12/09/2025
If you peek around the music rooms of BCMS or our elementary schools, you’ll find some fantastic samples of vintage drums from the “Golden Era” of drum making in the United States. These artifacts – steam bent from American hardwoods like maple, mahogany and poplar from the Great Lakes Region – harken back to an era when the “Big Four” (Ludwig, Gretsch, Rogers and Slingerland) relentlessly competed for market share, a big part of which was school music programs.
In our middle school instrument storage room, tucked high and away in a dusty corner, sits an absolutely beautiful 4-piece Slingerland drum set from the late 1960s, wrapped in black oyster pearl. Like many drums made in the mid-20th century, they are ignored and unused because it is far easier to replacing missing or outdated parts with sturdier and more modern offerings (it’s usually cheaper too). BUT… this is a local history post, not a vintage Slingerland drums appreciation piece, nor a complaint about BCSD’s music program purchasing decisions – instead, let’s marvel, once again, at how history’s web, while complex, connects us far more closely than meets the eye.
In the 1960s, the soul of Chicago’s Slingerland Drum Company factory was nurtured by a quiet, frugal, and strong-willed gentleman named Henry “Bud” Slingerland (1921-1980). He was a “shrewd businessman and didn’t mind breaking a few rules” to stay ahead of the game in production, sales and endorsees. One of Bethlehem’s earliest settlers, Dutch fur trader Teunis Cornelisz Slingerland (1617-1684), was also known for such character traits in his business endeavors, perhaps in part because he was Bud’s 6th great grandfather!
Teunis came to America from the Netherlands in the early 1650s and managed a considerable amount of farmland near the Normanskill Creek, which is named after his Norwegian father-in-law, Albert Andriessen “The Noorman” Bradt. Like his 6th great-grandson Bud, he was a family man who was prodigiously business-oriented and “stayed out of court and out of the limelight,” traits he passed down to generations of Slingerlands remaining in the area who made their mark in local, state and national affairs. The name is so prevalent in town – with a hamlet and a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places running through it – that most residents never give it a second thought.
Our most famous is probably John I. Slingerland – abolitionist, Anti-Rent advocate, state assemblyman and US congressman – who also worked to ensure the Albany & Susquehanna Railroad was laid through town (and it was, practically right past his doorstep). Then there is John’s brother William H., a civil engineer who also served in the NYS Assembly. He established the first post office in the hamlet of Slingerlands – formerly called Normans Kill but renamed in the family’s honor in 1860 – and brought a public water supply to residents with his Suburban Water Company, which was sold to the town in 1927.
But how do we get from our well-documented, centuries-old contributions to Bethlehem’s rich history to drum-making in gritty, Mid-century Chicago? Look no further than the American Revolution. As was the case with many families in that era, the war pitted siblings and cousins against each other – requiring either loyalty to the British Crown or the Continental Army declaring independence from it – and the Slingerlands were no exception.
Unlike his cousin Albert Teunis Slingerland (1732-1781) – from which our John I. and William H. descend – Teunis Anthony Slingerland (1723-1794) signed his great-grandfather’s name to join the notorious Butler’s Rangers, a provincial military unit led by Loyalist John Butler (sons Dirck and Garret joined as well). Historians detail the regiment’s notoriously ruthless tactics in battle and hold them responsible for slaughtering hundreds of settlers during the Wyoming Valley and Cherry Valley massacres of 1778 by Iroquois forces. Muster roll records indicate a strong likelihood that our hometown boys participated in these attacks.
Butler and his men fought principally in Western New York and Pennsylvania but operated as far west as Ohio and Michigan. While Butler himself had a farm estate near here in Montgomery County, his militia’s winter quarters were in Canada, at Niagara-on-the-Lake in Ontario. Teunis’s family relocated there after the war and would remain for over a century, until Garret’s enterprising young grandson Samuel relocated to Manistee, Michigan around 1880, effectively trading Lake Ontario for Lake Michigan and returning to the United States in the process.
Samuel P. Slingerland (1840-1919) was a successful farmer with a keen business sense, and sources indicate he also supported his family with real estate dealings. Son Henry H. (1875-1946) inherited his sagacious character and owned a Great Lakes gambling boat. According to his daughter Marion he was a prodigious gambler, and this is likely why legend claims he won the Chicago Correspondence School of Music that would soon bear his name in a poker match, but records indicate he moved to the Windy City in the early 1900s after a fire destroyed his boat, working with his first wife as a music teacher at the school. Eventually he purchased the interest from the original owner’s widow, and after a stint manufacturing ukuleles and banjos began making drums. By the time he died, Slingerland’s Radio King drums were world-famous, preferred by legends like Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Lionel Hampton, Cozy Cole, Davey Tough, “Big Sid” Catlett and scores of others. His son Bud took the reins in the 1950s and ran the company until retiring in 1970, when the company was sold out of the family.
So there you have it. I can’t tell you how much money I’ve spent collecting and restoring the Chicago Slingerland family’s handywork (I simply don’t know), but I can respectfully suggest how you might spend yours to honor ours. The Slingerland Family Vault – final resting place of John I. and William H. – has been tastefully restored thanks to tremendous community support and the dedication of a small group of volunteers. If you enjoyed this little slice of Bethlehem history and 6 degrees of connectivity, please consider donating to maintain this worthy restoration effort at the link in the comments. Thank you!
