Armantrout Bros. Orchestra

CDPL recently acquired numerous artifacts from the estate of the late Robert Garner who was a life-long Crawfordsville citizen. In fact, his father, Sherman Garner owned Garner's Grocery that was located on Chestnut Street. The store closed sometime in the mid 1950's.






Included in the donated items was this business card advertising the Armantrout Bros. Orchestra. This dance orchestra was from Ladoga, Indiana. Three of these gentlemen were brothers.

The musician playing the banjo (sitting in the foreground of the photograph) was not a brother. However, the back of the business card has his name listed as Henry Armontrout. The spelling is actually different than the spelling of the three brothers. Originally, this appears to be a typo, but it may very well have been purposefully done to designate him as a cousin or nephew.