Swan Piano

[TomKorn]

I had wrote to you on April 8,2004 asking about any info you might have about the Swann Piano Company and sent you this out of our local history:
"Burdette Organ Company moved from Erie, Pennsylvania to Freeport in 1894 and was incorporated with F. J. Burdette as President. 3 story building was erected on Manufacturers Island, but the company left it in 1898 to occupy the larger Johnson Wheel Company factory in the northwest part of Freeport. Hobart M. Cable bought the firm and changed it to his name in 1901.
D.E. Swann, general superintendant of the Cable Company, became a member of the new firm. S. N. Swann and Sons, which bought the plant in 1907 when the Cable operation was moved elsewhere. The Swann company closed in 1923".
I have come across a picture of my Grandma in the factory with others, I would say making organs. As far as I am told she had only ever worked for the Swann Piano factory, not Hobart M. Cable which was there previous. Marked on one of the organs is Chicago Cottage. Would you like me to send you the picture, and if so where to send it. Was Chicago Cottage listed any where as being a brand for a piano company?
Thank You,
Tom Kornfeind


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[Bill Kibby]

As I said before, we never see them over here, and have no facilities for researching american pianos. The Chicago Cottage Organ & Piano Co. was taken over by Cable. The name refers to "Cottage Organs" and "Cottage Pianos", the latter being a victorian term for an upright piano. Click on

http://www.uk-piano.org/piano-gen/contact-us.html