The Palmer dulcimer, on display at the Galloway House & Village
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| Birney & Carrie Palmer with their dulcimer |
Bingham Lake
Dec 18th, 1932
Dear Mae & All.
This, while mostly business like is also a Christmas
greeting to you all and I wish you a very bright and happy day. As you
doubtless know before this time I came up here to attend Charley Siem’s funeral
who died the 3rd of Dec. It is a very sad family for they loved him
very much and had cared for him so long that it was very hard to give him up.
Once, when the family were visiting us at Valley Springs
Charley wanted to see the dulcimer and we got it down out of the barn. The
wrench was with it then so we could see how the tuning was done. And we never
saw it after that till just a few minutes ago when Laura went and got it from
Charley’s things. He had put it in his pocket and brought it home with him. I
am sending it to you and as it is old you may want it for a pattern to make a
newer one.
By now you will know that there are to be five or six
bass strings which go over the top of the short bridge & through the holes
in the long bridge. The bass strings are of brass but the other ones are of
wire (steel wire) Bass strings are only two strands just from their keys over
across to the nails on the left hand side. I do not know whether you can get
the right kind of wire or not. Mary used to try to use different kinds of wire
– fiddle strings, mandolin strings etc. But none of them gave the same
satisfaction as the regular dulcimer wire which I doubt if you can get. Now, as
to the history of this dulcimer. I can not tell in what year Erastus Bannister
came to Wis to sell dulcimers but it was between 1850 and 1856. The Manning
family were in Wis then from N. Y. state and had settled in Adams Co. at a
place called Roche-a-Cree, an Indian name. Then Gaston Bannister & Jasper
went to the same place. It was in the summer of 1856 that my sister Carrie
worked for a family by the name of Dr Cruthers who lived about a mile west of
where the town hall and the Methodist church used to stand in the town of
Byron, Fond du Lac Co. This family were singers and music lovers. And when
Erastus Bannister came along selling dulcimers and was himself a singer with a
grand good bass voice, they had royal good times and of course he sold them a
dulcimer, and as he traveled around the country selling them, he made the Dr’s
home his headquarters, thus getting acquainted with your Aunt Carrie
Bannister who sang alto with the family.
Your uncle Will Palmer was a baby that year born the 4th of Apr.
Erastus & Carrie were married in the fall and went to Roche-a-Cree to live.
And before going he gave your Aunt Mary a dulcimer for she took to it at once,
thought Aunt Florence played some. And it is her picture taken with your father
with the dulcimer on her lap. So you see the Bannisters – three brothers, and
the Mannings all lived up there which we used to call the “Injun Land”. And
Manning’s folks bought this dulcimer that you have. When the moved to this country they brought it along,
and when they went to calif the left it to Aunt Jennie. And when they moved in
their new house they put it up in the barn where it stayed until charley wanted
to see it that time. And now you have it. After your father came home from the
war, he went up to Adams Co. to visit the Bannisters and Aunt Mary had already
gone up there. She & Birney played together for dances etc. And she there
met & married Frank Munn when they all came down to Byron in 1865 or 66.
Now I hope you enjoy the old thing and learn to play on
it – I only wish I was there to see the old thing renew itself and to hear you
play. A very merry Christmas to you all from my heart and Laura & Myrtle
send their greetings too.
Lovingly
Aunt Rosina
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