Draft:Jesse French

Jesse French Piano Co., Jesse French & Sons and Jesse French Piano & Organ should link here

Jesse French was the proprietor of an influential piano and organ business in Nashville, Tennessee; St. Louis, Missouri; and Springfield, Illinois. It began in Nashville the 1870s and its a building for the business was completed there about 1890. One of the largest music businesses in the South it was influential in the development of ragtime and its building in Nashville was listed as an endangered landmark in 2011. It also operated a manufacturing plant in New Castle, Indiana.

French immigrated from England with his father when he was two. He campaigned for Secretary of State in 1872 but lost by two votes. He began selling sheet music, got into piano retailing, and then piano manufacturing. His sons Horace Edgar French and Jesse French Jr. joined the business.

The building in Nashville is at 240 5th Avenue North. The Library of Congress has two photos of it from the Historic American Buildings Survey. The Camp Sewing Machine Company building is next to it in a circa 1900 Calvert Brothers photograph.

The company's New Castle manufacturing plant is pictured on a bookmark and in a Krell-French Piano Company advertisment. A Music Trade Review insert from November 3, 1900 includes photographs of Albert Krell, Jesse French, Edwin B. Pfau, and H. Edgar French, the company's executives.

The company's St. Louis location was at 1111 Olive Street. It had branches in various other cities.