Samuel Merritt Comstock

Biography

Samuel Merritt Comstock traced his ancestry to the Van Comstock family of Germany and was the ninth child of Samuel Comstock the elder, a sea captain and one of the settlers of Middle Essex county, Connecticut. As far back as 1834 he erected a small shop in Ivoryton, Connecticut, to manufacture ivory tooth-picks and combs. Possessing the inventive faculties the text ascribes to the "Connecticut Yankee," he devised labor-saving machinery and devices for working ivory, and his business grew rapidly. In July 1860 he associated himself with George Cheney, Charles H. Rose, and William C. Comstock under the firm name Comstock-Cheney and Company, beginning manufacture of piano ivory. In 1872 the partnership became the corporation The Comstock, Cheney and Company, which began making piano and organ keys the following year and added piano actions and hammers in 1885. Samuel Merritt Comstock died on January 18, 1878, and was succeeded as president by George Cheney. He had eleven children.

Highlights

• Erected a small shop in Ivoryton, Conn. in 1834 to manufacture ivory tooth-picks and combs
• Invented labor-saving machinery and devices for working ivory
• Co-founded Comstock-Cheney and Company in 1860, later incorporated as The Comstock, Cheney and Company

Source

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. II (1913), pp. 218, 219.

Public domain.