A Brief History of the Conn Company (1874-present)*
by Margaret Downie Banks, Ph.D.
Curator of Musical Instruments
National Music Museum
Vermillion, South Dakota
© Copyright 1997 by The National Music Museum.
All Rights Reserved.
No portion of this site, including this page and any of the separate pages,
may be copied, retransmitted, reposted, duplicated or otherwise used without
the express written permission of The National Music Museum.
*Excerpted and updated from Elkhart's Brass Roots: An Exhibition to Commemorate
the 150th Anniversary of C. G. Conn's Birth and the 120th Anniversary of the
Conn Company by Margaret Downie Banks (Vermillion, South Dakota: The Shrine
to Music Museum, 1994).
The story of the formative years of the Conn company traditionally begins with
the recitation of one of several popular versions of a fist fight between the
young Charles Gerard Conn and a member of his band, in which Conn's lip is split
so badly that he is unable to play his cornet. As a result, he invents a mouthpiece
with rubber attached to the rim to help cushion his injury. The earliest known
record of this altercation is an article written in 1902 by Ben Gordon Whitehead
for the Indianapolis News--some thirty years after the alleged event. Once
circulated, the details of the story became legendary, growing, changing, and
taking on a life and truth of their own. The real story, as far as it can be determined,
begins in Buchanan, Michigan, in December 1871. The town's band leader, 27-year-old
Charles Gerard Conn (1844-1931), badly injures his left hand, breaking his forefinger
in an accident at the zinc collar-pad factory. Unable to continue practicing his
violin, Gerard, as he was known in his youth, focused his attention upon the cornet,
an instrument he also played and upon which he became highly proficient. Shortly
thereafter, Gerard joined the Haverly Minstrels performing troupe. Just eight
months later, an account in the Berrien County Record notes that "a couple
adopted citizens of the Erin Isle persuasion came in contact with one of our native
citizens of the African descent. Our colored boy backed out till he could back
no further, when quick as thought his fist flew into the face of the antagonist,
felling him instantly." Whether or not Gerard, of Irish heritage, was himself
the recipient of this blow is conjecture. However, based on this newspaper account,
as well as other corroborative evidence, it appears that this is the most likely
source for the split-lip legend. Conn and his young wife, Catherine, left Buchanan
shortly after this incident. They returned to Elkhart, where Gerard spent two
years dabbling in several different lines of work, from selling health care products
under the tradename "Konn's Kurative Kream" to inventing parts for and selling
sewing machines with partner Jake Mish, from plating and engraving silverware
to manufacturing and distributing rubber stamps with partner John Rogers. It was
this last business venture that led directly to the development of Conn's first
musical product. During the fall of 1874, the young entrepreneur invented the
elastic-faced or rubber-rimmed mouthpiece, an event documented seven years later
in the January 1881 issue of Conn's monthly magazine, Trumpet Notes:
I always had my horn where I could put my hand on it as a sort of safety
valve when there was an over pressure of steam on the brain. That afternoon
[in 1874] my lips went back on me and I laid down my cornet to go to work
when this rubber business came into my head as just the thing for a cushion
for the lips.... I tried it and knew it would be a good thing if it could
be properly attached.
C. G. Conn's first musical product, the elastic-faced or rubber-rimmed mouthpiece.
U. S. patents: February 23, 1875 (#160,164) and May 8, 1877 (#190,558). This
example is in the collections of National Music Museum, Vermillion,
South Dakota. Photograph by Simon R. H. Spicer. © Copyright 1997 by
The National Music Museum.
Possibly aided by the expertise of his former Buchanan boss, Dexter Curtis
(inventor of the zinc collar pad for horses), Conn developed a process for vulcanizing
rubber to metal. He proceeded to add this new rubber rim to other manufacturers'
mouthpieces, using improvised machinery made from parts left over from his sewing
machine business. Conn enlarged his business in 1875, after moving out of his
small shop at 22 Jackson Street (above Kibbe's Drug Store) to the upper story
of McGregger & Sons' old woolen mill (behind the post office). He obtained
patents in the United States, England, France, Belgium, and Canada, and began
manufacturing his own mouthpieces in a brass foundry set up next door to his
shop. Experiments in silver plating culminated in December 1875 with the first
silver-plated brass mouthpiece ever produced by Conn.
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For further information, please contact:
Dr. Margaret Downie Banks, Curator of Musical Instruments
National Music Museum
The University of South Dakota
414 East Clark Street
Vermillion, SD 57069-2390
E-mail: mbanks@usd.edu
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