Joseph Hiskey

Biography

Joseph Hiskey, a German-born piano-maker, became a leading manufacturer in the South as early as 1820, when he was located at 7 Water Street in Baltimore. He moved to the corner of Howard and Saratoga streets in 1821, where he continued making pianos for many years. His name was preserved in later memory chiefly through his pupils, including Conrad Meyer, who went on to prominence in Philadelphia, and James Lick, who worked as an apprentice in Hiskey's shop before later becoming, in the author's words, "the celebrated founder of the observatory bearing his name" through his astronomical pursuits. The author describes Hiskey as remarkable for his cheery, hearty manner, noting that many elderly Baltimoreans still remembered him well in their own later years. His business closed in 1845. Joseph Hiskey was a Baltimore piano maker and a fellow German ("countryman") of Conrad Meyer. Meyer drifted into Hiskey's workshop after emigrating from Marburg, Hesse-Cassel, to Baltimore in 1819, and rapidly acquired his knowledge of piano-making there before later settling in Philadelphia.

Highlights

• Ran a Baltimore workshop where Conrad Meyer learned piano-making after emigrating in 1819
• Became a leading Baltimore piano manufacturer as early as 1820, working at 7 Water Street and, from 1821, at the corner of Howard and Saratoga streets
• Trained notable pupils, including Conrad Meyer and James Lick, later famous as the founder of the Lick Observatory
• Remembered by contemporaries for a "cheery, hearty manner"; his business ended in 1845

Source

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 118, 127, 128, 129.

Public domain.