R. S. Williams & Sons was musical instrument manufacturing company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario with a factory located in Oshawa, Ontario.
History The company was founded in Toronto in 1855 by Richard Sugden Williams."R.S. Williams & Sons". The Canadian Encyclopedia, by Helmut Kallmann, Carl Morey, and Florence Hayes, February 7, 2006 After completing his apprenticeship in 1853 with Toronto melodeon maker William Townsend, Williams continued to work for Townsend. After a move to Hamilton, Townsend's business failed in 1855; Williams took over the bankrupt company, and returned the business to Toronto.Under the Sign of the Big Fiddle: The R.S. Williams Family, Manufacturers and Collectors of Musical Instruments. Dundurn; 15 October 1996. . He started by making mandolins and banjos, and later melodeons and organs, at a store on Queen Street.
In 1873 Williams established The Canadian Organ & Piano Company to house his growing piano-manufacturing business, while maintaining a retail store on Yonge Street. In 1885 the company built a large factory on Hayter Street.Emerson Bristol Biggar. Canada: A Memorial Volume. E. B. Biggar; 1889. p. 11. By this time the company employed about 150 instrument builders, as well as ten travelling salesmen, and had opened a showroom in London, Ontario."History of Toronto and County of York in Ontario - Part IV: Toronto: Manufacturing Industries". 1885. via the "Electric Canada" website
In 1888 Williams' son Robert took control of the Canadian Organ & Piano Company; it was moved to Oshawa, Ontario (then a small town) where it took over a large building previously used by the Joseph Hall Works."LH1039 Williams Piano co. - Exterior". Oshawa Library photograph collection, via Our Ontario, accessed Feb 19, 2020 This arm of the company was renamed The R. S. Williams Piano Company of Oshawa.Bob Pierce. Pierce Piano Atlas. Bob Pierce; 2008. p. 393.Musical Courier. Vol. 18-19. 1889. p. 480.
In 1891 the factory building was damaged by fire, but repaired."The Music Trade" Musical Courier. Vol. 23. 1891. p. 110. In 1909 the name of the Oshawa factory was amended again to R. S. Williams & Sons, Ltd."Nickel Notes". AMICA Bulletin, January/February 2014.
In 1912 the company donated a large collection of musical instruments to the newly opened Royal Ontario Museum.Rotunda. Vol. 15-17. Royal Ontario Museum.; 1982. p. xliv. Robert Williams became president of the company after his father's death.Robert F. Gellerman. Gellerman's International Reed Organ Atlas. Vestal Press; 5 May 1998. . p. 268.
R. S. Williams & Sons ceased business in Toronto because of bankruptcy in 1927; the Oshawa factory closed down in 1931. The factory building was demolished in 1968.Pictorial Oshawa, by Thomas Bouckley, page 6
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