Los Angeles Times, May 8, 1911.
Instrument Manufactured in Sixteenth Century Has been Owned by Generations of Same Family.
SANTA MONICA, May 7 — Hugging an ancient fife to his breast with an affection apparently as deep and sincere as that which a mother showers upon her first-born, William H McDaniel, a Civil War veteran, who lives on South Sixth street, reveres this patched stick of ebony as if it were human.
“If that old stick could only talk,” said McDaniel as he placed it to his lips and blew a bar of an old wartime favorite, “the story it would tell would interest you.” And then he proceeded to relate its history, which dates back to the sixteenth century, when Scotland was under Queen Ann. McDaniel said he had until a few years ago a duly authenticated “pedigree” of the old fife, but this valuable documentary evidence was lost during the disastrous flood at Kansas City a few years ago. But the gray and grizzled veteran remembers with distinctness the main historical points in connection with his prized musical instrument, as his father and his grandfathers before him and his grandfather’s father and grandfather were all fife-ists. In fact, to play the fife is an inherent trait in the McDaniel family and the possessor of this relic is today in a quandary as to its disposition, since he has three sons – and each can play the instrument equally well.
The fife went through the Revolutionary War in the hands of the great-great-grandfather of its present custodian. It went through the War of 1812 and was blown by McDaniel’s grandfather at all the big engagements. Chillon McDaniel, father of William, carried it through the Mexican War in 1846, serving under Gen Scott, with the First Massachusetts Infantry, and after that it was frequently used in Indian uprisings. From 1861 to 1866 its present owner made music on it through the War of the Rebellion, he having enlisted first with the First Iowa and later going into Co. A, Nineteenth Iowa, and again serving as fifer with the Seventh United States Cavalry up to the day of the Custer massacre.
McDaniel says he has a standing offer of $500 cash for the fife, but says he would not think of parting with it as long as there remain people who have knives to grind.
Veteran McDaniel says he was 14 years of age when he joined the army and he believes his brother, Nathan, who drummed with him throughout the service, is perhaps the youngest of the men who saw service. This brother, who is an inmate of the Soldiers’ Home at Sawtelle, is eighteen month younger than the possessor of the fife, which would have made him 12 years and 6 months of age at the date of his enlistment in the service of his country. They are devoted brothers. The one believes the other to be the best living drummer, and the other is certain no better fifer ever blew wind through a hollow stick. When they meet — and the sessions grow less frequent as time passes, since age and service are telling upon both — fife and drum are always brought into play and the neighbors have the pleasure of a serenade such as sent terror to hearts in the dark days of war times.
