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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
IO
MRS.
W. C.
ployment she remained almost constantly for
eleven years. With a view of going into the
mercantile business at some time, private teach-
ers were engaged, and the study of French,
Swedish and German was commenced. The
French teacher being also a salesman of musical
instruments, the feasibility of embarking in the
same business suggested itself. She learned
that very, very few women were ever successful,
nevertheless she decided to make the venture,
and through the kindly advice of a Chicago
firm a location was decided upon. Taking what
earnings she had saved, she started for Minne-
apolis, Minnesota, on November 23d, 1878, an
entire stranger to every person in the place.
From that day to the present writing success has
crowned her efforts. She has acquired a large
trade, and is the Northwestern agent for several
of the first-grade pianos. She is not simply a
seller of instruments, but a dealer in them and
in all manner of musical merchandise, and man-
ages her rather difficult business with as much
ease as any man engaged in the same line of
business.
WILLIAM H. CURRIER,
Toledo.
William H. Currier, was born in Canandaigua,
Ontario County, New York, October 30th, 1840.
His parents were farmers and both musical; his
father taught singing school, and with the use
Michigan, and continued to cultivate a large
farm. In the summer time they would hoe and
plow from morning until noon, have dinners
and then practice brass band music for thirty or
forty minutes, then resume their field work un-
til evening, then spend one hour singing and
one hour practising orchestral music under the
tutorage of a professor from the city, until the
older sons and daughters married and left the
family home for themselves. Mr. Currier com-
menced teaching newly organized brass bands,
composing and arranging music for bands and
orchestras. In 1864 he commenced the sale of
pianos and organs in the city of Cold water,
Mich., and in 1868 came to Toledo and engaged
in the same business on a larger scale, pushing
out in every direction, selling the Chickering,
Bradbury and Emerson pianos and Peloubet and
Blake organs. In 1870 he joined Mr. W. W. Lor-
ing & Whitney, who had been established in
Toledo in the piano and organ business since 1860,
and moved into their present quarters, the new
firm becoming Whitney & Currier. Mr. Whitney
then having poor health, the management of
the new firm devolved upon Mr. Currier, and
to the present time, now 24 years since the
first partnership, finds the Whitney & Currier
Co. a corporation, and continuing with some
of the same lines of instruments which they
were selling at the commencement.
During
the period covered by this sketch the busines of
the house has extended through many States.
All the company's business operations and un-
dertakings have proved financially successful.
In 1874 Mr. Whitney moved to San Diego,
California, where he has since resided, and has
largely withdrawn his holdings in the house,
Mr. Currier being the president and manager.
Within the past year the wholesale department
has been greatly curtailed and the retail de-
partments strengthened. The Whitney &
Currier Co. is now counted one of the old
houses in the West, and enjoys an honorable
record of prompt payment of every obligation
when due, and during the past year, when under
the depressed condition of business which pre-
vailed everywhere, this Company paid all its
obligations promptly without asking renewal
or extension, and is out of debt and make all
purchases with spot cash. The line of pianos
carried by The Whitney & Currier Co. is
Knabe, Boardman & Gray, Briggs, Schubert
and Hale, and organs from Ann Arbor, Palace
D. ROY BOWLBY.
with the W. W. Kimball Co. 's goods for twenty-
five years and have never bought but two organs
outside of the goods which they handle.
We control a territory of 75 miles radius
around Rock Island and do a wholesale and
retail business. For the past thirteen years our
annual expense here has averaged $15,000.00.
We have ten employees, five of whom travel on
the road.
During eleven years from 1880 to 1890, inclu-
sive, we sold goods in 226 towns outside of
Rock Island, and at wholesale and retail the ag-
gregate number of pianos and organs we sold
reached 11,000. We published a pamphlet at
that time giving the names of our customers,
some of whom were dealers who bought a great
many instruments, but their names appear only
once. I think there are about 3,500 names in
the book.
After being identified with the W. W. Kim-
ball Co. and their goods for a quarter of a
century, I think I shall spend the remainder of
my musical career in that connection."
EDWARD NENNSTIEL,
St. Louis.
Edward Nennstiel is a German by birth. He
came to St. Louis in 1850, when a young man,
and has lived there ever since. He was a teacher
of music till 1864, when he went into the piano
and Arcade.
w. H. CURRIER.
of a blackboard, upon which a musical staff was
drawn, taught his children—eleven in number
—the rudiments of music. A few years later a
teacher was hired to come to their house, and
his six boys were instructed in brass and or-
chestral music. In 1852 the family moved to
the village of Grass Lake, Jackson County,
D. ROY BOWLBY
Rock Island.
D. Roy Bowlby was born in a little country
hamlet in Huron County, Ohio, in 1852, and re-
ceived his education in a small country school-
house up to the year 1865. He then came to
Illinois with his father who was engaged in the
manufacture and sale of dulcimers, and traveled
all through Eastern and Central Illinois up to
the year 1869.
He then commenced the sale of pianos and
organs, on commission, in partnership with his
brother, W. W. Bowlby. They handled the
W. W. Kimball goods, the Hallet & Davis
and other pianos and the Smith American
organ, with headquarters at Peoria, and then at
Lacon, Marshall Co., and finally they went to
Wyoming, Stark Co., in the year 1874. In 1877
partnership was dissolved with his brother and
he went on the road for W. W. Kimball Co.
as a general agent, establishing agencies, col-
lecting, etc.
He established their first branch house in
Rock Island in January, 1880, and has been
located there ever since. In the year 1885 he
secured the principal interest in the business and
has since been running it on his own account.
Mr. Bowlby says: " I have been connected
EDWARD NENNSTIEL.
business which has proven successful. He has
handled Ltndeman & Sons, Dunham & Sons,
Boardman & Gray pianos, and Mason & Hatnlln
organs. The store Mr. Nennstiel now occupies
is his own property, where at present he handles
the Chase Bros, and Francis Bacon pianos, and
has a lucrative renting business. He has always
borne a name for honest dealing in all lines.