A Brief History of the Conn Company (1874-present)*

by Margaret Downie Banks, Ph.D.
Senior Curator of Musical Instruments
National Music Museum
Vermillion, South Dakota

© Copyright 1997-2009 by The National Music Museum.
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*Excerpted and updated from Elkhart's Brass Roots: An Exhibition to Commemorate the 150th Anniversary of C. G. Conn's Birth and the 120th Anniversary of the Conn Company by Margaret Downie Banks (Vermillion, South Dakota: The Shrine to Music Museum, 1994).

Sale of Company in 1915

The C. G. Conn dynasty ended on August 17, 1915, with the entrepreneur's retirement and sale of the company, the capital stock of which was fixed at $1,000,000. A corporation in which Carl Dimond Greenleaf (1876-1959) was the principal stockholder purchased the instrument factory, as well as almost all of Col. Conn's other Elkhart investments. The business was renamed C. G. Conn Ltd., a seemingly minor name change, yet one which was clearly marked on instruments and advertising materials produced after 1915.

Left: Photograph of Col. Conn taken after his 1915 retirement from the instrument manufacturing business. Gift to the National Music Museum Archives from Charles G. Conn, Sr., 1991. Right: Instruments made after the 1915 sale of the company include the abbreviation "Ltd." in the signature, as seen on an example from the National Music Museum. Photograph by Simon R. H. Spicer.   © 1997-2009 by The National Music Museum.

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