John B. Schoener was born in Reading, PA in 1807. He was the second child and second son of William B. and Catherine (née Boyer) Schoener.
In 1819, when he was 12 years old, he and his father visited the factory of a man named Obenhausen how manufactured pianos and church organs. He saw wooden pipes there, some 10 feet in length and his father remarked that the "big base pipes would make a thundering noise."
John served an apprenticeship at cabinet making with William Weimer, who was also engaged in the business of bottling malt liquors. He then subsequently engaged in making pianos in partnership with Yeager & Esher, who had taken over Weimer's cabinet making business. When an immigrant from Switzerland named Houck came to Reading and began making pianos, John, being a cabinet maker, made the cases for him.
Around 1829, John married Maria L. Frill. They had 6 children, all boys. Maria passed away in 1848.
John then went into the piano business on his own in a one-story brick building where he remained for several years. He then purchased a property a few doors down where he built a large warehouse and a factory. John produced about 15 pianos per year between 1838 and 1870. All were square-grands and entirely handmade by him and his 5 to 9 employees. There were purchased quickly as they were completed. His pianos were sold to different parts of Pennsylvania, but mostly in Philadelphia to dealers.
John is said to have been the first to introduce carved piano legs in that area of Pennsylvania, as well as carved moldings on the cases. For a number of years, John made everything constituting the entire instrument: cases, action and carving, some being very elaborate and ornate. Later he made only the cases, as he could buy the action cheaper than he could make it himself. He received as high as $400 for his finest pianos. However, the advent of production-line built pianos sold by volume dealers on installment plans forced him to discontinue his handcrafted quality instruments.
It was reported that a person in Reading had preferred to buy an instrument of this nature at Philadelphia. Some time afterward it required repairs, and the owner was obliged to call on John to remedy the difficulty. John recognized his handiwork, but the owner denied it, saying the instrument was made at Philadelphia, whereupon the lid was raised and John pointed out his name in plain letters.
One of his finest pianos was carved from rosewood. He placed his name prominently above the keyboard. In about 1904 it was presented to the Union Fire Company #1 in Leesport, PA by Benjamin F. Leinbach, whose father had purchased it in 1860 for $450, an enormous sum at that time (about $17,000 today). However, the piano disappeared and no one knew of its whereabouts.
He kept one of the pianos in his parlor that he had made 50 years prior.
John was such an excellent carver that his skill for ornamentation was always in high demand. In 1831, when he was 24 years old, he did considerable carving for the Trinity Lutheran Church in Reading. Fifteen years later, he similarly applied his talents at St. Peter's Catholic Church in 1845-6.
He spent his last decade as a farmer, living in retirement. He would frequently walk through the country, although he seldom ventured into the built up portions of Reading. In an interview he gave to the Reading Eagle a few days before he died, he said that old acquaintances from Philadelphia and New York who visited him would ask him about Reading. He would respond "I can tell you little about the present appearance of the city, as I am a stranger in Reading myself. Nearly all I know about Reading as it is now and what happens in it I learn from the Eagle, which I read every evening. I was born here when the inhabitants numbered only about 3,000 and when a boy of 12 years and the inhabitants numbered 4,000. I knew nearly every family. Now nearly everybody I meet is a stranger to me."
When he died on Tuesday, 18 February 1896 of dropsy, he was one of the oldest residents of Reading, aged 89 years old.
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