William H. Beach

Biography

William H. Beach was born at Mt. Morris, N.Y., on April 4, 1851, and graduated from high school in Port Huron, Michigan, at sixteen. After working as a clerk and, to restore his health, as a cowboy in Colorado (1871), he returned to Port Huron, worked in his father's insurance business and as a bookkeeper for a grain firm, then in 1878 started his own grain business in Holland, Michigan, with $150 capital, building an elevator and trading successfully along the rail line. In 1893 he organized a Holland-to-Chicago steamboat company, later sold to Chicago competitors at a profit. He became a stockholder and director, then president, of the Holland City State Bank beginning in 1891. Beach persuaded the Bush and Lane Piano Company to relocate its factory from Chicago to Holland in 1905, bought a controlling interest in 1906 by purchasing B. F. Bush's shares, and thereafter ran the firm's commercial and financial affairs while championing Walter Lane's pianos. He also served twelve years on Holland's Board of Education and was elected mayor of Holland for three consecutive terms. Beach took charge of the commercial and financial management of the Bush and Lane Piano Company in 1906, a change that, according to the text, freed Walter Lane -- previously handicapped by his partner's more commercial tendencies -- to devote himself entirely to designing and constructing pianos.

Highlights

• Took charge of the commercial and financial management of the Bush and Lane Company in 1906, freeing Walter Lane to focus on design
• Increased the Bush and Lane Piano Company's capital stock from $112,500 in 1906 to $400,000 (with a $300,000 surplus) by 1913
• Bought out B. F. Bush's shares in 1906 to gain a controlling interest and moved the factory from Chicago to Holland, Michigan (1905)
• Served twelve years on Holland's Board of Education (six as president) and three consecutive terms as the city's mayor

Source

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. II (1913), pp. 49, 51, 53, 54.

Public domain.