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George Johnson was the originator of fifing and drumming in Berlin. On April 7, 1777, at the age of 17, Johnson ran away from home and enlisted in the Revolutionary Army at Shepardstown, Virginia. He served as a fifer for three years under Capt. Iserlow and Colonels Nevill and Berford with the Virginia troops. A hatter by trade, he was granted a pension for his military services on September 11, 1832. He died at Berlin in 1837 at the age of 72. Through George Johnson, Berlin has had fifers and drummers since 1782, the Fife and Drum Corps consisting of military veteran musicians and local recruits.
Fifers and Drummers mustered at the onset of war, beginning in 1812 and continuing until other forms of military communication replaced the fifer and drummer on the battlefield.
The Corps was loosely organized during the period between the wars. Little organizational history of the Corps is known from this period. Military veteran members during the period from the American Revolution until 1887 included: Revolutionary War Veterans, George Johnson and George Platy, War of 1812 Veterans, George Johnson, Jr. and George Coleman; and Civil War Veterans, Jacob Hoyle, David Stripe, Garsham Heflley, William H. Platt, John F. Dively, Lewis L. Cope, Clifton Heffley, Michael Aljosen, Charles A. Dively, Aaron K. Johnson (a descendent of George Johnson), Harmon Johnson, and Charles A. Floto.
According to the records of the times these men were expert musicians who were warmly greeted by those who watched them on parade. It is said that often as the Drum Corps approached, a cry went up from the crowd, "Here comes Berlin!"
In the year 1887 a camp of the Sons of Union Veterans was organized at Berlin and uniformed members took in the Fife and Drum Corps and became well organized and trained in a military manner. One of their activities was to decorate and place an American Flag on each grave of veterans of all wars in the Allegheny region. The Fife and Drum Corps rendered martial music at area burial grounds and began a tradition which lives today, of playing at Memorial Services at the Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Northhampton Township, and at the Berlin I.O.O.F. Cemetery in which the Corps founder, George Johnson, lies in his final rest.
In 1894 this Corps marched in a Sons of Veterans Parade in Portage, Pennsylvania. Also that year, the Berlin Fife and Drum Corps, made up in part of veterans of the War Between the States marched at the head of Somerset County Veterans, (the famed Frosty Sons of Thunder) at the National Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic in Washington, D.C. The Corps has also attended and participated in National Encampments of the Grand Army of the Republic held at Detroit, Pittsburgh, Springfield, Columbus, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Chicago, Atlantic City and Buffalo.
During the presidential campaign of William B. McKinley, in 1896, the Corps, accompanied a seven passenger coach train from Somerset County to Cancon, Ohio, and paraded from the station to the residence of Mr. McKinley. President McKinley himself had ties with the Frosty Sons of Thunder, often setting up his summer White House in the cooler climate of Somerset County. In July 1898, the Corps was sent to Somerset, where it marched Capt. Ernest 0. Kooser's Company I, Fifth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer infantry off to war with Spain, and members of the Drum Corps, as in America's previous wars, again saw service on the fields of honor in the Spanish-American War.
In 1908, Berlin held an old-home week celebration. At that time, Eli Sheetz, a native of Berlin, known as the Martha Washington Candy King of Washington D.C., attended and became enthused with the playing of the Fife and Drum Corps. He returned to Washington and his workers organized a fife and drum corps. As long as Mr. Sheetz lived, he came to Somerset County reunions of the Civil War vets with his players. On these visits, he made his headquarters in Berlin and the town rang with martial music. His favorite tune was "Lize Jane", a melody from World War I, and a regular selection of the present-day Berlin Fife and Drum Corps. Mr. Sheetz went to become somewhat of a legend among fife and drum corps.
For sometime, around the year 1914, the Berlin Corps was affiliated with the Junior Order of the United American Mechanics. In 1937 the Corps participated in the Festivities from July 25th to July 31st, celebrating the centennial of Berlin Borough.
In 1938 when the representative Northwest Territory caravan passed over the original trail through Somerset County in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the journey made by pioneer settlers from Ipswich, Massachusetts to the Ohio Country, 1787-1788, the Berlin Corps provided martial music in the parade.
From the very first observance of Memorial Day in Berlin, a Fife and Drum Corps of the town participated annually in the parade. Henry Gary and J. Platt Philson, esteemed citizens of Berlin, long since departed, both Confederate Veterans, fraternized with the Union Vets by marching in these parades. Often, the Berlin Corps attended similar services in other local communities, a traditional kept alive by today's Drum Corps.
More recently, fifers and drummers of Berlin organized under the auspices of the Berlin Volunteer Fire Department. From 1936 until 1968 the Corps was knows as the Berlin Fireman's Fife and Drum Corps.
Since 1968, the Berlin Fife and Drum Corps has existed independently, carrying on the traditions begun by George Johnson in the American War of Independence. In 1976, the year of America's Bicentennial, the Corps marched in Philadelphia in the Pennsylvania Parade.
A great deal of the history of the Berlin Fife and Drum Corps during the Twentieth Century revolves around the central figure of Ralph G. Landis. Perhaps no man other than our founder, George Johnson, has been so instrumental in keeping alive the spirit of the great fife and drum tradition in the hills around Berlin.
Ralph Landis joined the Corps in 1923 and was an active member until his death. A rudimental drummer of the finest sort, he was the man who, in many minds, was the Berlin Fife and Drum Corps, having carried the bass drum for many years. It is through Mr. Landis' efforts and those of his protégé, Theodore Johnson (a direct descendent of the founder of the Corps), that the old fife tunes survive.
Membership in the Berlin Fife and Drum Corps is a long tradition in the Berlin area. Several members have served for over forty years, C. William Altfather, James "Fremont" Stuck, Alfred Queer, Chuck Robb and Rollie Fogle just to name a few.
In 1982, the Corps celebrated its two hundredth anniversary with a huge parade in Berlin with fife and drum corps coming from as far away as Maryland, West Virginia, and Washington D.C. Numerous local organizations taking part with floats, bands, clown units, Shrine Organizations, and antique cars.
It is our hope that our long tradition of fifing and drumming in the Allegheny
Mountains will encourage succeeding generations of Frosty Sons of Thunder to
join the Corps and enjoy the thrill of keeping alive a centuries old musical
heritage. Indeed, it is our hope that one hundred years from now, parade spectators
will still raise the cry "Here Comes Berlin".