L. L. Doud

Biography

L. L. Doud was born, by the text's account, seventy-five years before writing, in a log house on his father's farm near Norwalk, Ohio, to parents of New England stock. He grew up amid the rugged conditions of pioneer life, was educated at a country cross-roads school-house, and later attended college for a few terms, earning a diploma in the commercial course. He pursued a commercial career before joining A. B. Chase in 1875 to help organize the A. B. Chase Company, taking responsibility for managing its financial and business affairs, a role he still held at the time of writing. Described as fair-minded, thorough, sincere, and just, Doud believed in harmonious relations between capital and labor, paid liberal wages, and rewarded employees for inventions or improvements benefiting the A. B. Chase piano. The text credits this policy, and the organization he built with his associates, for the instrument's steady progress. Only his signature, not a photographic portrait, accompanies the text. Doud served the company (the Chase Company, maker of the Aristano player piano) as secretary from its founding in 1875, and at the time of writing still held that position with, in the author's words, zeal and ability.

Highlights

• Served as secretary of the company since its start in 1875.
• Born in a log house on his father's farm near Norwalk, Ohio, of New England pioneer stock
• Joined A. B. Chase in 1875 to organize the A. B. Chase Company and has managed its financial and business affairs ever since
• Believed in liberal wages and in compensating employees for inventions or improvements benefiting the piano

Source

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), p. 375; Vol. II (1913), pp. 67, 68.

Public domain.