

Frank Dvorak, the bandmaster, approved, telling Kouba that if he played even moderately well he could practice with the band.

Not long after that, the Cedar Rapids National Band, under Kouba's direction, was formed. Charter members of Kouba's band, along with Kouba, were Joseph Swab, Frank Krebman, Louis Stanek, John Wilder, Frank Soukup, Charles Polansky, John Ceka and Joseph Hala.

The band played for weddings, dirges, funeral marches and decoration services as well as dances and receptions.

The Third Ward Hose Company of Cedar Rapids, after its annual parade in 1888, published its thanks to the National Band, saying, 'We as all good judges of music consider it the best brass band in the state of Iowa, and we hope they will long discourse their fine arches to the firemen and all other civic societies in the future.”

The band went to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1892, and followed the veteran volunteer firemen to competitions in more than a dozen cities.

On its 25th anniversary in 1897, the band had 21 members, including Kouba's son, Frank Kouba, Jr. The best musicians in the city belonged to the band, but Frank Kouba, Sr. was the only charter member still playing.

Still going strong in 1899, the national band began regular Sunday afternoon concerts in the new bandstand at Riverside Park. Kouba had added new musicians to his 23-member group and secured scores for some of the latest music.

Frank and Josephine Kouba's silver wedding anniversary was Sept. 1, 1899. The band members plotted a surprise for the couple. Kouba was at Greene's Opera House playing in the orchestra when the group assembled at the Kouba home, taking his wife by surprise. She immediately joined their plans and turned off all the lights in the house before her husband returned home.

'He had no more than stepped inside the door, however, until the band struck up a selection, and the lamps were lighted and he found himself in the midst of the musicians with whom he has labored for more than a quarter of a century,” reported The Evening Gazette. 'Never was man more completely or pleasantly surprised. But it was not over by any means. Scarcely had he had time to recover his breath, when one of the members of the band stepped to the front and in a well-chosen speech presented Mr. and Mrs. Kouba with an elegant silver water pitcher as a mark of esteem of the assembled guests.”

The Kouba home at 1001 South Second St. was the site of the weddings of the couple's children: Frank Jr. to Frances Kurka in August 1900 and Mamie Kouba to Frank Milota in 1902. The National Band played at Frank Jr.'s wedding and the opera house orchestra was featured at Mamie's wedding.

Part of the Cedar Rapids semicentennial celebration in 1906 included Bohemian-American Day on June 14. A 5 a.m. 21-gun salute started the day at Riverside Park, followed by a parade from CSPS Hall to Riverside that included 400 farmers on horseback. The dedication of a memorial boulder in the park by the Association of Bohemian Societies was accompanied by music from Kouba's National Band. The band also was featured throughout the day's events.

Kouba continued to lead the band for a few more years before he turned it over to the government. It was mustered into service in 1908 and became the National Guard's 53rd Regimental band directed by Jacob Schmidt, the conductor of the Greene's Opera House orchestra. The unit later was with the First Iowa Infantry. The band doubled as Cedar Rapids' band and was the forerunner of the Municipal Band.

Frank J. Kouba was born in Bohemia in 1851, coming to the United States in 1866. Along with his duties as band leader, he served as a city council alderman, ran a harness business and served as the treasurer of the American Federation of Musicians local from the time it was organized in Cedar Rapids. He died on Oct. 14, 1919 at the age of 69. He is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery with his wife.