50 years ago: Fulton Cousins make musical impact in O’Fallon’s public schools
Looking back at stories that appeared in the O’Fallon Progress 125, 100, 75, and 50 years ago.
125 years ago, Sept. 8, 1899
“Wednesday, Young America to the number of twenty were brought up before Esquire Dunn (Justice of the Peace) charged by George Hilt with stealing watermelons.
“A few of the culprits weakened and confessed until said confessions amounted to over forty melons. Some of the boys are old offenders and are rapidly fitting themselves for some penitentiary, but the large majority we believe are guilty of their first and perhaps last offense; out of deference of the latter class we refrain from publishing their names.
“O’Fallon is sadly in need of some kind of an organization that will tend to check the rapid growth of crime.”
100 years ago, Sept. 4, 1924
“Another big improvement project was started in O’Fallon this week when ground was broken for a new parochial school building for St. Clare’s Catholic parish.
“The structure will cost about $60,000 when completed. The new school will be located on a site covering a block, formerly the old Smiley property, opposite the Catholic rectory. It will front Third South Street. Work of excavating for the foundation is now in progress and is to be completed by fall.
“The congregation expects to finish the building next summer to be ready for the fall term of school.
“Plans and specifications for the the new school have been received by the pastor, Rev. A. W. Powell, and have been approved by a special building committee. The building will have a basement measurement of 60 x 102 feet, and the drawings show that it will be two stories high and strikingly imposing in character, of hard red and gray brick construction. The interior construction will be of the latest type with all modern conveniences, including a kitchen and dining room in the basement.
“All the ground work and hauling is being done gratuitously by faithful members of the church, the only expense being the cost of materials employed, enabling the congregation to use the funds on the building proper.
“When completed the new school will be one of the city’s imposing structures, one of which the congregation and citizens in general may feel justly proud.”
(Delays postponed the school’s completion until 1926. It still stands, along with later additions, at 214 W. Third Street and is the oldest building continuously used as a school in O’Fallon.)
75 years ago, Sept. 8, 1949
“Congressman Melvin Price (Dem. East St. Louis, Illinois) said today that the Department of the Air Force has completed their investigation at Scott Air Force Base, Belleville.
“Price personally requested that an investigation be made of an alleged ‘crime wave’ among Scott Air Force Base airmen. Results of the investigation show that 189 men of the approximately 10,000 men stationed at the base have been dismissed since January 1, 1949. The dismissals were 10 for bad conduct, 17 for fraudulent enlistment and/or discovery of a prior criminal record, 26 as undesirables, 108 as misfits, and 28 dishonorable discharges.
“In a letter to Price, the Air Force said, ‘The investigation which you requested has brought about many beneficial changes for which the Air Force is grateful.’
“They reported that while the number of dismissals may seem high, it is comparable to those for other bases of similar types.”
50 years ago, Sept. 5, 1974
“Ed and Vilray Fulton are cousins, not brothers. So they aren’t really comparable to famous brother groups such as the Marx Brothers, the Smith Brothers or the Wright Brothers.
“But the Fulton cousins have made themselves well-known in O’Fallon for the work they do.
“Ed and Bill (Vilray’s more popular name) are band directors at the O’Fallon Township High School and the O’Fallon Junior High School respectively. Over the past years they have developed a program in music which has brought numerous music awards to the two schools with many more honors seen in the future.
“Ed and Bill have been teaching music in the O’Fallon school districts for the past five years. Music was what Ed always wanted to teach for a career since high school. Bill took a little more time in deciding his future. Ed started out in the O’Fallon Grade school district for a while and was later joined by his cousin for a year at the district. When Ed moved to the high school to become band director there, Bill took his place at the grade school level.
“’We get kidded about the whole idea of having a monopoly on the music instruction in town. I don’t mind. We have fun doing it,’ Ed says.
“But there are some disadvantages to having cousins with the same last names working at the two schools in the same city.
“’We always get calls at each other’s home asking for the wrong teacher. People will call me in reference to the junior high band and Bill gets calls concerning the high school band. I guess some people don’t know the difference,’ Ed said.
“And there are some differences.
“Ed lives in Troy while Bill takes up residence in Edwardsville. Ed is 26-years-old while Bill is 36. Ed is 5 ft.-4 while Bill reaches an even six feet. Bill plays only the clarinet, while Ed says he can play just about every instrument. He wouldn’t say to what degree he could play every instrument but he said he could play them.
“Because of Ed’s size, he’s sometimes hard to pick out when the band is performing in parades. Many times Ed picks up his trumpet and marches in the band, too. Bill did not always plan on being a music teacher. Although he studied music in college for his degree, he originally intended to study the ministry. He attended a seminary but later changed his mind and became a music teacher.
“There has been a history of music in the Fulton background for years. The fathers of Ed and Bill both played guitars and their grandfather made violins by hand. Bill is trying his hand at violin making and is in the beginning stages of it. The two cousins have a somewhat different outlook on what music is used for certain situations. They contend it depends at what level the teaching is being directed towards. Ed feels the standard marches for football games and parades are out with the more modern and popular music replacing it.
“‘We want to play something the people like to hear,’ Ed said.
“Bill, however, believes in a ‘balanced diet of music,’ with all types of music being exposed to the children he teaches at the junior high level.
“On the more humorous side of things, the Fulton cousins have a rivalry going over a big question concerning the type of students each has. Is Bill doing such a good job on the junior high level that Ed has hardly anything to do when they get to high school or does Ed have a big task ahead of him after Bill gets through with the kids after a couple of years? The two Fultons kid each other a lot over the question.
“Ed and his high school band are looking forward to a trip to Washington, D. C. and New York City next summer. The band is involved in numerous fund-raising projects to get money to take the trip.
“The Fultons have taken over music teaching in this city. Both have stated their intent is to put O’Fallon on the map when it comes to music. Both the junior high school and high school bands have won numerous awards, thanks to the work of the students and the Fulton cousins.
“Although not comparable on a national scale to the Wright Brothers or the Marx Brothers – the work of the Fulton Cousins will soon earn a place in the history books of O’Fallon.”
(Fulton Junior High on Kyle Road in O’Fallon is named for Ed Fulton, the younger Fulton cousin.)
