1814 - 1871

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• Birth	19 Feb 1814
  Gender	Male
  Died	8 Apr 1871
  Person ID	I457	Brainard (Brainerd) / Foster / Fish
  Last Modified	25 May 2004 00:00:00
  Father	Nathan BRAINARD, b. 20 Jul 1787, Lemster,, New Hampshire
  Mother	Fanny BINGHAM, b. Abt 1790
  Family ID	F333	Group Sheet
  Family	Emily C. MOULD
  Children	> 1. Charles S. BRAINARD > 2. Henry M. BRAINARD   3. Fanny M. BRAINARD   4. Emma Louis BRAINARD   5. Annie M. BRAINARD   6. Laura C. BRAINARD
  Family ID	F335	Group Sheet

• Notes

  BIOGRAPHY: BRAINARD, SILAS (19 Feb. 1814-8 Apr. 1871) turned an avocation for music into a business that supplied Cleveland with much of its early musical scores and instruments. The son of a merchant, he was born in Lempster, N.H., the son of Nathan and Fanny (Bingham) Silas. He was educated at New Hampton in the same state. He came to Cleveland in 1834 with his father and started in the grocer? business as N. Brainard & Son. An accomplished flutist, the younger Brainard also became active in the city's embryonic musical circles. He joined the CLEVELAND MUSICAL SOCIETY and began arranging music for its members. In 1836 he started his own music business, which eventually became an institution under the name S. BRAINARD'S SONS. Beginning with the retailing of music and musical instruments, Brainard added a publishing business in 1845 and purchased Watson's Hall at the same time, running it as Melodeon Hall and later Brainard's Hall . A house organ which he began in l864 as Western Musical World became one of the country's leading music publications under the name Brainard's Musical World. Although once regarded as having few peers as a flutist, he apparently subordinated his performing talents to the demands of his business. He was noted as the author of a Violin Instruction Book and numerous musical arrangements, some of which appeared under an assumed name. Brainard married Emily C. Mould and had 6 children: Charles, Henry, Fanny, Emma, Annie, and Laura. He died of inflammatory rheumatism in his residence at 348 Prospect Ave., survived by at least 3 sons: Charles, George, and Henry. Brainard was buried in WOODLAND CEMETERY . S. BRAINARD'S SONS was Cleveland's leading 19th-century musical-instrument dealer and music publisher. SILAS BRAINARD founded the company in 1836 and opened a piano store in the American House hotel on Superior Ave., selling Chickering pianos shipped from the factory in Boston. In 1845 he purchased Watson's Hall, which had been built in 1840, and renamed it Melodeon Hall. In 1860 the name was changed to Brainard's Hall (later Opera House), and in 1875 to the GLOBE THEATER . In Jan. 1864 Brainard began publishing Western Musical World, a monthly journal of articles, hints to musicians, and sheet music. In 1869 the name was changed to Brainard's Musical World. Brainard took his sons, Chas. S. and Henry M., into the business, and in 1871 the company became S. Brainard's Sons. In 1876 they built a new 4-story building on Euclid Ave. near E. 4th St. to accommodate the store and publishing house. Its interior was fitted with massive woodwork, gas light, and a steam-driven elevator. In the 1870s and 1880s, Brainard's published vocal and instrumental music, songbooks, and especially political and patriotic songs. In 1878 S. Brainard's Sons established an office in Chicago; the company left Cleveland altogether in 1889, moved to Chicago, and continued to publish Brainard's Musical World until 1895. Henry M. Brainard remained in Cleveland to operate his own store, an outlet for Steinway pianos.