William E. Wheelock

Biography

William E. Wheelock entered the piano trade in 1873 at age twenty-one as a member of the firm Billings & Wheelock. When that partnership dissolved in 1877, he began manufacturing the Wheelock piano, and by 1880 the firm was known as William E. Wheelock & Co., eventually occupying a large factory spanning 21 city lots on 149th Street in New York. In 1886 he started the Stuyvesant Piano Company to serve the medium-priced market, and in 1892, together with partners Charles B. Lawson and John W. Mason, acquired the business of the late Albert Weber, organizing the Weber Piano Company. This made Wheelock's group the first manufacturers able to offer a full merchantable line spanning high, first-class, and medium grades. In 1903 he consolidated his three companies with the Aeolian interests, becoming treasurer of the resulting corporation while remaining president of his individual piano companies. Wheelock was elected the first president of the piano manufacturers' association organized by New York piano manufacturers in the fall of 1890 -- the first such organization in the United States -- and served in that office until 1893. Later, local associations of manufacturers and dealers combined in August 1897 to form the National Piano Manufacturers' Association of America. No further detail about Wheelock is given. Wheelock is thanked by name in Alfred Dolge's foreword among ten men whose 'kind and valuable assistance' Dolge says was essential to supplying the book with important data. No further detail on the nature of his contribution, his occupation, or any company affiliation is given in this portion of the text. Wheelock joined with Charles B. Lawson in 1877, after the dissolution of Billings and Wheelock, to manufacture the Wheelock piano under the name William E. Wheelock and Company. Lawson became a partner in the firm in 1880 and remained until it merged with the Weber Piano Company in 1896. Wheelock came into the Aeolian/Weber fold as president of the Weber Piano Company in 1903, and was subsequently placed in charge of the financial department as treasurer of the larger corporation. From Spillane (1890): William E. Wheelock headed William E. Wheelock & Company, a New York piano-manufacturing firm he began in 1877 on West Twenty-fourth Street, with the factory under the supervision of Charles Borst. Under his executive direction the business grew rapidly, prompting a move in 1880 to the former "Arion" Company building on East 149th Street and Third Avenue in Harlem, and later to a purpose-built factory that was repeatedly expanded. A native of New York and son of A. M. Wheelock, a respected Brooklyn citizen and treasurer of the city funds, he received a first-class education and commercial training before entering the piano business. He was widely credited, even by competitors, with sterling commercial honesty and moral uprightness, and was described as a gifted young businessman and financier.

Highlights

• Thanked by name in Dolge's foreword for 'kind and valuable assistance' supplying data used in the book.
• Began manufacturing the Wheelock piano in 1877 after dissolving Billings & Wheelock
• Founded Stuyvesant Piano Company in 1886 and, with partners, acquired Albert Weber's business in 1892 to form the Weber Piano Company
• Became treasurer of the consolidated Aeolian-affiliated corporation in 1903 while remaining president of his piano companies
• Became president of the Weber Piano Company in 1903
• Later placed in charge of the financial department as treasurer of the corporation
• Elected first president of the earliest U.S. piano manufacturers' organization, formed in New York in fall 1890
• Served as president until 1893
• Partnered with Charles B. Lawson from 1877 to manufacture the Wheelock piano
• His firm, William E. Wheelock and Company, was merged with the Weber Piano Company in 1896
• Founded William E. Wheelock & Company in 1877
• Grew the firm into one of the best-equipped piano shops in the country
• Renowned for commercial honesty, conceded even by competitors

Sources

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), pp. 325, 326; Vol. II (1913), pp. 135, 136.

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 287, 288.

Public domain.