Peter D. Strauch

Biography

Peter D. Strauch, founder of Strauch Brothers, was born in Frankfort on the Main, Germany, in 1835, one of six brothers and three sisters. His father was a civil engineer who served as Sergeant of the Guards to the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt and later as Governor of the Grand Duchy's state prison. To escape the family's militaristic upbringing, the household immigrated to America in 1851, eventually settling in Albany, N.Y. after losing their intended passage west. At fifteen, Strauch was apprenticed for five years to F. W. Frickinger, Albany's pioneer piano action maker, then worked three more years as his journeyman before being made a partner. Around 1861 he moved to New York City, working as an action finisher in various factories, and in 1867 founded Strauch Brothers with his brother William, one of the first firms to manufacture upright piano actions. The business prospered, and Strauch became a charter member and five-year vice-president of the Gansevoort Bank. He retired from business in 1907. From Spillane (1890): Peter D. Strauch was a piano action manufacturer who, seeking wider opportunity for his abilities as an inventor and piano-maker, withdrew from a partnership with a Mr. Frickinger and relocated to New York City, where he gained further experience in various piano factories. By 1867 he was manufacturing grand, square, and upright actions on West Twenty-fifth Street, and in 1868 his brother William Strauch joined him, forming the firm Strauch Bros. Under his direction the firm expanded through successively larger premises, eventually settling in a large, well-equipped factory on Tenth Avenue. Special machinery used in the plant was credited to his design. When William Strauch withdrew from the firm on January 1, 1887, Peter D. Strauch retained the Strauch Bros. name and continued at its head. He was later joined as partners, effective January 1, 1890, by his two sons, Albert T. and William E. Strauch, both trained in the trade, leaving the firm, per the text, with a hopeful future. Strauch founded the well-known and popular firm of Strauch Bros., a prominent action-manufacturing house dating back to 1866. A native of Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany, he arrived in the United States in 1851 at the age of fifteen, and shortly afterward was apprenticed to F. Frickinger of Nassau, N.Y., a piano and piano-action maker, with whom he served six years. After completing this apprenticeship, Strauch continued to work in Frickinger's shop as a journeyman piano-maker, and his skilled, confidential relationship with his employer led to his eventual admission to partnership. Spillane presents Strauch Bros. as one of two notable examples of development in the action-making trade, a business that by 1890 had enjoyed high favor in its department of the piano trade for almost a quarter of a century.

Highlights

• Founded Strauch Brothers piano action factory in New York in 1867 with his brother William
• Apprenticed under and later became partner of F. W. Frickinger, Albany's pioneer piano action maker
• Charter member and five-year vice-president of the Gansevoort Bank
• Founder of Strauch Bros., a leading action-manufacturing firm established in 1866.
• Emigrated from Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany, in 1851 at age fifteen.
• Apprenticed six years under F. Frickinger of Nassau, N.Y., then worked as a journeyman before being admitted to partnership.
• Withdrew from a partnership with a Mr. Frickinger and settled in New York to gain wider experience in piano factories
• Began manufacturing grand, square, and upright piano actions by 1867 and, joined by his brother William in 1868, founded Strauch Bros.
• Credited with special machinery used in the firm's action-manufacturing plant and remained head of the business into the 1890s

Sources

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. II (1913), pp. 223, 224.

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 312, 313, 314, 315.

Public domain.