What is your connection to the piano
The original owner was my great-great grandmother. See story of piano below.
Do you play the piano or want to learn
I started piano lessons last year. We have a digital piano that is ok for learning but just doesn't feel the same as high quality piano. Both of my daughters, 5 and 10 have been taking lessons. My 10-year-old has been playing for 4 years my 5-year-old is just getting started. Our piano teacher comes to our house for our lessons. She often plays the old piano for fun and says it is a joy to play. She is a music major at UVU with access to many wonderful pianos, but she says there is just something about the old piano you can't duplicate.
Who will benefit from the restoration if your piano is chosen
Our children and their children. We are building a new custom home and have designed the main living area around the piano. We look forward to building memories with our friends and family around the piano, just like our ancestors would have. My great great grandmother, Charlotte “Lottie” Nelson, came from Ireland in 1892 where she joined a cousin and 3 brothers who had immigrated previously. She worked as an upstairs maid for a wealthy family and visited her 3 brothers often who were all married and had families of their own. The afore-mentioned cousin lived nearby as well and was the wife of a minister whom she was very close to. Eventually, Lottie became the nanny to her cousins’ children. Her cousin's husband became ill and was transferred to Jacksonville, FL.
It is unknown whether the piano was purchased while in New York or Florida, however she loved to play the piano and was very talented and lively. It was given as a gift to ease her homesickness from being away from her family. In 1896, her cousin's husband, the minister, was transferred to Utah. After a few years in Utah, she was no longer needed as a nanny to her cousin’s children and took a job with a prominent family in Payson as a housekeeper.
In 1900 she married the brother of her employer and moved to Provo. Lottie’s husband died in 1928 when she was 54 years old. At the age of 69 she moved in with a daughter, Rachel, in California and moved her beloved piano with her. After her death, in 1945, her other daughter, Effie, inherited the piano. It sat for many years until Effie died. That is when my grandmother traveled from Utah to California to bring the piano to her home in Provo.
I remember as a young girl my grandma told me how special the piano was. She loving kept it dusted and told all of us grandkids it wasn’t to be played with. Following the deaths of my grandmother in 1999 and my grandfather in 2015, the family wasn't sure what to do with the piano. It was not in great condition and hadn't been played in many years.
I was living in central Illinois at the time and came out to visit. My dad’s siblings had decided it should probably go to the dump because it was in too bad of shape to save and no one else wanted it. But my dad knew if anyone would be willing to save it, it would be me. So, my husband and I rented a U-Haul trailer and towed it back to Illinois and put it in our home. I cleaned it up the best that I could and found that other than a few dead keys, it was playable and in a lot better condition than we previously thought. All of the original pieces were intact, including the stool right down to its original horse hair and velvet upholstery.
Our daughter started her first year of piano lessons playing on it in 2018, making the best of it even though it had a few dead keys and was very out of tune. In 2020 we moved back to Utah and brought the piano we had come to love with us, hoping to one day have it able to be played again. There has been a lingering family story that it came across the plains, we are unsure of how it was actually moved here the first time, but it has now traveled across them at least 3 times, fulfilling the tale.
We hope to have this piano restored to be able to be loved and played for many more generations. I have even begun piano lessons in the hope that one day I may be able to play as well, along with my children. Having a family treasure such as this has helped my family to dive deeper into our family history, we have come to love them and find the courage to learn new things through their stories.
YEAR 1890-1900
MAKE Family hopes to carry on the musical legacy of Grandma Lottie from Ireland by restoring their cherished family piano!
