Francis Connor

Biography

Francis Connor was born in the town of Ardee, near Dublin, Ireland, on June 19, 1843. He landed in New York at seventeen and immediately apprenticed at the piano factory of Grovesteen and Hale. In 1865 he was sent to Jamestown, New York, where he helped produce the first pianos for A. Tallant and Company. He then spent several years in the Southern states working as a tuner and repairer before returning to New York, where he took a position with the well-known piano maker John Hardman. In 1877 he started his own business, manufacturing the 'Francis Connor' grand, upright, and player piano, for which he earned a strong reputation. He was the pioneer piano manufacturer in the northern section of New York City known as the Bronx, later the home of many New York piano factories, and he also opened a piano wareroom on Forty-second Street near Fifth Avenue while that area was still a residential district.

Highlights

• Born near Dublin, Ireland; emigrated to New York at age 17 and apprenticed at the Grovesteen and Hale piano factory
• Helped turn out the first pianos for A. Tallant and Company in Jamestown, New York (1865)
• Started his own business in 1877 manufacturing the 'Francis Connor' grand, upright, and player piano, and was the pioneer piano manufacturer in the Bronx section of New York City

Source

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. II (1913), pp. 76, 77.

Public domain.