My son Casey playing the 1940 Acrosonic piano Nevada City, California 1987. He inherited musical talent from both sides of his family which he continues to use.
The theme this week is...Music. I chose not to focus on any particular ancestor this time, but I am instead putting the spotlight on our family pianos. There were several! My Mom, Margaret Hansen Boothby, helped with this post by sharing her memories of all the pianos that she could remember. Music has been a constant thread woven throughout both my maternal and paternal sides of the family for several generations. Our pianos are a part our family stories and have provided us with many memories that need to be shared.
I remember seeing this first piano that my Mom wrote about in my Auntie Claire's living room in Angels Camp, California in the summer of 2012. Mom and I were helping to clear the house so that Auntie Claire and Uncle Dwight could move to a Scottsdale nursing home for much needed care. It was just a little upright piano, somewhat plain, but looked like it had an interesting history of its own as I could tell the finish had melted in certain spots. Here is the story written down by my mother.....
"The first piano I remember was a spinet, purchased by my father (Harold Hansen) shortly after he and my mother (Betty) were married in 1939. They lived in a little apartment on Church Street in Grass Valley. One day, someone came down the street, playing a piano on the back of a truck. Of course, my father had to see what was going on and ran outside. The piano was for sale, my father promptly bought it and had it brought to the apartment, and we had it all my growing up years. In 1950 our house burned down, but some workmen ran up to the house and asked my mother if they could save anything for her. She told them the piano and her cedar chest, so they ran into the house and got those two things. The music rack and front of the piano were singed by the fire's heat. Years later the music rack had become smooth due to constant use, but the rest of the front and one side were still rough where the finish had started to melt. The piano was taken to Nana's house where it stayed in the dining room. It went with us to a couple of other moves and then to the Lidster Avenue house where it stayed until it was given to Claire and she moved it all over the state as they were assigned different PG&E locations".
That little piano was used by my grandparents, my mother and my aunt, as well as my aunt's children. I don't know how many moves it endured after my Grandfather purchased it off the back of that truck. Unfortunately, the piano had to stay with the house in Angels Camp when my aunt and uncle moved. So, I hope that a new family is getting some use out of the little piano that has quite a history behind it!
The next piano Mom remembered was purchased by my Great Grandmother, Emma King Hayes Van Duzer on the 15th of October in 1925. I do not have any memories of this piano, but my mother does...
"Nana had a player piano which we (she and Claire) found fascinating. It was moved into her living room when our little piano came to live in the dining room. (The house had TWO pianos!) The piano had a little sliding door on the front which you could open to watch the rolls go around and it would play by itself. It was run by pumping pedals near the floor. The piano bench was unusual in that it had a back to it which you could fold up to make your back more comfortable. I've never seen a bench like that since. Eventually the player mechanism was removed (I don't remember why) and I don't know what happened to it when Nana moved to town".
Nana probably purchased the piano from Sherman Clay and Company either in Oakland or San Francisco. She did not play. I don't know how much piano playing my grandmother did, but she did sing and read music. Her sister Dorothy (Dot) wasn't a singer so she probably didn't play the piano, either. Her sister Fran and Fran's husband Joe had a piano; their children Joan and Don took lessons. That piano was handed down to Richard, Joan's son. Joan's daughters both have pianos, and the tradition of piano lessons continued on with their families.
The receipt for the Aeolian piano purchased by Emma L. Hayes in 1925. $675 was a lot of money to spend at that time.
The next piano is still in the family and is a beautiful example of a turn of the century Chickering Upright Grand Piano...
"The large upright grand piano that was at Grandma Hansen's (Vere Burrows Hansen) was what my dad learned to play on (Harold Hansen). It got a lot of use! The house at 418 W Main Street had two stories on the side of Main Street hill and that piano weighed in excess of 700 pounds, so my grandfather (John H. Hansen) who was well versed in rope mechanisms devised a block and tackle arrangement attached to a plum tree in the back yard and several men hoisted that piano up to the second floor. It stayed in the house where Claire and I would play it from time to time and my dad would sit down on a Sunday afternoon after dinner and play away from memory. The piano was taken down the front stairs by a moving company after Uncle Jack died in 1986 (that's how I know how much it weighed) but the piano was so heavy it caused the front 2-story stairs to sway and creak. The moving men were scared to death the stairs were going to give way! They rolled (or rather chased) it down the hill to School Street where they could load it into the moving truck. It then went to our house in Nevada City where it lived in the dining room next to our piano for quite a few years. (The house had TWO pianos!). Dad and I played some 2-piano music on it and Mary Lou Langguth (the pastor's wife, church organist and family friend) used to come over for a good time doing the same thing. When our house was remodeled, the piano went to Casey and Ali's house where Fox has been exploring it and hopefully will take lessons one day. It is now over 100 years old and must have been at the ranch house before the Main Street house was built. Grandpa and Uncle Jack learned to play on it."
The serial numbers put the piano's beginning at sometime between 1895-1900, so it was probably at the ranch off of Idaho Maryland before being moved to West Main Street. All three Hansen brothers either played piano, or sang. Uncle Bob sang with the Grass Valley Cornish Choir and both Grandpa and Uncle Jack sang with their church choirs (Methodist and Episcopal) as well as the Cornish Choir. The Bob Hansen children took piano lessons and carried on the tradition of music in Reno, Nevada.
The house on West Main Street, Grass Valley. The piano went down these stairs in 1986!
John Hansen (seated) with Uncle Jack before he left for service in WWII, 1941.
There was another piano that I do not have any memory of, but I did hear it as a baby being played while my Mom worked on her Music and Teaching degrees from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California in the early 60's.....
"When we were in college we rented a very tiny little spinet so I could practice accompaniment music for opera students. I could get 1/2 credit each semester just for accompanying. I had previously taken you to practice rooms at the college in your carrier, but when you got too big for that, we rented the little piano to have at home. The other people who lived in our apartment building said they loved listening to my practicing. I hope so because I did a lot of it! You grew up always having piano music in your ears, whether it was me playing or when you took lessons on your own. Couldn't escape that!".
No, I couldn't. I took piano lessons for many, many years and through high school as did my sister!
The next piano was the one both my sister and I learned how to play. So many memories of hours and hours of practicing! "Play it again!" was the familiar phrase from the kitchen or sewing room. We even had a piano recital right in our dining room one year for all the students of our piano teacher, Mrs. Rockwood. My mom still uses it...
"The piano I now use is a 1940 Acrosonic (made by the Baldwin Company) purchased by Nino and Pop (Terry and Sterl Boothby, my paternal grandparents) before your dad was born because Nino wanted to be sure her expected baby would be musical. Dad learned to play it (I think Kent took some lessons, too) and then you and Stephanie took lessons. It has had a LOT of use over the years. I still practice on it 3 or 4 times a week. It's as old as I am! It has entered the tech world, in a manner of speaking, as I use it for church music on Zoom...".
Yes, our piano made it into memories of the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020/21.
"July 3, 1941 10 weeks old"
Nino (on right) holding Dale Richard Boothby (Dad) in front of the new 1940 Acrosonic piano. I'm working on verification of the lovely lady on the left.
"Dale 4 1/2 years and Kent 7 weeks Nov. 1945" Dad used to play two piano duets with my Mom, and they even played in church together!
Me, at around age 8 or 9? The familiar 1940 Acrosonic piano is in the background with Michael Aaron practice books on the music stand. And look at that. A piano birthday cake! The cake was made by my Great Aunt, Dorothy Hayes Arthur. She was a very talented cake baker and decorator who made all of our birthday cakes.
Mom also wrote..."When I was growing up, or when previous generations were around it was a sign of solid middle class status to have a piano in your home. Everyone I was friends with in school took lessons. What kind of piano you had mattered--a player piano or a grand piano were tops on the list. When we visited someone of the older generation, I was always asked to "favor us with a number". Good thing I memorized well. Now, you can hardly find a modern home with a piano in it and most kids who take lessons do so on electronic keyboards. Times have changed."
Well, I look around my house and I see...a Chickering Anniversary Baby Grand Piano from the 20's (that very sadly needs a tuning and more playing time than it gets..) and a 120+ year old pump organ that still works and was handed down in the Alden family. The Chickering is a more recent addition, as my children learned piano on an older upright piano that we eventually sold. I have memories of moving that piano during a March snowstorm to our new house. Hopefully, the tradition of piano playing and piano music will be carried down many more generations in our family. We do have an electric piano in the garage that needs dusting off, too!
Relationship Reference:
Me->Mom->Harold Hansen (brothers Bob/Jack)->John and Vere Hansen
Me->Mom->Betty Hayes Hansen( sisters Dorothy/Fran)->Emma King Hayes VanDuzer
Me->Dad (brother Kent)->Sterl and Terry Boothby
