Benjamin Crehore

Biography

Benjamin Crehore had already established a reputation as an expert maker of violins, cellos and other musical instruments when he exhibited a harpsichord in 1791; he soon thereafter began building pianos at Milton, near Boston. In his shop he trained John Osborn and the brothers Alpheus and Lewis Babcock as pupils. Dolge credits Crehore as the founder of the 'Boston school' of piano making, the lineage from which, through Osborn and the Babcocks, Jonas Chickering's own training ultimately descended. No further biographical details, dates of birth or death, or later career are given in this text. Benjamin Crehore is credited with founding the Boston school of piano making about 1792 at Milton, near Boston. Dolge identifies his two most talented pupils as John Osborn and Alpheus Babcock, the latter of whom went on to invent the full iron piano frame in 1825. Crehore's role is presented as foundational to the subsequent development of American square piano making, situating Boston, alongside Philadelphia and New York, as an early center of the craft. No further biographical particulars are supplied in this section. From Spillane (1890): Crehore was born in Milton, Massachusetts, of Gaelic stock that Spillane identifies as evidently Scotch-Irish, and died in his native village in 1819. Before establishing himself independently he worked for Von Hagen; his own shop later failed, a collapse Spillane attributes partly to the successful competition of Mallet and Shaw and to the disadvantages of running a business in a suburban village with limited financial resources. Like Tremaine, he was earlier associated with stage work at an old theatre. Despite this setback, Crehore's shop trained two of the most consequential figures in early Boston piano-making, John Osborn and Alpheus Babcock. In his old age Crehore worked as a journeyman piano-maker in the shop of Appleton & Babcock Brothers, the firm his former apprentices' associates had formed. Spillane credits Crehore with an important, if humble, place in the history of the American piano trade largely on the strength of the craftsmen he unknowingly launched. Crehore is referenced twice in this section without independent biographical detail, as a point of lineage for other makers: Milton, Mass. is identified as both his birthplace and that of J. Vose (born 1818), and the training Henry F. received at Brown & Allen is described as a school that 'came right down from Crehore collaterally,' indicating Crehore's foundational place in the Boston piano-making tradition as understood elsewhere in the book.

Highlights

• Founded the Boston school of piano making about 1792 at Milton, near Boston.
• His most talented pupils were John Osborn and Alpheus Babcock.
• Exhibited a harpsichord in 1791 and soon after built pianos at Milton, near Boston
• Taught John Osborn and the Babcock brothers in his shop, becoming known as the founder of the 'Boston school' of piano making
• Generally credited as the first maker of pianofortes in Boston and Massachusetts, working from Milton around 1798-1800.
• Was already well known by 1791 in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia as a maker of violins, cellos, guitars, drums, and flutes.
• His Milton workshop trained John Osborn and the Babcock brothers, Lewis and Alpheus.
• His humble shop trained two of Boston's most significant piano makers, John Osborn and Alpheus Babcock.
• His own business failed, in part owing to the successful competition of Mallet and Shaw and the disadvantages of a suburban location.
• In old age worked as a journeyman piano-maker in the shop of Appleton & Babcock Brothers.
• Milton, Mass. is identified as his birthplace, also the birthplace of J. W. Vose
• The Brown & Allen 'school' that trained Henry F. Miller, Sr. is described as descending collaterally from Crehore

Sources

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), p. 270.

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 55, 62, 173, 176.

Public domain.