Hilborne Lewis Roosevelt (December 21, 1849 – December 30, 1886) was a pioneering
organ
Organ may refer to:
Biology
* Organ (biology), a part of an organism
Musical instruments
* Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone
** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument
** Hammond ...
builder, telecommunication engineer, and a member of the
Roosevelt family
The Roosevelt family is an American political family from New York whose members have included two United States presidents, a First Lady, and various merchants, bankers, politicians, inventors, clergymen, artists, and socialites. The progeny ...
.
Life
Roosevelt was born in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
to Silas Weir Roosevelt, a son of
Cornelius Roosevelt
Cornelius Van Schaack "C.V.S." Roosevelt (January 30, 1794 – July 17, 1871) was an American businessman from New York City. He was a member of the prominent Roosevelt family and the paternal grandfather of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.
E ...
and Mary West. He was thus a cousin of Presidents
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
and
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
.
Roosevelt did not take to either business or politics, the traditional Roosevelt family occupations. Instead, he was musically and mechanically inclined and wanted to be an organ builder from early childhood, entering an apprenticeship at an organ factory. He later traveled to Europe for further training in the field.
His relatives frowned upon a mechanical occupation, but when he began to make money, his family was reassured.
Roosevelt was particularly interested in the electric action organ, and was one of the first to study the application of new electrical devices to the manufacture of organ actions. He took out the first patent in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
for an electric action for the pipe organ when he was 20, and built the first electric action organ in the United States for the
Philadelphia Centennial Exposition
The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...
. Though primarily interested in the technical aspects, he had a good deal of business acumen as well, establishing factories in New York City,
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, and
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
. Hilborne founded the
Roosevelt Pipe Organ Builders
Roosevelt Organ Works was an American manufacturer of pipe organs. It was founded by Hilborne Roosevelt (1849–1886) and his younger brother, Frank Roosevelt (1862–1895), in 1872. It operated in New York City, with branches in Baltimore and Ph ...
in 1870 with his brother Frank and built some of the largest organs in the United States during his career.
Roosevelt was also widely known among electricians for inventing several details of the telephone including the automatic switch-hook, for which he received royalties for many years (even though
Thomas A. Watson
Thomas Augustus Watson (January 18, 1854 – December 13, 1934) was an assistant to Alexander Graham Bell, notably in the invention of the telephone in 1876.
Life and work
Born in Salem, Massachusetts, United States Watson was a bookkeeper and ...
claimed to be the first), and held an interest in the
Bell Telephone Company
The Bell Telephone Company, a common law joint stock company, was organized in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 9, 1877, by Alexander Graham Bell's father-in-law Gardiner Greene Hubbard, who also helped organize a sister company – the New Englan ...
.
Personal life
Roosevelt married Katherine Shippen on February 1, 1883, and had one child, Dorothy Quincy Roosevelt (born 1884). He died at his home in the
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
neighborhood of Manhattan at the age of 37 on December 30, 1886.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roosevelt, Hilborne
1849 births
1886 deaths
People from Chelsea, Manhattan
American people of Dutch descent
Businesspeople from New York City
American pipe organ builders
Hilborne Roosevelt
Hilborne Lewis Roosevelt (December 21, 1849 – December 30, 1886) was a pioneering organ builder, telecommunication engineer, and a member of the Roosevelt family.
Life
Roosevelt was born in New York City to Silas Weir Roosevelt, a son of Cornel ...
Schuyler family
American telecommunications engineers
19th-century American businesspeople
American company founders