Charles Baumeister was an experienced piano maker who was born in 1844 in Frankfurt, Germany and moved to the United States around 1867 with his wife Ida.
In 1884 he associated with Augustus Baus (an employee of the Behning Piano Company) to begin manufacturing pianos under the Baus name. Being highly inventive, he filed several patents for his piano designs in 1885.
In 1886, the business was totally destroyed by fire and Charles nearly escaped with his life trying to save his employees. He was hospitalized for his burns.
Fire destroyed the company and they were forced into bankruptcy in 1887. Baumeister finds employment with the Claflin Piano Company.
Nine years later, in 1896, Charles sets up his own piano manufacturing company and trains his two daughters, Hattie and Lillian.
In 1897, Charles introduces his “Orchestral Grand Model C”, an upright grand piano that became a good seller for the company.
To grow the company, Charles hires a salesman named Reinhard Kochman, whose job was to travel the country to increase sales. This was a common practice and an effective method of advertising during this time.
In 1898, Charles, now nearly retired, sells the company to his daughter Hattie and the company name changes to the H. Baumeister Co., now possibly making it the first woman-owned piano manufacturing company.
In 1899, Hattie and Lillian decided to take a month’s vacation. The company was already well established and they had worked for several years with no spare time. They also took the opportunity to boost sales in Europe.
In 1900, Kochmann files a breach-of-contract dispute against Hattie, alleging that she lost an opportunity to earn commissions from the sale of 300 pianos. sales yet. Kochmann said this prevented him from fulfilling his part of the contract in full.
Hattie lost the case but won the appeal in 1902.
In 1907, the company suffered a fire again, leaving most of the pianos destroyed by fire and water to put them out.
He was able to rebuild the company again and continued to make pianos until around 1919.
During his retirement, Charles went to Los Angeles Ca. to partner with AM Salyer to start the Salyer-Baumeister Piano Co.
Charles would later return to New York, where he died in 1925.