Josiah B. Chickering

Biography

Josiah B. Chickering was one of Cincinnati's leading business men and educators. Compelled to earn his own living, he was bound out to a farmer at age eight near New Ipswich, New Hampshire, later working his way through the academy at Leominster, Massachusetts, where he became one of the teachers and eventually principal. Moving to Cincinnati intending to enter commercial pursuits, his instinct for teaching led him instead to establish the Chickering Academy for Boys, which grew into one of the largest private schools for boys in the West under the name Chickering Institute; many of Cincinnati's leading professional and business men were its graduates. His grandfather was Abner Chickering, a farmer and blacksmith, and his father was Samuel Chickering, a stone mason and farmer who died in an accident in his forty-third year. In 1876 the Boston Chickerings, Frank and George, asked Josiah to send his sons into the piano trade, since neither Boston brother had sons to succeed him; this led to his sons Clifford, Fred, and Wallace founding Chickering Brothers of Chicago. A portrait of Josiah B. Chickering accompanies the text.

Highlights

• Bound out to a farmer near New Ipswich, N.H. at age eight; later worked through Leominster Academy and became a teacher and then principal there
• Founded the Chickering Academy for Boys in Cincinnati, later known as Chickering Institute, one of the largest private schools for boys in the West
• Father of Clifford C., Fred W., and Wallace W. Chickering, who founded Chickering Brothers of Chicago

Source

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. II (1913), pp. 68, 69.

Public domain.