Ecorse Along the Detroit River
The word "ecorces" is the French word for bark and the French translation of La Riviere aux Ecorces is
"the river of bark." The name is derived from the fact that Huron Indians buried their chiefs near
the sandbanks of this stream after wrapping the bodies in the bark of the birch trees.
Detroit is the French word for strait, and the Detroit River is the strait connecting Lake Huron to Lake Erie.
  • Ecorse Along the Detroit River
  • New Prohibition Book
  • Ecorse Way Back When
  • Ecorse Rowing Club Note
  • Ecorse Mayor Manning Memories
  • Ecorse Eyes - Photo Flashes of Ecorse History-Chapter 2
  • Ecorse History At A Glance
  • Ecorse, in Community America
  • Mr. Cosbey's History of Ecorse
  • Ecorse Echoes, the Oldest Downriver Community
  • Ecorse Rowing Club
  • Downriver Back in the Days!
  • Monroe Memories and More
  • Think Before You Take A Photo from this Site!
  • We Need An Ecorse Historical Society
  • Ecorse Memorial Day Memories
  • Ecorse-Chapter Three
  • Ecorse Eyes - Photo Flashes of Ecorse History
  • Ecorse Policeman Richard Oldfield
  • E Books and Print Books for Sale
  • Celebrating the New St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, August 1953
  • Can You Help Identify the Mystery Tapestry?
  • John Duguay's Ecorse - 1950s-1960s
  • Virgil Ciungan Passes Away
  • Ecorse Celebrates the Fourth of July - In Days Gone By!
  • Ecorse and Downriver Slide Show
  • Ecorse Senior Center Memories - 2005
  • Ecorse Senior Center -2005-2006
  • Slavery in Detroit and Downriver
  • I Remember Ecorse
    • Growing Up in Ecorse in the 1950s and 1960s
    • Dorothy Cummings Dunlop Remembers Ecorse
    • Grandma Robson's Christmas Tree
    • More Ecorse Memories
    • I Remember Affholters-Marvin Graves
    • Former Students Remember Miss Helen Garlington
    • Memories of Ecorse Ice Skating Rink-Diane St. Aubin (McQueen)
    • Miss Arlyne Burr, A Ecorse School One Music Teacher Memory
    • I Remember Ecorse-Rob Zawoysky
    • I Remember Ecorse-Tom Trevino, Ken Corns
    • Memories of School Three
  • Ecorse Advertisements in the Ecorse Advertiser!
  • A Pitt Street in Ecorse Christmas
  • The Villages of Grandport, Glenwood, Bacon, and Ecorse
  • Al DuHadway Recorded Ecorse History for the Mellus Newspapers
  • Ecorse Advertiser Statistics, Opinions, and Predictions, 1948
  • Morris "Sandy" Blakeman Took Historic Photos of Ecorse
  • Ecorse Slide Shows
  • Jefferson Avenue
    • The French-Indian Trail, the Monroe Pike, the River Road, and Jefferson Avenue
  • The Downriver Underground Railroad
  • The French Goodell Pear Tree
  • Ecorse Churches
    • Ecorse Presbyterian Church History
    • Ecorse Presbyterian Church Cookbook
    • Ground Broken for New St. Francis Xavier Church, 1951
    • The Presbyterians Meet in Raupp Hall
    • St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church
    • Ecorse Presbyterian Church
    • Father-Son Banquet, Ecorse Presbyterian Church, 1955
    • St. Anne Rosary Altar Society
  • Ecorse Soldiers
    • Elijah Goodell, Revolutionary War Veteran
    • Ecorse Soldiers in the War of 1812
    • Ecorse Soldiers Fight in the Civil War
    • Backwater River and British Bluster
    • Three Ecorse Farm Boys Join the Michigan Cavalry
    • Adventures of Ecorse 24th Michigan Volunteers
    • Ecorse World War I Veterans
    • Dr. Hileman and Duke Underill Served in World War I
    • World War I Veterans Don Dodge and John Bauer
    • Sandy Blakeman's World War II
    • Honoring More Ecorse World War II Veterans
    • Ecorse Soldiers and Patriots
    • Ecorse World War II Veterans
    • Ecorse Soldiers Help Win D Day and World War II
    • Ecorse World War II Veterans Claude S. Monroe, Dr. Louis Lackey, and Lt. Louis Nagy >
      • Ecorse Korean War Veterans
      • Ecorse Korean War Soldiers
      • Korean War 1955
      • Ecorse Vietnam Veterans Remembered Despite the Blank Name Plates
      • Ecorse Women Serve
      • Ecorse Veteran's Organizations
      • Ecorse Veterans Were Active in American Legion Posts
      • Ecorse Veterans Organized >
        • Veterans of Foreign Wars Present Award to Harry Monks
  • Ecorse Events
    • Al DuHadway Writes that Grandport was Once Center of Ecorse
    • Downriver Dancing Under the Trees
    • Muskrat Love, Those Downriver Muskrat Dinners
    • Ecorse-1920s and 1930s
    • Ecorse Time Capsule, 1930s
    • Ecorse Time Capsules, 1940s
    • 1940s Fragments from Ecorse History
    • Ecorse Sawed Its Way Through Michigan's Lumber Boom
    • Ecorse Landmarks Make Way for Wider Jefferson Avenue - 1935
    • Brotherhood Week, February 1957
    • Some Old Ecorse Landmarks
    • Ecorse Dedicates New Playground
    • Ecorse Events and Editorials, May 1950
    • Ecorse Calendar, Fall 1950
    • Ecorse Activities, February 1957
    • Ecorse Events in June 1964
    • May 1975 is a Busy Month in Ecorse
  • Ecorse Rowing Club Vintage Photos
    • Ecorse Rowing Club Slide Show
    • Ecorse Rowing Club in the Beginning
    • The Ecorse Rowing Club Continues
    • Charles Tank and His Friends Reorganize the Ecorse Rowing Club
    • Jim Rice, A Larger Than Life Coach in the Small Town of Ecorse
    • The Ecorse Rowing Club Rows Strong and Sponsors the Oarsmen's Balls
    • Ecorse Rowing Club - Building Shells
    • Rafting the Waters and Pulling an Oar for Ecorse - the Story of the Ecorse Rowing Club
    • Ecorse Rowing Club Pictures
    • Janice Hoffman Chosen Seventeenth Rowing Queen on Seventeenth Birthday
  • Ecorse At School
    • Going to School in Ecorse
    • Didn't Everybody Have Spanish or Latin With Mr. Santoro?
    • Ecorse High School - 1935 and 1936
    • Ecorse 1942 Yearbook
    • Summer Activities at School One, School Two, and School Three, August 1950
    • Cornerstone Laid for New Bunche School
    • Old Time Ecorse High School Teachers
    • Kindergarten Children Mother Baby Chicks
    • Ecorse School One -1949
    • St, Francis High School Students Travel
    • St. Francis Xavier High School's Last Graduating Class, 1969
    • An Ecorse Bell
    • School Three Wins Eighth Safety Award
    • Grade Three Pupils at School Two and President Eisenhower
    • Some Ecorse Education Events of 1958
  • St. Francis High School History Papers - 1959
    • The Downriver Area Today
    • Detroit River Transportation
    • Religion in the Downriver Communities
    • Ecorse in the Past
    • Division of the Downriver Communities
  • Ecorse People
    • John Duguay's Ecorse
    • Mrs. Ada Saunders, Mrs. Ecorse Librarian, Retires in May 1957
    • Captain McCauley and his daughter Clementine
    • The Pioneering Clarks of Ecorse, Brownstown, and NorthvilleD
    • Bits of Ecorse Biographyl
    • More Bits of Ecorse Biography
    • Charles Embry, "Black Jesus"
    • High Street and Two Ecorse Fire Chiefs Connected by Fate and Friendship
    • Leo Navarre Wins A Car
    • Miss Goodell's Back Yard
    • Music Was A Family Matter for the Campbells
    • Ecorse Grandmother Patents Idea of Puppets with Feet
    • We Made Beautiful Music Together in Ecorse
    • Ann Starr Operates Dancing School and Participates in Community Activities
    • Twenty Years with the Sheriff's Department
    • Alex Campau and Florence Campau Drouillard
    • The Duke Welcomes the Colonel
    • John Seavitt Heads Ecorse Civil Defense Program
    • Social Notes from the Ecorse Advertiser, 1950
    • Great Lakes Fur Trader Pierre LeBlanc Lived in Ecorse
    • Montie Memories
    • Some Outstanding Ecorse Young People, April 1955
  • Practicing Medicine in Ecorse
    • Dr. Robert McQuiston
    • Two Ecorse Nurses
    • Helen Caffo Named Longevity Champion
    • Polio in Ecorse, 1951
  • Ecorse Businesses
    • Ecorse Businesses, 1850-1930
    • Remember Baklarz Supermarket?
    • Baklarz Market Grand Opening
    • Ecorse Business, 1950
    • Great Lakes Steel Stories
    • Sandy Blakeman Sidelites
    • Sandy Blakeman Sidelites- Don Dodge
    • Ecorse Businesses - 1946-1949
  • Ecorse Organizations
    • Ecorse Kiwanis Club Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary
    • Ecorse Kiwanis Club Dedicates Wading Pool, 1951
    • The Downriver Pennsylvania Club
    • Ecorse Rotary Club
    • Milton Montie Retires from Ecorse Fire Department
    • Toll of Ecorse Fire Now at Four Dead
    • Fire Chief Al Jaeger Recalls the Day He Fought Fires and Felons
    • Ecorse Police Department 1955
  • Ecorse Public Library
    • Ecorse Library - 1948
    • Ecorse Library to be Air Conditioned
  • Maritime Ecorse
    • Ecorse, the Maj Ragne, and the St. Lawrence Seaway
    • Ecorse, John Duguay, and the Edmund Fitzgerald
    • Little Ecorse (and River Rouge) Built Big Ships: The Story of the Great Lakes Engineering Works
    • Little Ecorse (And River Rouge) Built Big Ships - 2
    • Little Ecorse (and River Rouge) Build Big Ships: The Story of Great Lakes Engineering Works - Conclusion
    • The Bob-Lo Boats and Bob-Lo Island
    • The Hacketts of Bob-Lo Island
    • Memories of the Bob-Lo Boat Columbia
    • Water Wings, Ecorse 1950s
    • Ecorse and Mud Island
  • Ecorse Politics
    • Mayor Louis Parker
    • Mayor Voisine Asks for Mill Study Ordinances
    • Ecorse Mourns Mayor William Voisine, July 1959
    • Ecorse Celebrates and Anniversary and Holds a Council Meeting, July 1975
    • Ecorse Politics, 1949 Style
    • Mayors from the Past
    • Mayor Albert Buday
    • Ecorse Political People
  • Silent Story Tellers - St. Francis Xavier (Ecorse) Cemetery
  • Silent Story Tellers - St. Francis Xavier (Ecorse) Cemetery - Part II
  • Ecorse Prohibition Stories
    • Rum Running Between Amendments
    • Eli "Peck" LeBlanc
    • The Detroit River, the Poster Highway for Prohibition
  • Ecorse Sports and Entertainment
    • The Harbor Theater
    • Ecorse Hockey Pictures
  • Ecorse Obituaries
    • Ecorse Obituaries, 1950s
    • Ecorse Obituaries-2
  • Ecorse End Notes
    • Rowing Club Information
    • Ecorse, 1920s
    • Ecorse Departments, 1954
    • Ecorse End Notes - French Land Claims
    • Ecorse End Notes: Ecorse Railroads - 1930s
    • Richard Oldfield's Ecorse Dog Andy
    • Ecorse Recreation Department - 1948
    • Local Black Community - 1920s and 1930s
    • Great Lakes Engineering
    • Ecorse Screw Machine Products Company
    • Ecorse Businesses - 1921
  • Ecorse Kids
    • Francoise the Ecorse Seagull Finds His Family Tree
    • Ecorse River Ramblings
    • Smoky, the Ecorse Firehouse Dog
    • Samantha and Betsey Save the Day and the Sailor
    • Captain Goldsmith, Freddy, Francine, and the Fighting Island Sea Serpent
  • Ecorse Historical Museum - Virtually for Now!
  • Virtual Exhibit - Ecorse Along the Detroit River
    • Robert Short and Mayor Voisine
    • Brotherhood Pageant, 1963
    • Ecorse Cleaners Cleans Flag
    • Brotherhood Week Banquet
    • Ecorse Images
  • Ecorse Events, August 1962

Music Was a Family Matter for the Campbells

PicturePhotograph by John Duguay







Two years after he graduated, Alexander Campbell returned to Ecorse High School on Thursday May 7, 1953, when he was the guest soloist at the annual spring Ecorse High School Band concert. He was completing his second year as member of the University of Michigan marching band and was also a member of the University’s R.O.T.C. Band.  He had just returned from a tour with the University of Michigan concert band.

While at Ecorse High School Alexander Campbell studied music under the director of Herbert Saylor and was a member of the Ecorse High School Marching B and for four years.  He was also one of the outstanding students in the class of 1951. At the University of Michigan he studied in the Department of Music with the intention of becoming a band director after graduation. His favorite instrument was the tenor saxophone and he played three numbers in the Ecorse High School Band program. They were:  “Concerto No. 1,” by “Singeless, “Concertina” by Guilhaud and “Tambourin” by Rameau.  Mrs. Doris Green accompanied him at the piano.

 Both the Ecorse Senior High Band and the sixty piece Junior High Band appeared in the musical program which featured both standard music and popular numbers.

After playing with his old band, Alexander returned to the University of Michigan and played more solos. In 1954 he and other students competed in the annual Gulantics talent show in Hill Auditorium. His trio, headed by Anceo Franciso on piano with Jimmie Williams on bass took the $25 third place prize.

 “I played in the Michigan Band under William Revelli – who was a great man, he made me sweat blood-but I also led a popular jazz sextet,” Alexander later recalled. He graduated from the School of Music with a B.A. in 1955 and a Masters Degree in 1960. He once again returned to Ecorse High School where he directed the band for thirty years until he retired to California with his wife Barbara in 1986.

Alexander Campbell, his wife, and their sons Alexander T. Campbell and Garland and David were also musicians. Alexander T. Campbell played sax in the University of Michigan Band from 1975-1977 and David the youngest played percussion while getting his BA in fine arts in 1980. Garland earned his University of Michigan degree in political science and communications and was an Emmy winning producer of children’s TV programs before becoming a college band director.

Garland said that having a band director for a father meant he and his brothers “always had all sorts of instruments at home – violins, guitars, trombones. We learned something about all of them because they were sitting around the house. My mom was a musician too, but she became an occupational therapist.”

 “We didn’t cram anything down their throats, but we exposed them to opportunities I wish I’d had. I used to pack them up, leave home and take them to Ann Arbor to listen to the Michigan Band practice,”  Alexander Sr. said.

The Ecorse High School Band marched in the Mardi Gras Parade in New Orleans on February 29, 1976. The appearance of the 79 member band in the 4 ½ hour parade marked the first time that a unit from Michigan or from the North appeared in the parade which is the final celebration before Lent

The band members and their director Alexander Campbell and Assistant Director Jerry Copeland and thirteen chaperones boarded three buses from Ecorse High School the Friday before the parade. Many Ecorse residents gathered at the School to see them off.

Mrs. Marie Salisbury, an Ecorse resident for 23 years and mother of Larry Salisbury, a school board member at the time, obtained the invitation for the band to participate in the parade. Mrs. Salisbury had attended the Mardi Gras for the past 17 years and had “never seen a Michigan group participate.” A family friend, Arthur Daure, was chairman of the Krewe of Thoth parade and it was from him  that she received the invitation to invite any group she wished. “I could have invited any civic group of older people but I thought it would be better to give those youngsters a chance to make good on the invitation.”

The band members and their families and friends raised $13,000 through various projects, including bake sales, a spaghetti dinner and lunch, a hockey benefit, a card party, paper drive, band concert, student dance, candle sale and medallion sale. Many civic organizations, business leaders and private citizens also assisted. The largest contribution came from the city of Ecorse who gave $2,600 for a bus rental.

 Co-chairman of the parents’ committee were Mrs. Rhoda Daunter and Mrs. Lorraine Lewis. Student leaders were Pete Martinez, chairman; Sheryl Copeland and Andrea Beard.

 Alexander Sr. played sax for Motown records during the company’s heyday for Martha and the Vandellas, the Temptations, the Four Tops and other groups. In the fall of 1996 the Campbells released their first CD from Square 1 produced by their company, Bunk Bed Music and marketed by another family firm, Marquis Records of Wilmington, California. Alexander Sr. was the session director for the recording and three other musicians completed the Campbell Brothers sextet.


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