To the Editor:

Hear the sounds of Colonial and Revolutionary America as members of the Adamsville Ancients Fife and Drum Corps present a musical program that includes a talk on the role of the fifes and drums in early America and performances of period and recent tunes.

This program, sponsored by the New Scotland Historical Association and Voorheesville Public Library, will be presented at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 1, at the Wyman Osterhout Community Center in New Salem on 7 The Old New Salem Road. Admission is always free.  

Formed in February of 1988, the Adamsville Ancients Fife and Drum Corps was mostly made up of ten experienced fife and drum musicians. Its name was drawn from the early 1800s village that became Delmar, New York.

Adamsville was named for one of the original settlers and landowners of the area, Nathaniel Adams. The corps often marches in parades around the area and also participates in many fife-and-drum musters throughout New York and New England.

During the War for Independence, fife-and-drum corps were an integral part of every military encampment. Made up of young boys (sometimes as young as 9 or 10) and older men who could no longer participate in frontline fighting, the purpose of each fife-and-drum corps was not only to boost morale but to also communicate orders in battle. 

What a fitting way to embark on America’s 250th anniversary of declaring everyone’s unalienable right to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The New Scotland Historical Association Museum, with its new exhibit featuring items from the Timothy and Susan Albright Archive, will be open for a half-hour before the program.

Judy Kimes

Publicist

New Scotland Historical Association