Elliott Pyle was the local physician in the town of Butler, Mo., in the late 1800s. He bought a piano for his daughters that ended up being a gift for the entire town.
In 1878, Pyle traveled to Philadelphia, when Steinway & Sons introduced the first Model A. It was an 85-note piano, considered to be the smallest of the grand pianos. But Pyle did not buy that model. Instead, he opted for an 1877 Model B, Bates County Museum director Peggy Buhr says.
“His daughters wanted to take piano lessons,” Buhr says. Pyle’s youngest daughter, Eunice, born in 1897, took lessons throughout her childhood and taught lessons as an adult.
Pyle bought the Steinway and shipped it from New York to Kansas City, Mo. Buhr says from there it came by train to Pleasant Hill about 45 miles from Butler. There was no railroad system to the area at the time. It didn’t arrive until the 1880s, Buhr explains.
“The piano must have made its way here by wagon,” Buhr says. “It has been in this county ever since.”
In 1979, when Eunice went into a nursing home, she donated the piano to the county museum. It needed restoration. To bring the piano back to its former grandeur, it was sent back to Steinway & Sons in New York. The total cost for shipping and restoration was $60,000 — a steep price tag for a small southwest Missouri town with a population of 4,000. Still the community rallied and raised the money.
“We had fundraisers and private donations,” Buhr says. “I think individuals saw this as a rare piece of history that has been a large part of this community for so many years. They wanted to keep it here.”
After 13 months of work, the Steinway Model B returned to the museum with restored Brazilian rosewood, new pins, strings and soundboard.
“It is now the state-of-the-art Steinway on the inside,” Buhr says. “Hopefully, it will last another 140 years.”
But instead of roping it off and labeling it with a “do not touch” sign, Buhr allows visitors to tickle the ivories. “We have had everything from ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ to Mozart played on this piano,” she says. And she hopes for more. Buhr is looking at some children’s piano recitals, a few gospel sings and maybe a name that tune night.
“This is to be the people’s piano,” she says. “We want them to enjoy it.”
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