Jacob Estey

Biography

Jacob Estey was born on a New Hampshire farm near Hinsdale on September 30, 1814. Sent to live with a neighboring farmer at age four, he ran away at 13 and was apprenticed to a plumber in Worcester, Massachusetts. After his apprenticeship he traveled as a journeyman plumber and settled in Brattleboro, Vermont, in 1834, the town that would become famous worldwide for the organs he later made there. He opened his own plumbing shop in 1835 and prospered enough to erect a large building on Main Street by 1848, part of which he rented to a melodeon maker named Greene; he later bought an interest in that melodeon business. A fire destroyed the building in 1857, wiping out most of his invested money, but he rebuilt, turning fully to organ manufacturing. In 1860 he hired 19-year-old Levi K. Fuller as engineer, and in 1866 organized the Estey Organ Company with himself as president, Fuller as vice-president, and his son Julius Estey as secretary-treasurer. Under his leadership output grew to 1,800 organs per month, and the Estey factory trained numerous men who went on to prominence elsewhere in the organ trade. In 1885 the Estey Piano Company was organized with a large factory in New York City. Jacob Estey was the founding patriarch of the Estey organ and piano enterprise, whose products were exhibited and sold in New York, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, and London, winning top awards wherever shown. The text describes him as a man of firm character, shaped by early hardship, who nonetheless became a sympathetic employer respected and loved by his workers. He was the father of Julius Estey, who succeeded to management of the firm. Jacob Estey died on April 15, 1890. From Spillane (1890): Jacob Estey is identified by Spillane as a well-known specialist and manufacturer of reed organs in American musical history, whose name was carried into the piano trade by his son, Julius Estey, a principal of the New York firm the Estey Piano Company.

Highlights

• Born September 30, 1814 near Hinsdale, N.H.; left home at 4, ran away from farm apprenticeship at 13, and apprenticed to a plumber in Worcester, Mass.
• Settled in Brattleboro, Vt. in 1834; built a plumbing fortune, then invested in and eventually took over a melodeon business, rebuilding after a fire destroyed it in 1857
• Organized the Estey Organ Company in 1866 as president (with Levi K. Fuller as VP and son Julius Estey as secretary-treasurer), growing output to 1,800 organs per month; founded the Estey Piano Company in 1885
• Patriarch of the Estey organ and piano dynasty
• Remembered as a firm but sympathetic employer
• Died April 15, 1890
• Well-known American organ specialist and manufacturer, father of Julius Estey

Sources

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), pp. 364, 365.

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), p. 284.

Public domain.