Background
Valentine Wilhelm Ludwig Knabe was born on June 03, 1803 in Kreuzburg, Prussia, Germany, the son of Martin Friedrich Traugott Knabe, a pharmacist, and his wife, Ernestine Christiane Dorothea Köhler.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Valentine Wilhelm Ludwig Knabe
Edit ProfileEducation
Wilhelm was apprenticed to a cabinet and piano maker in Meiningen.
Career
About 1831 Knabe met in Meiningen and became engaged to Christiana Ritz, whose brother was projecting a German settlement in America. When this company of colonists set sail in March 1833, she accompanied them. Most of these expected to settle somewhere on the Missouri River; but after a wearisome voyage, during which sickness took its toll of the wayfarers, they paused in the port of Baltimore to recuperate. There Wilhelm overtook them and there he married Christiana Ritz. If he had ever intended to turn farmer in the Middle West, he changed his mind, for he found work with a piano repairer by the name of Henry Hartye.
He became a naturalized citizen of the United States September 12, 1840, and about the same time entered into a partnership with Henry Gaehle to manufacture pianos and formed Knabe, Gaehle & Co. When this partnership was dissolved in 1854, he continued the business alone. The conflict between the states in 1861, however, ruined the market for Knabe pianos. Wilhelm Knabe died in the year preceding Lee's surrender, but his sons continued the business and developed a new market in the Northern and Western states.
Achievements
-
Wilhelm Knabe established a reputation as one of the best piano makers in the country and in 1860s he practically controlled the piano business in the Southern states. He won gold medals for square pianos from the Maryland Institute in 1855, 1856, 1857 and 1858, silver medals from the Metropolitan Institute in Washington, D. C. in 1857, a medal from the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia in 1856.
Connections
Knabe married Christiana Ritz on August 18, 1833. He had two sons: William (d. 1889) and Ernest (d. 1894).
References
-
Born
-
Died
May 21, 1864 (aged 60) -
Resting place
Loudon Park Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland, United States -
Nationality
American