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Bernard “Barney” Walberg was born in Sweden in 1877, coming to Worcester MA with his parents as a child. He was a professional musician before buying a half-interest in Taylor & Auge from A. L. Auge, the single remaining owner of that firm. Taylor & Auge were dealers and repairers of musical instruments; the manufacturing of instruments began when Walberg became involved in 1903 (1). After Auge passed away in 1910, Walberg continued with the name of Walberg & Auge. This drum is ca. 1920-1930.         Walberg’s company was an important innovator of drum set hardware, and...

This shell of this drum was made by Henry Eisele, a drum maker in New York City from 1844 through 1919. He was the successor to another well-known maker, William Sempf, also from New York City.                  Sempf’s first listing as a drum maker in NYC directories (1) is in 1862-1863, first on Forsyth Street and then the next year at 211 Grand Street. The listings for Sempf are sometimes at 209 Grand and sometimes at 211 Grand, but these are alternate addresses for the same building. The listings for William Sempf continue...

My grandfather was bivouacked in France with his U.S. Cavalry unit in WWI. During a raging blizzard, his horse broke loose, terrified. When he finally found her, he tied her lead to a short branch in the ground nearby. Under the next morning's blazing sun, the snow melted away, but he couldn't find his horse anywhere - until, hearing a distant whinny, he looked up to see her dangling from the village church spire.   Meet my grandfather, Arthur J. "Pop" Murphy. He was a fifer, a WWI US Cavalry veteran, a founding member of the Mount Vernon NY VFW...

My mother was bailed out of jail by my father, and promptly fell in love. Post 596 drum corps jail, that is. The Mount Vernon NY VFW Post 596 drum corps was having a fundraising dance that night in 1950 when one of Pop Classey’s drum students bought the largest bucketful of tokens he could afford to rescue Pop Murphy’s daughter from dance hall jail. Pop Classey (Edward A.) and Pop Murphy (Arthur J.) were founding members of the 596 drum corps, a drummer and a fifer going back to 1930 in a corps that Gus Moeller would join as...

Why are we so interested in the Harmony Company? We know vintage Harmony guitars are prized instruments, but we weren't as familiar with their drums. So we were intrigued to see the label inside this bass drum shell: “Harmony Drum manufactured by The Harmony Company”, along with some patent dates, and in handwriting, “W. E. Patrick Jr., Newport RI Sept 1910”.        It turns out that the founder of the company, William Schultz, worked at the Knapp Drum Company in Chicago until it was bought out by Lyon & Healy; he continued to work as a foreman there until 1892,...