Edward M. Burns

Biography

Edward M. Burns was the son of Francis Putnam Burns and was serving as a commissioned officer in the United States Army when the Civil War crippled his father's piano business in Albany. Disabled for further field service, he came home and, out of filial duty, assumed management of the struggling firm. He revived the business and had the satisfaction of squaring all of its old obligations in an honorable manner, even though the government sought to retain him in military service for eighteen months after peace was declared. Dolge calls his 1869 retirement from the piano industry, made to seek more remunerative activity elsewhere, a loss to Albany's piano trade.

Highlights

• Son of Francis Putnam Burns; served as a commissioned army officer before being disabled in the field.
• Took over management of his father's failing piano business, revived it, and paid off all old obligations honorably.
• Retired from the piano industry in 1869 to pursue more remunerative work elsewhere, a loss the author calls significant for Albany's piano trade.

Source

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), p. 287.

Public domain.