Myron A. Decker

Biography

Myron A. Decker was born at Manchester, New York, on January 2, 1823. He served a four-year apprenticeship with Van Winkle at the same time that Albert Weber was completing a 'post-graduate' course in the same shop. He subsequently worked for Boardman & Gray in Albany before opening his own factory there in 1856. At the 1858 New York State Fair in Syracuse, Decker won a diploma for the best piano exhibited. In 1859 he moved his operation to New York City, occupying a historic building on Third Avenue and Fourteenth Street previously used by piano makers Osborn and Worcester. His son, Frank C. Decker, joined the firm as a partner in 1877, forming Decker & Son. Myron A. Decker died in 1901, remembered as one of the old school of master mechanics more devoted to building an artistic piano than to accumulating wealth. The firm was incorporated in 1909 under his son's presidency. Decker is named by Dolge as one of the pioneer piano makers active in Albany, New York, in the period discussed alongside the founders of the Marshall, James & Traver firm (later Marshall & Wendell). The text groups him with George Gomph and P. Reed as fellow members of this early Albany piano-making circle, describing them collectively as 'Albany pioneers.' No further biographical detail, dates, or individual accomplishments are given for Decker beyond his membership in this group of early tradesmen who helped establish Albany as a piano manufacturing center in the nineteenth century. Decker was the founder of the New York piano firm Decker and Son. Decker, apprenticed under him and was admitted to partnership in 1878; upon Myron A. Decker's death in 1891, Frank took over the business and continued his father's conservative policies. From Spillane (1890): Myron A. Decker, founder of Decker & Son, was born in Manchester, Ontario County, New York, in 1823, and raised near the Catskill Mountains setting associated with Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle." He arrived in New York in 1844 and entered the piano shop of Van Winkle, serving four years there and learning the trade thoroughly, alongside fellow workman Albert Weber, Sr. In 1849 he moved to Albany to work for Boardman & Gray, and in 1856 established his own piano manufacturing business there, listed in the Albany directory as a "pianoforte manufacturer." J. H. Hidley served as the first agent for the Myron A. Decker piano. In 1858 Decker won a Diploma for Best Piano at the New York State Fair in Syracuse. After ten years in Albany he returned to New York, locating successively on Twenty-second Street, Broome Street (1864), and the historic Fourteenth Street/Third Avenue building formerly owned by John Osborn (1868). His son, Frank C. Decker, became his sole partner in 1875. Decker (referred to elsewhere in the text, in a letter from James A. Gray, as Myron W. Decker) was for a time a resident of Albany, where he began his career as a piano manufacturer in 1856. He is described as holding the city's manufacturing annals in high esteem. He later became associated with Decker & Son, described as 'now of New York.' The text cross-references a fuller account of Decker under a separate entry, indicating more detail on his career appears elsewhere in the book beyond the Albany chapter excerpted here.

Highlights

• Named as one of the pioneer piano makers of the Albany, New York colony of the trade, alongside George Gomph and P. Reed.
• Served a four-year apprenticeship with Van Winkle alongside Albert Weber, who was taking his 'post-graduate' course in the same shop
• Won a diploma for the best piano exhibited at the 1858 New York State Fair in Syracuse
• Regarded as one of the old school of master mechanics, more devoted to artistic piano building than to profit
• Founded the piano firm Decker and Son, later continued by his son Frank C. Decker upon his death in 1891
• Began his career as a manufacturer in Albany in 1856
• Later associated with the New York firm of Decker & Son (also referred to as Myron W. Decker in a Gray letter reprinted in the text)
• Apprenticed four years under Van Winkle in New York beginning in 1844
• Founded his own piano manufacturing business in Albany in 1856
• Won the Diploma for Best Piano at the New York State Fair, Syracuse, in 1858

Sources

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), pp. 287, 317; Vol. II (1913), p. 79.

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 143, 144, 237, 238, 239, 240.

Public domain.