Drum Major Biographies

The Ohio State Drum Majors (Modern Era)

The first modern-era drum major was Edwin "Tubby" Essington, but a drum major has been part of The Ohio State University Marching Band since the beginning, in 1878. Script Ohio has chronicled the biographies and history of the modern-era drum majors since 1920.

Biography source: Script Ohio

Historians: Beverly Moseley (1920-1988 drum majors) and Kathryn Mitchell (1989-present drum majors)

Pre-Modern Era Ohio State Drum Majors

  • Sgt. Joesph N. Bradsford (1878)
  • George Makepeace (1879-80)
  • Edward Orton, Jr. & S.J. Wilson (1881)
  • Edward E. Sparks (1882)
  • Unknown (1883-85)
  • Jewett D. Norris (1886-87)
  • Cpl. C.P. Wilcox, Calvin Powers & JJ Mullay (1888)
  • 1st Sgt. Walter Palmer (1889)
  • Sgt George D. Pearce (1890)
  • 1st Sgt. Thomas French & Sgt G.D. Pearce (1891)
  • Unknown (1892)
  • 2nd Lt. C.L. Mcllvaine (1893)
  • 2nd Lt. Charles McGuire (1894)
  • 1st Sgt. J.J. Hoglen (1895)
  • 1st Sgt. Roy Hopkins (1896)
  • 1st Sgt. K.B. Seeds (1897)
  • 1st Sgt. Chester Foster (1898)
  • 1st Sgt. Ernest Lied (1899-1900)
  • Herman G. Weinland (1901)
  • 1st Sgt. G.A. Hipp (1902)
  • 2nd Lt. Claude C. Rose (1903-04)
  • Sgt. Elmer Sproat (1905-07)
  • 1st Lt. Fred Ortman (1908)
  • Unknown (1909)
  • Robert Bruce Marshall (1910)
  • Francis E. Marshall (1911)
  • L. Walter Avery (1912)
  • Unknown (1913)
  • William Elmer Curran (1914)
  • H.A. Robinson (1915)
  • R.H. Barnes (1916)
  • W.A. Ricketts (1917)
  • Unknown (1918-19)