[SUBMITTED PHOTO]There is a Chickering piano in the Botetourt County Museum that was dropped in the James River in the 1860s. It was being transported to Buchanan on a bateau on the James River and Kanawha River Canal. The keyboard survived to make music for many years but now needs repair. This type of big square piano was invented by the Boston company founded in 1823 by Jonas Chickering. He introduced a one-piece cast iron plate to support the greater string tension of larger pianos and, in 1845, created a new convenient method for “over stringing” in square pianos. The sheet music was donated by Botetourt churches.
