At the end of 1906 Mr. Fitzgerald left the band and moved to California. He was replaced by Frank L. McCreary, who served as conductor of the Cedar Falls band from 1907 to 1928. McCreary was also a part-time professor at the Iowa State Normal School. McCreary had little formal music education, but he was able to get a lot out of his musicians because they really enjoyed playing for him. It was under McCreary's direction that the Cedar Falls Band became one of the most famous bands in Iowa and throughout the world.
During much of McCreary's tenure as director, they were the official band of the Waterloo Elks Club. The partnership between the Waterloo organization and the one in Cedar Falls helped to bring about a measure of cooperation between two cities that frequently saw themselves as rivals. Both communities could now take pride in the band's accomplishments. The support of the Waterloo Elks Club was very important to the Cedar Falls Band. It sponsored several trips for the band and the band in turn often played for Elks' lodges in other cities.
It was during McCreary's tenure that the band bought its first building. In 1916, it acquired a building on Main Street between Second and Third Streets. This structure was expanded and remodeled after another acquisition, in 1923, of a second building next door to the first. This site is still occupied by the band today. Members use the upper level as a rehearsal room, director's office, instrument and uniform storage facility, and music library. Owning a building was important to the band because it helped to give the members a sense of continuity and pride.
Under McCreary's leadership the band became incorporated officially on January 20, 1916, as a nonprofit organization. Because of this, the band did not have to pay taxes on the buildings they owned. Incorporation had another important implication. During the early twentieth century the Cedar Falls Band was criticized occasionally because they were not unionized. The criticism was unfair because nonprofit organizations were not eligible for unionization. Other bands sometimes refused to march with them, since many bands' members belonged to the Musicians Union. One such incident occurred in Waterloo in 1913. The Dubuque Band opposed the participation of the Cedar Falls Band in the town's parade and managed to have it excluded. The Waterloo Elks Club then organized a special parade just for the Cedar Falls Band. Another incident occurred in Marshalltown in 1914 when all of the other bands scheduled to march in a local parade protested the inclusion of the non-unionized Cedar Falls group and refused to march with it. Thus the Cedar Falls band was the only band in the parade. In Sioux City in 1915 feelings ran so high against the northeast Iowa musicians that the band had to have a police escort to their train following a performance there. For several years in the early 1900s the band experienced protests on a fairly regular basis. This ended in 1916, when according to Herb Hake, "The Cedar Falls musicians had proven their competence so decisively that they were taken off the 'unfair' list. Thereafter, they paraded with no protests."2
During McCreary's tenure as leader in Cedar Falls, bands throughout Iowa underwent major changes. Prior to 1921 towns in Iowa had no way to support a local ensemble except through donations. This changed in 1921 with the passage of the Iowa Band Law which authorized communities to levy a property tax for the support of a local band. This was the first law of its sort in the country and many other states followed Iowa's lead in this type of legislation. By 1933 twenty-eight other states had passed similar laws. The money raised from this tax was used to pay the conductor. He was the only member of the Cedar Falls Band to receive any pay.
