The first Rocky Grove Band was a strong community group that owed much to the musical Hoffman family. The first leader was Camilla Hoffman. The Hoffman family moved to the Rocky Grove from Clintonville in 1907. The band formed in 1911 and became very active, playing for a wide variety of community activities from the Dempseytown Harvest Home to the county Sunday School convention to women's suffrage meeting. They even played the occasional sit down concert at the corner of Rocky Grove and Parker Avenues. In August of 1915, at the age of 29, Camilla Hoffman died of infantile paralysis. The entire community mourned the loss; all Rocky Grove businesses closed on the day of the funeral. The band quickly rebounded. Leon Hoffman was chosen leader, and they continued to be an active performing group. Like most area performing groups, the Rocky Grove Band had some personnel overlap with other area groups. Coulter Hoffman and Curt Bower both played with the Franklin Band. In 1917 the band enlisted as a group; 16 members were accepted into the Coast Guard Band at Cape May, where they served out the war. After the war, the Rocky Grove Band experienced the same difficulties felt throughout the band world. By 1920, they had decided to pack it in. When the Franklin Band decided to revive itself, remaining Rocky Grove Band members joined in and helped bring the band back to health. In fact, for a few months they were known as the Franklin-Rocky Grove Band. Rocky Grove would not have a band of its own again until the late 1930's. The Rocky Grove Volunteer Fireman's Band was enormously popular, and was the first band in the region to march with accordions. Coulter Hoffman and Robert Rice were among the directors of this group that included many players who also appeared with the Franklin Band.