Jerome Bonaparte Squier (1838 – 1 June 1912) , which cites the ''Clarinda Herald'', Clarinda, Iowa, 25 July 1912. was a British-American

luthier A luthier ( ; AmE also ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments that have a neck and a sound box. The word "luthier" is originally French and comes from the French word for lute. The term was originally used for makers o ...

. "J.B." Squier was an English immigrant who arrived in

Battle Creek, Michigan Battle Creek is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, in northwest Calhoun County, Michigan, Calhoun County, at the confluence of the Kalamazoo River, Kalamazoo and Battle Creek River, Battle Creek rivers. It is the principal city of the Battle C ...

in the latter part of the 19th century. A farmer and shoemaker who had learned the fine European art of violin making, he moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1881 where he built and repaired violins with his son, Victor Carroll (V.C.) Squier. Squier made 600 instruments during his career. He made his own amber-brown, lustrous varnish. Among his notable

violins The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

were a dozen violins each named after one of the twelve apostles. Other instruments were named after

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

and Abraham Lincoln. Most of his violins were patterned after Stradivarius, notably the Alard Stradivarius. The tonal quality of Squier's violins was brilliant and clear. Squier taught the art of violin making to Charles Kinney, father of

Edward Kinney Edward Kinney (1859–1933) was an American luthier active in Springfield, Massachusetts. He was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, and learned the art of violin making from his father, Charles Kinney, who had previously learned the craft from And ...

. In 2007, one of Squier's violins had an estimated worth of

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

100,000 because of its tonal quality. Squier married Olive Brown Raymond and the couple had three children. One of their children, Victor Carrol Squier, also went on to work in violin-making and became renowned for his violins and violin strings. The Squier company went on to manufacture violin, banjo and guitar strings and was acquired by Fender in 1965.

References

* 1838 births 1912 deaths People from Cuyahoga County, Ohio Bowed string instrument makers {{Ohio-bio-stub