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Columbia Trumpet-Cornet |
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Harry B. Jay Company Model: Columbia Original cost in 1920= $115 [$2,419 in 2025] (compared to $60 in plain brass) I was contacted through the website by a woman who had inherited a cornet and wanted to learn more about it and possibly what to do with it. When she sent some photos, I recognized the Harry Jay Trumpet-Cornet model but also saw that it had a bit of damage. The main tuning slide was in pieces and possibly missing a part, the third valve riser stem was bent, and the inlet pipe that holds the removable receivers was broken off. I told her what I could about it, then ended up buying it as a parts horn with the hopes that I could find enough pieces to make it work again and a promise that if I did, she could share the information with the family it came from. Here it is in the case when it arrived; smelling very musty and looking pretty sorry. To my amazement, what looked like lacquered brass in the photos turned out to be gold plating with a very nice engraving!
All apart and ready for evaluation. The tuning slide crook was loose, the bottom tuning slide tube was stuck inside the outer tube, which was also falling off the horn, the upper tuning slide outer tube was stuck, the inlet pipe and clamp were gone, and the first slide was so stuck that I had to remove the crook to work out each branch separately. The brace between the third and main tuning slides was also hanging on by one corner, so that came off as well. Plier marks on the trumpet receiver tell the story of what happened to this poor horn. The receiver was stuck in the lead pipe after years of no use so someone tried using pliers to twist it off. This bent the two valve braces down and cracked the inlet pipe off just before the valve brace. This may have also caused the main tuning slide to come apart. They did manage to get the receiver out but also made this unplayable.
Here are the two original mouthpieces, also gold plated. These use his "JCo" logo.
Being able to find a cornet like this is nice, but finding out the history of onwership really makes it special. The first clue I was given was that it was previously owned by Verlyn Ross Wheat (below) of Detroit and passed on to a family friend in Boston after his death in 2022.
Then I was told that Verlyn's father had owned it originally and played it in the Purdue University marching band when he was in college. This explained the very worn sticker on the case that was hard to read.
I was able to match it to this brass original.
Another Purdue sticker on the bottom of the case.
The Purdue Marching Band about the time that his father was playing in it.
Verlyn's father was Alwyn Cree Wheat (1901-1977) who was born in Portland, Indiana in 1901 and lived at #616 West High St (below) when he first got this cornet as a teenager; perhaps as a graduation present before going off to college. His father Roscoe was a lawyer in Portland and found the money to buy him the most expensive version of this instrument then available.
By 1930, Alwyn Cree Wheat and his wife Helen were living at #15361 Princeton Ave in Detroit (below) and he was working as a chemical engineer for ALCOA. Their son Verlyn was born there in 1933.
By 1940, the family had moved to #14801 Marlowe Ave in Detroit (below) and by 1950, Alwyn was a plant superintendent for the Ingersall auto parts factory. It was during this time that Verlyn must have learned to play his father's cornet.
Verlyn went on to graduate with a BS in microbiology from Michigan State and after a time with the US Air Force, became a career microbiologist. Below is an ad from Jacob's Band Monthly for the Harry B. Jay Company from 1918 when this horn was built.
Below is the 1920 Jay catalog page for the Trumpet-Cornet model. This gold-plated version in the larger bore would have been #147 on this list; the most expensive one they made at the time.
Here is a close-up of the broken inlet pipe.
The most stable way to repair this was to cut the original between the two valve braces and install a new piece with a coupler to match the other one further along the pipe. Once polished, brass will come as close as possible to the gold without the huge expense of new plating.
At this point, the tuning slide was also soldered back together and aligned so that all the pipes were parallel again. The gap in the bottom branch of the tuning slide is for the missing Bb/A stop rod; another piece I will need to make from old parts.
All pieces cleaned up and ready for assembly.
Finished photos
The added stop rod made from old parts.
The spliced on inlet pipe with clamp made from an old lyre holder.
The cleaned and restored case.
I added a brass music lyre and gold-plated cleaning rod from my spare parts collection. I have to assume that is what the two slots are for.
The beautiful engraving!
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