Books › Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937 › scan 133
Scan 133
Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937
16 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 111. See the scan on archive.org.
14. PRESENT DAY MANUFACTURERS
3CHICKERING & SONS
5History¹
7As "The Oldest in America. The Best in the World," for many years a slogan of this company, Chickering & Sons has a long and honorable history.
9The founder of this company was Jonas Chickering, son of a blacksmith, born in Mason Village, now Greenville, New Hampshire, April 5, 1798. He grew up in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, where he spent three years learning the trade of cabinet-making with John Gould. His interest in the pianoforte was aroused when he was sent for to repair the only one in New Ipswich, belonging to Miss Mary Montgomery, daughter of General John Montgomery. This pianoforte once owned by Princess Amelia, daughter of King George III of England, had been made in London in 1782 by Christopher Ganer. It is now¹ in the New England Conservatory, to which it was bequeathed by a descendant of Miss Montgomery.
11This experience led Jonas Chickering to come to Boston in 1818 and in 1819 to work for John Osborn, with whom he mastered the details of pianoforte construction. In the latter's place he met James Stewart, whose partner he became in Stewart & Chickering in 1823. Their two-room shop was on [address hidden] in a building next to King's Chapel. There the first Chickering was made. This square pianoforte, "Number One" (1823), though thin and without the resonance of the larger instruments, still retains its sweet and singing quality. It together with the first upright and first grand made by this firm have been given to Mr. Henry Ford for safe-keeping in his Edison Institute Museum at Dearborn, Michigan.
13They moved in 1824 to [address hidden], where they remained until Mr. Stewart resigned in 1827 and returned to London to become associated with Messrs. Collard and Collard. Jonas Chickering, needing more capital for his growing business, formed
15¹ Dates are taken from the letter written January 29, 1930, for the Massachusetts Tercentenary Celebration by Miss Margaret E. Connell, Historian of Chickering & Sons.
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