GETZEN

T.J. Getzen leaves the Holton Company after nearly ten years as plant superintendent to start his own business. The Getzen Company, Inc. is born in a converted dairy barn behind the Getzen family residence at 329 East Geneva Street, Elkhorn, Wisconsin. Although manufacturing is still to come, T.J. and his three employees focus on band instrument repair. 

Branching out from the band instrument repair business, the Getzen Company produces its first trombones. The trombones roll off the line in the summer of 1946. Only about 1,000 trombones are produced in that first year.