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Musical Courier 1896-12-02: Vol 33 Iss 874, 1896
35 lines. Read by computer on 20 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1THE MUSICAL COURIER.
3HENRY E. STEINWAY,
4FOUNDER OF THE STEINWAY FAME.
6A History of the House.
8Henry Engelhard Steinway, of New York city, founder of the great piano manufacturing house of Steinway & Sons, was born February 15, 1797, in Wolfshagen, a small forest hamlet of the Hartz Mountains, in the Duchy of Brunswick, North Germany, and died in New York city on February 7, 1871. The original spelling of the name was Steinweg. Of the ancestors of Mr. Steinway it is known that one, a Captain Steinway, served in the army under Christian of Denmark, in "The Thirty Years' War," and took part in the disastrous battle of Lutter on the Barenberg, fought with the Imperial Austrian army under Tilly on August 27, 1626. He was severely wounded in this engagement, and being unable to accompany his command was left behind. He was a native of Pomerania, where his family and ancestors were well-known and well-to-do patricians in the fortified city of Stralsund, on the Baltic Sea.
10Previous to "The Thirty Years' War," while the city of Stralsund belonged to the Hansa Union, members of this family occupied responsible positions in the magistracy. One of these, Burgomaster (Mayor) Steinway, is known in history through his heroic and successful defense of Stralsund during the siege, in the year 1628, by the Austrian forces, under the famous General Wallenstein. With the total impoverishment of this unfortunate city the family disappeared from it. Henry E. Steinway was the youngest of a family of twelve children, of whom at the age of fifteen years he was the sole survivor, all the others, as well as his father, having lost their lives in the Franco-Prussian war of 1806, the Franco-Russian war of 1812, and a shocking disaster.
12The particulars regarding this latter calamity, as often repeated by Mr. Steinway, are briefly as follows: With his father, three older brothers and two hired men, he was one day, in the summer of 1812, in a forest opening several hours' walk from their village, in the direction of the ancient city of Goslar, when the party were surprised by a violent thunder shower accompanied by a most terrific hurricane. The party found shelter in a collier's hut nearby, made of stakes and bark of trees.
14It was near sunset when they reached this shelter, which was on the Bruchberg near the Brocken, and the tired adults threw themselves on the benches around the fireplace, where, crouched on his hands and knees, Henry Steinway endeavored to kindle the fire into a blaze by blowing into the smoking brushwood. Suddenly a blinding flash of lightning filled the hut with living fire, and almost before he had time to realize the deafening crash which followed, the young lad was stretched in a semi-unconscious state on the earthen floor of the hut.
16On coming to his senses all was dark and still. His calls remaining unanswered, he felt about for his companions and found them lying motionless, stiff and almost cold on the floor of the hut. Terrified, he sought to awaken them, but only to find that they were lifeless. The body of his eldest brother still retaining some warmth, he placed his ear to his breast just in time to perceive the last faint pulsations of his heart. Almost dead with grief and fright, and scarcely realizing the full horror of the situation, he fled barefooted (having hung stockings and shoes to dry near the fireplace on entering the hut) through the wilderness to the mountain town of Altenau, where he remembered a physician resided.
18With torn and bleeding feet he arrived there toward morning. His wretched state as well as incoherent tale excited the greatest sympathy. A number of men with horses and wagons accompanied him to the place of the calamity, and the six lifeless bodies were taken to his father's house. The young lad, thus orphaned and alone in the world, was destined to meet with still further calamity. His father's property, consisting of several houses, was taken in charge by the French Westphalian officers of the Crown, pending instructions from several of Henry's brothers, who in the spring of the year had marched with the West German part of the French army into Russia.
20Prior to 1815, with the downfall of Napoleon, and with him of Jerome, his brother, ruler of the newly created kingdom of Westphalia, the houses had been sold and the proceeds had vanished with the French officers of the Crown who had charge of them. Henry, thus robbed, began life penniless, and was forced to earn his living by hard, ill-paid labor. When seventeen years of age he, like most of the young men of his place, answered the call to arms against Napoleon issued by the Duke of Brunswick, who fell, in 1815, at the battle of Waterloo. While in service he was for a time a member of the garrison of Wolfenbüttel, where the following incident occurred: With a fellow-soldier he was one day escorting an important prisoner—a large, powerfully built man—from the gate to headquarters, when the latter, just as the party arrived at the centre of the bridge which spans the river Oker, dropped the carpet bags with which he was burdened, and, designing to effect his escape, plunged into the stream, which was deep, rapid, and filled with floating ice.
22Young Steinway, although unable to swim, had a heroic sense of duty, and, abandoning his musket, sprang into the rushing flood after the fugitive, with whom he was grappled almost in an instant. A fearful struggle ensued. The young soldier, hampered as he was by knapsack and cloak, could only cling to his prisoner, but he managed to retain his grip despite the efforts of the other, who proved an able swimmer, to shake him off or drown him. This struggle lasted until the arrival of aid, when Steinway and his captive, both benumbed by cold, were rescued from peril, and the young soldier personally delivered his prisoner at headquarters.
24A few days later, having, through his excellent constitution, recovered from all the effects of his exploit and resumed duty, he was publicly thanked by his superior officers on the parade ground in presence of the whole garrison. Young Steinway had a natural fondness for music, and beguiled the tedium of garrison life by mastering the art of playing on the cithara, having constructed during his leisure hours an excellent instrument of seasoned spruce, which was greatly admired for its superior tone. At this era the liberty breathing and heroic songs of Körner and Schenkendorf were in great vogue among the German troops, and on many occasions the young soldier musician accompanied on his instrument the chorus of a whole company of his stalwart companions. His musical memory was phenomenal, and he was able, without having had any especial musical training, to find accompaniments to any of the simple melodies of the time after having once heard them sung, and enjoyed the reputation among his acquaintances of being a musical genius.
26At twenty-one years of age, having declined the post of sergeant, which was offered to him as an inducement to remain in the army, he received an honorable discharge, and quitted a life which was daily becoming more uncongenial. He lost no time in going to Goslar, where he sought to apprentice himself to the cabinet making trade. Contrary to his hope he encountered most discouraging difficulties. The trade guilds were in full sway. Five years' apprenticeship and five years' service as a journeyman were inexorably required before the workman could acquire independent action. This, at Steinway's age, was too much for him, and he decided to learn the art of building church organs, which was not subject to the hampering and "red tape" of the guilds.
28He prepared himself for this work by devoting a year to cabinet making under a so-called "wild boss," and was well able at the expiration of that period to turn out his "masterpiece" as a cabinet maker, according to the requirements of the times, had he been called upon to do so. He then took employment as a journeyman organ builder, although his aspirations were to become a maker of stringed musical instruments. Taking employment in Seesen, a town containing about 3,000 inhabitants, at the foot of the Hartz Mountains, in the Duchy of Brunswick—and site of the celebrated "Jacobsohns School," founded in 1801—he formed an attachment for a beautiful young girl, who reciprocated his love.
30Desiring to marry as soon as possible, he bent all his energies toward founding a home and a business. His design of beginning work in a large place was, however, defeated by the rigid requirements of the guilds, which held that where a man was born there only had he the right to enter business. Self-made business men were almost unknown in Germany at that day, for whoever attempted to rise above the narrow limits set by the guilds was considered a revolutionist and a dangerous subject; therefore Steinway was forced to succumb to this law, which had its origin in feudal times. His "masterpiece"—a costly writing desk with inlaid work and secret drawers—which he had made in his native place, had been accidentally seen by the Chief Justice of Seesen, who admired and sought to purchase it.
32But a "boss" cabinet maker in a village was not allowed to make such a "masterpiece," being limited to two wooden chairs with four legs each, the ends of which when placed opposite had to cover each other exactly. Fortunately for the young workman a catastrophe occurred which settled all difficulties. The city of Seesen, in the early part of 1825, was almost totally destroyed by fire. "Bosses" and journeymen were wanted to help rebuild. Upon motion of the Chief Justice, Steinway's "masterpiece" was accepted, notwithstanding the grumbling of the old guild masters, and the young workman was allowed to establish himself at Seesen. In February, 1825, he married the young girl he loved, and on November 25 of the same year his first child, a son, who was baptized C. F. Theodore, was born.
34Business flourished in a small way, and a family of healthy children soon blessed the little household. Determined that his boy should have the advantages in early life which he himself had been unable to compass, he worked nights in the construction of a piano upon which the lad was to learn to play. Being familiar with the construction of the old English and new German pianos, he combined the merits of both in a new construction, which was completed after a year's labor and was con-
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