Los Angeles Herald, Sunday Morning, September 9, 1900, page 12.
“Here ie a relic,” said Comrade Bain of Logan post, exhibiting a time-worn drum of ancient make, “that is of more than ordinary interest. lt was captured by my great grandfather in 1777, and has been in our family ever since. I carried it through the Civil war, in the Fifth lowa infantry. Its shell is of maple, and it has the richest tone I ever heard. I have traced its manufacture back to 1756, when it was made in Berlin, for the Hessians, who had just been organized. There are only a few such drums now in existence.
“Our family has been one of drummers. My great grandfather was a drummer in the regiment under Col. Sholtz. It was at the time of the surrender of Burgoyne that the instrument was captured. There had been a hard day’s fighting, and it had come down to a hand-to-hand contest, when my forbear saw the drum, slung at the side of a Hessian. After a short, sharp contest, the Hessian lay upon the battlefield, and my great grandfather had possession of the drum.
“The valuable instrument, which becomes more valuable every day, was passed down from generation to generation. Until you see it today, a trifle war scarred, but little the worse for its more than a century’s usage.”
