Tiersmen Drum and Bugle Corps

The Tiersmen were sponsored by the Corporal J.J. Mooney V.F.W. Post 2250 of Hornell, N.Y. The Jr. Corps was started in 1964 as a parade corps.  The corps traveled thru out the southern tier of  New York and made one trip to Canada competing in parades and were also sponsered by the Cohocton voluntier fire department to lead them in fridy night firemens parades that were popular back then.  They paid us $50 for going to the parade if my memory is correct and then we would get what ever prize money the parade sponser would award.  We did quite well winning at most of the parades we went to. Some of the local corps we would compete against were Newerk State School, Wellsville Blue Devels,Barons of Steuben,  Dansville White Sabers who are now competing as a senior or all age corps in DCA. The members and staff soon wanted to compete at a higher level and wanted to begin competing in field competitions as well. In 1965 the corps won the "New York State American Legion Parade Championship" I believe we beat some of the big boy's in that parade corps not mentioned above.  1966 moved the corps into the field show arena with Jack Mahoney Jr. as Corps Director and drill instructer, Dick Drain as music arranger and bugle instructor, and Al Omstead as percussion instructor.  1966 also was the start of something we believe was not done any where else.  The All Girl Drum & Bugle Corps Competition was started. 

We also brought in some big name corps to play Exhibition like Scout House, St Joes, Inter-State Ambassadors. Unfortunitly we found that we were not drawing big enough crowds and went back to mixed corps competitions after 3 years of all girl shows. Numbers were always a problem with the corps especialy in the horn line as the High school band director would not allow his horn players to march in the corps during the summer stating he believed it was not good for there lips??  The corps always had a small horn line of 12 to 15 players.  Many just street kids who learned to play at the corps practice.  The corps usualy traveled on one non air conditioned school bus painted Tiersmen Colors. A converted

vw bus was the first equipment truck which the corps grew out of very quickly.  A delivery truck similar to todays UPS trucks was the next equipment truck the corps had.

Gold Shako with a white plum for the first couple yeas.

Gold Blouse with a wide blue strip that ran from the right shoulder to the left hip.

On the left side of the blouse we had a round emblem with the outline of ny state with

a penant that said Tiersmen and the stick went thru where Hornell would be on the map

Drum and Bugle Corps-Hornell N.Y. around the emblem in blue and gold with white letters.

Blue pants for the guys and a blue dress for the girls in the color guard. with a gold stripe on the legs and a blue sash hanging down on the left side.

White bucks for the guys and white boots for the girls.

The Plumes changed to blue in 1966 or 67.