Daniel Francis Treacy

Biography

Daniel Francis Treacy was born at New Brunswick in 1846, one of eight children, and graduated from St. Michael's College at sixteen. After his parents died, the family moved to St. Louis. Restless by nature, Treacy shipped aboard a whaling vessel out of New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1865, returned after three years, then shipped out again for another three years, during which he was shipwrecked and stranded on the Isle of Trinidad for about five months. He eventually reached Boston, worked in an iron foundry, then moved to New York, where he was chosen out of seventy-five applicants as foreman of the Achusent Iron Works of New Bedford. He returned to New York and became foreman for Davenport and Oothout in 1872, making piano plates; two years later he bought out Oothout's interest and became half owner. The firm expanded with foundries in Boston and Stamford, Connecticut, which were consolidated at Stamford in 1889, adding piano hardware manufacture. Treacy began manufacturing pianos in New York and became sole owner of that branch in 1906, later adding player-pianos. In 1912 he organized the Carter Piano Company, manufacturing both the Davenport-Treacy and Carter pianos and player-pianos. He also served on the Board of Education of Jersey City, as a tax-assessor, for fifteen years as foreman of the Grand Jury of New York County, on the Board of Governors of the Catholic Club of New York, and as a prominent Knight of Columbus, and he wrote on foundry practice for the American Machinist. From Spillane (1890): Mr. Treacy was a partner in the firm of Davenport & Treacy, piano-plate founders of Stamford, Connecticut, whose foundry was among the largest and most advanced piano-hardware plants in the country, illustrated in the book by a page-plate ground plan. He personally supervised the firm's mechanical departments and was described as a diligent student of the piano from a mechanical standpoint, with particular attention to resonance in plate development. His skill enabled the firm to supply plates cast directly from drawings without models, a departure the firm claimed to stand alone in. He kept the firm's iron regularly tested at Stevens' Institute in Hoboken and remained current with scientific progress in metallurgy and foundry work, publishing articles in scientific journals; one on the use of coke versus coal in smelting processes was widely reprinted in England. He was highly esteemed both as a businessman and as a private citizen.

Highlights

• Had an adventurous youth: shipped aboard whaling vessels out of New Bedford and was shipwrecked on the Isle of Trinidad
• Rose from foreman to half owner of Davenport and Oothout (1872-74), consolidating foundries at Stamford, Connecticut, and adding piano hardware manufacture
• Founded the Carter Piano Company in 1912, manufacturing both the Davenport-Treacy and Carter pianos and player-pianos
• Co-founder of Davenport & Treacy, the world's largest producer of refined piano plates by 1890
• Went to sea on a whaling voyage out of New Bedford in 1866 and was once shipwrecked in the West Indies
• A practical iron moulder and metallurgist who originated composition metals for bearings and piano plates
• Partner in Davenport & Treacy, a major piano-plate foundry in Stamford, Connecticut, illustrated in the book by a full-page ground plan
• Enabled the firm to cast piano plates directly from drawings without models, a capability the firm claimed to be unique
• Had the firm's iron regularly tested at Stevens' Institute, Hoboken, and published metallurgy articles, including one on coke versus coal in smelting that was widely reprinted in England

Sources

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. II (1913), pp. 77, 78, 79.

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 337, 338.

Public domain.