MADE AMERICA'S FIRST PIANO.
Early as 1797 - Boston Music Makers' Apprentices
Who Became Famous.
THE FIRST PIANO MADE IN THE UNITED STATES.
BOSTON DAILY GLOBE
MADE AMERICA'S FIRST PIANO. |
| Benjamin Crehore of Milton Was Making Pianos as Early as 1797 - Boston Music Makers' Apprentices Who Became Famous. |
THE FIRST PIANO MADE IN THE UNITED STATES. |
Who made the first piano in the United States?
This question is often asked, but generally the answer gives the credit to others than the right person. Honor must be given to Mr. Benjamin Crehore of Milton.
The evidence consists of several papers of which the following are copies. The first is a letter from Mr. James Hewett, a music dealer in New York city, a good many years ago:
New York, Nov. 23, 1797.
Sir - I take the liberty of addressing you from the recommendation of Mr. Dingell, who was spoken of you in very high terms. I should be very happy if we could form a connection together in the musical line.
I have a store here, formerly kept by Mrs. Carr, importer of musical instruments, piano-fortes, violin strings, etc. and I publish music. I should be very glad to have some of your pianofortes on commission, and to supply you with whatever I have in my store upon terms which shall be agreed upon. If this meets your approbation, I think we may be of mutual advantage to each other.
Mr. Graupner, by whom I write, can give you information respecting my business situation. I hope you will do me the fovor to write an answer to this as soon as possible, and upon what terms you would like to enter upon any engagement with me.
James Hewett.
This letter is adressed to "Mr. Crehore, musical instrument maker, Milton, near Boston."
Boston's First Music Store.
Mr. Crehore shipped pianos to Mr. Hewitt until 1801. That year the Mr. Graupner mentioned formed a partnership with Mr. F. Mallett for the sale of musical goods, the first establishment of its kind in Boston. Graupner's name first appears in the Boston directory in 1813. He was at that time without a partner and his store was at 6 Franklin st, and his residence at 1 Province House ct.
He was a skillful performer on the double on contra-bass, and played in the orchestra of the Federal Street Theatre and the Handel and Haydn Society. He died about 1835.
When the partnership of Mallett & Graupner was formed they drew up the following agreement.
We the subscribers, jointly agree between the parties undersigned, viz: B. Crehore on one part and F. Mallett and G. Graupner on the other part, that every forte piano made and delivered by the said B. Crehore in the hall of the said F. Mallett and G. Graupner shall be paid to the said B. Crehore, viz: half money down when delivered, and the other half when the forte piano shall be sold or let by the said F. Mallett and G. Graupner. We further agree and bound ourselves to the above articles and the said B. Crehore to deliver in our hall all the forte pianos of his making, so long as we fulfill the agreement faithfully.
Made, agreed and signed, this day, Sept. 11, 1801.
N. B. - We further agree that no forte pianos will be sold by the said B. Crehore without our approbation, either in our hall or in his store, and after our approbation, B. Crehore bound himself to deliver them according to our said declaration and paid to us - Mallett & Graupner - the lawful commision upon all forte pianos sold in this shop.
Gottlieb Graupner,
Francis Mallett.
Remarkable Mechanical Genius.
That Mr. Crehore made pianos for this firm for several years is proven by the following order:
"April 16, 1804
"Sir, I request you to send me two piano forte immediately, as I have disposed of one of them and please come yourself in receipt of this letter.
"G. Graupner."
It appears from the above document that Mr. Crehore was designing and selling to very respectable parties in the musical line pianofortes "of his own making" from 1797, and perhaps earlier, to 1804.
Mr. Crehore was a man of remarkable mechanical genius. He invented a saw frame to saw with precision veneers for cabinet work, window sashes and blind work, and took our a patent on this machine. He also made the first wooden leg ever made here.
Some time before he established his piano factory, he began working bass viols. This was about 1788, and they were the only instruments of their kind made in the country. This instrument became very popular in church work, it being the only musical instrument used to accompany the singing of the congregation.
Mr. Crehore worked for years in the basement of his dwelling house at the foot of Milton Hill. He had several apprentices: among them were Adam and William Bent and Lewis and Alpheus Babcock. About 1804 Adam Bent and the Babcock brothers formed a partnership for the manufacture of pianos and were the first persons in Boston to make these instruments.
In 1810 the two Babcocks became associated with Thomas Appleton and others and they erected a large building on Milk st. under the firm name of Hoyt, Babcock and Appleton, later Babcock, Appleton & Babcock. This firm became crippled by the war of 1812. The Hoyts went to Buffalo and John MacKay of Weston took their place in the firm, supplying the capital.
Some Famous Apprentices.
About 1820 the firm was dissolved and Mr. MacKay moved to Cambridge st, Alpheus Babcock accompanying him as foreman, or rather manufactured for him, so that many of the old pianos had the following inscription on the front, "Made by H. Babcock for R. MacKay, Boston."
After a few years Mr. Babcock went to Philadelphia and Mr. MacKay took into partnership Jonas Chickering, the firm name being MacKay & Cickering, instead of MacKay. They had a large business, shiploads of mahogany and rosewoods were brought to them from the West Indies and South America. Mr. MacKay was lost at sea on his return from one of these trips. His piano had six legs, and across the front were drawers to enclose music.
John Osbonie learned his trade in the factory of Hoyt, Babcock & APpleton. His name first appears in the Boston Directory of 1816 as instrument maker, back of 3 Newbury st (Washington st), and in 1821 at Orange st (Washington st) as pianoforte maker. In 1826 he was at 473 Washington st.
This building was between Eliot st and La Grange pl. and was used also for a dwelling and offices of the Washington Bank and the Washington Insurance Company.
Russell Hallett and Harry Safford were apprentices in this factory, but the most famous of his many young men who learned their trade there was Jonas Chickering.
Mr. Jonas Chickering was in the first year of his apprenticeship, at the age of 19, with a cabinet maker named John Gould, when a piano made by Christopher Ganer of London, for Princess Amelia, youngest daughter of George III, was brought to their shop to be repaired and tuned.
The young apprentice, although he had never seen a piano, successfully undertook the task of restoring it to its usefulness.
Underground Railway Station.
Russell Hallett and Henry Safford, Mr. Osbonie's two apprentices, soon went into business for themselves. Mr. Hallett and Edwin Brown founded the firm of Brown & Hallett in 1833, and Mr. Safford became about that time a partner with Timothy and Lemuel Gilbert, under the firm name of Timothy Gilbert & Co. at 402 Washington st. Soon after, in 1836, Lemuel Gilbert became associated with a Mr. Currie and carried on the business under the firm name of Currie & Gilbert, at 393 Washington st.
Later, William H. Jameson, Timothy Gilbert's son-in-law, became his partner. The warerooms were on Washington st. near Beach, opposite Boylston Market. The workshops were in the rear and connected with each story by bridges across the year, and a passageway under ground to the boiler room under the machine shop, which was said to be a refuge for runaway slaves in the antebellum days.
Mr. Gilbert was one of the early abolitionists, a strong antirum, antitobacco, antisecret society man, and at one time paid a large part of the expenses of the Tremont Temple Baptist Society.
The first upright piano made in the United States was made by Robert and William Nunns for Du Boise & Stodard. Their factory was at Setauket, L. I. This piano is an ungainly looking instrument, the keyboard being about five feet from the floor. This was done to permit the player to stand or sit at will, but if a sitting position was assumed, long wooden pedals had to be employed.
Growth of the Business Since Started in Boston by Jonas Chickering
If one stops to reflect it will be discovered that there are but few residences at the present day which do not contain at least one piano, parlor organ or melodeon, and in not a few cases the number is multiplied. This, in the city of Boston alone, comprises thousands, which not only indicates a musical taste as a preveiling characteristic, but contains a happy augury.
The taste for instrumental music has grown with rapid strides during the past quarter of a century. Sixty years ago the piano was such a rarity that one played upon in private attracted a throng of listeners that blockaded the street. The maiden or matron who was competent to manipulate the keys through the intricacies of "The Battle of Prague," the "Winslow Blues," "Rifle Rangers" quickstep, or "Ditanti palpiti," was looked upon with reverence by the masses who seldom heard a piano.
The original pianos in Boston were little better than the tinkling of spinnets, their predecessors. They did not merit the dual title given them, inasmuch as that for'-te was not ther forte. However they answered the purpose to please and create a demand for the instrument, limited of course to people having a surplus to lay out in this way, as the business was done upon a cash basis, and the instalment plan was not originated till many years later.
It was at this period that Jonas Chickering came from New Ipswich, N. H., to dwell in Boston. He had busted his mind for some time in developing the resources of the piano, and he had a big idea in his head in that regard, which something better than a bucolic existence was needed to develop.
At that time Chickering was diffident, though self-contained and affable, and his genial good nature and kindly smile won the sympathy of the musical community, which was principally represented by the members of the Handel and Haydn Society, then about entering its teens. He rented a modest house on Nassau, now Common street, for his abode and workshop. What little of piano making existed at the time was small indegree, and Chickering came to Boston to concentrate and direct this element, to make it important rather than to reinforce it. William Knabe in Baltimore was his only competitor of any note, as New York had not begun to spurt, and for several years Chickering and Knabe controlled the market for American instruments, and soon commenced a foray upon imported instruments.
Some of the early pianos made by Chickering are extant today. One of these, sixty years old, is doing duty vigorously in a boarding-house at the South End. This instrument was made especially for a young lady vocalist of Boston by Mr. Chickering, and he put good work into it, as a mark of his esteem. For six decades the instrument has had an almost uninterrupted daily use, and it will compare favorably in point of harmonic work with some buntlings, notwithstanding its antiquated appearance.
Fifty years ago Mr. Chickering was the acknowledged leader of piano makers in the country. He had built up a solid business by providing solid instruments. The were so unequalled that foreign artists when visiting this country ceased providing others. The mere announcement that a Chickering piano was to be used at a performance satisfied all.
Competitors came into existence, and strong ones some of these were. They each and all gave a name and fame to Boston pianos, which has never deserted us, and it is safe to assert that whatever of competition has sprung into existence in other cities it gained its points and plans from the perfected work introduced here, of which the brain of Jonas Chickering evolved the idea.
Between 1840 and 1850 Boston had become quite a piano manufacturing centre. Mr. Chickering had erected a massive factory and warehouse opposite the Adams House on Washington street. In this building were rooms for rehearsals of various small clubs, and they contained unique instruments and choice pictures. In 1853 this edifice, with all its contents, was destroyed by fire, but the ardor of the owner was not impaired, as subsequent events and notably the erection of the immense block on Tremont street vouches.
Piano manufacturers in Boston 40 years ago were nearly all located upon Washington street, and they did their own selling. Middlemen were not known as a class, though some sales were made by music dealers, conspicuous among whom were Oliver Ditson, whose store was on a portion of the ground floor of the "old Corner Bookstore." E. H. Wade, near Bromfield street, and George P. Reed & Co., on Tremont row.
Henry Neibuhr, corner of Essex street, made piano selling a specialty, and was the originator of this branch of the business.
The competitors of Mr. Chickering in Boston were Brown, Hallet & Woodward, Lord & Cumston, Lemuel Gilbert, Timothy Gilbert, George Hews, Stephen and R. C. Marsh, Wilkins & Newhall, Edwin Brown and Wilkinson & Coy upon Washington street, with Henry Parkhurst & Co. on Boylston street, Alonzo Dexter and Amory Gamage on Harrison avenue, Albert W. Ladd in Fayette court, Heaman & McGregor on Bromfield place and Harper & Sanford on Court street, and most of the firms in existence today, other than the Chickerings, are offshoots from the parties above named.