Jesse French, Sr.

Biography

Jesse French, Sr. came from English stock; his father emigrated to America around 1820, returned to England to marry, and brought the family back in 1848 when Jesse was two. After working as a printer's devil and postal clerk in Nashville, Tennessee, and studying business and law in Peoria, Illinois, he became Assistant Secretary of State of Tennessee for five years, losing a bid for the top office by a single vote. He married Callie Lumsden on January 2, 1872, and turned to business, buying into the sheet-music trade in Nashville in 1873. He became a partner in Dorman, French and Smith (sellers of the Bradbury piano), later sole owner as Dorman and French, and built a chain of piano stores across the South, organizing the Jesse French Piano and Organ Company in 1885. In 1902 he helped incorporate the Krell-French Piano Company, becoming its president in 1905, and later headed the Jesse French and Sons Piano Company of New Castle, Indiana. He also served as a director of several Nashville and St. Louis trust and milling companies. His wife and three sons (Jesse Jr., Horace Edgar, and John) formed a musical family circle.

Highlights

• Built a chain of piano stores across the Southern states from a starting capital of about $3,000, founding the Jesse French Piano and Organ Company in 1885 with $500,000 capital
• Incorporated the Krell-French Piano Company in 1902, becoming its vice-president and later (1905) its president
• Served as Assistant Secretary of State of Tennessee for five years and narrowly lost an election for Secretary of State by one vote

Source

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. II (1913), pp. 89, 90, 91, 92.

Public domain.