H. D. Cable

Biography

H. D. Cable was born at Walton, N.Y., in 1849 and spent his early days on a farm. After the Walton Academy he turned to teaching, becoming principal of the Easton, Pa., schools at 17 and school superintendent at Williamsport, Pa., a year later. In 1869 the publishing house of Barnes & Company sent him to Chicago to manage its western department, a post he filled for 11 years. In 1880 he partnered with organ builder F. R. Wolfinger to form the Wolfinger Organ Company, later renamed the Western Cottage Organ Company and then the Chicago Cottage Organ Company. Cable applied bookselling sales methods to the organ and piano trade with great success, reportedly among the first in the industry to apply scientific accounting. Described as nervous, rapid-thinking, and a worker of extraordinary capacity, honorable and intuitive in business. In 1890 he consolidated with Conover Brothers of New York, securing constructor J. Frank Conover to build the Conover piano, and brought his brothers Hobart M. and Fayette S. Cable into the growing business. The strain of his work undermined his health, and he died prematurely on March 2, 1899, at age 50; the firm was renamed the Cable Company in his honor.

Highlights

• Rose from farm boy and schoolteacher (principal at 17, superintendent of schools at Williamsport, Pa.) to head of a major Chicago organ and piano manufacturing business
• Applied bookselling sales methods learned managing Barnes & Company's western department to organ and piano marketing with great success
• Consolidated with Conover Brothers in 1890, securing constructor J. Frank Conover, building what became the Cable Company; died prematurely in 1899 at age 50

Source

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), pp. 343, 345.

Public domain.