Only 22 years after Beethoven died and while Brahms was still in his teens, a young German piano maker arrived in Indianapolis. That man was George L. Trayser. He had come to America in 1849, having already served his apprenticeship in piano factories of his native Germany.

Together with James M. Starr, Trayser co-founded the Starr Piano Company, setting up their first piano factory in Richmond, Indiana, at North Eighth Street and Elm Place.

The rest, as they say, is history. A 1928 newspaper article about The Starr Piano Company said, "That was the beginning of a business that has grown to world wide recognition."

At first, the company manufactured about two or three pianos a week, but that was not enough to keep the company financially healthy. Company officials hired G. M. Chase who had little knowledge of pianos, but was an excellent merchant.

In 1878 Trayser withdrew and Starr and Chase reorganized, moving the operation alongside the Whitewater River in the Whitewater Gorge to make use of waterpower there. A four-story plant was built.

In 1884 the company began to make only upright pianos, for which there was increasing demand.

Then, in 1893, two businessmen from Nashville, Tennessee, John Lumsden and his son-in-law Henry Gennett, visited the local factory. The men had been engaged in selling Starr Pianos, and were so impressed with possibilities and condition of the trade that they offered to purchase a half interest in the plant. After the sale, the company’s name was officially changed to The Starr Piano Company.

The 1890s brought steady growth, though the company had a string of calamities. After each disaster the company rallied.

In January 1894, less than a year after Lumsden and Gennett bought their half interest in Starr, a fire practically leveled the plant. It was immediately rebuilt.

Then, less than two years later, in August 1895, the Whitewater River flooded the rebuilt plant, and in 1898 Lumsden died, followed by James Starr in 1903.

At that point, Henry Gennett and his three sons, Harry, Fred, and Clarence, took over the company. Under their leadership the company would become nationally known for making fine pianos, phonographs and jazz recordings.

A newspaper article published in 1905 said, “Every device contributing to the economical manufacture of pianos and player pianos has been installed, and throughout the factory is a model of scientific efficiency.” At this point piano production had climbed to 15,000 a year.

Many Starr Pianos were shipped abroad. “South American shipments have always been a big factor in the affairs of this firm, for the durability of their construction has made them particularly valuable in the hot and moist countries,” the 1905 article said.

By 1913 the plant was one of the largest in the United States, covering 35 acres at the southern end of South First Street in the Whitewater River gorge. The pianos were on display in showrooms in 27 cities, including Indianapolis; Cincinnati; Dayton; Jacksonville; Pensacola; Kansas City; Nashville; Knoxville; Chattanooga; Montgomery and Los Angeles.

Starr Pianos were also being used in more than 400 schools.

Fifty-two styles of pianos were being made, and company president, Henry Gennett, was optimistic about one of their newer products, the player pianos. Gennett predictive a remarkable increases in the number of payer pianos in demand, but was not one of those who maintained that the player would entirely supersede the piano. He was right.

By 1915 the company was making spring-driven phonographs and had a small corner of the piano warehouse equipped with soundproofing and turntables for the recording phonograph records.

At first the records carried the Starr label, but the brand name was changed to Gennett in 1918 because some of the company’s piano competitors would not sell records with the Starr name.

A newspaper article of July 28, 1951 said, "In its heyday after World War I, annual production at the Starr Company was approximately 15,000 pianos, 35,000 spring driven phonographs, and more than 3 million records – all recorded in the Gennett Studios at the plant."

Fred Wiggins, manager of the Starr Music Store in Chicago, heard Gene Autry singing on an Oklahoma radio station in the 1920s. Wiggins, always looking for new talent, wrote to Autry, and his letter brought the cowboy singer to Richmond to record for Gennett Records.

When Wiggins watched crowds in Chicago’s speakeasies go wild over New Orleans jazz groups, he recommended that Gennett record the groups.

The Rhythm Kings were the first of many jazz musicians to record for Gennett, including King Oliver and his Creole Jazz Band, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong and the Red Onion Jazz Babies, Bix Beiderbecke and his Wolverines (which included Tommy Dorsey and Hoagy Carmichael), Fats Waller, The State Street Ramblers, and Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians.

Many of the jazz artist were heading north on the Mississippi River from New Orleans to Chicago and took time out to make the 250 mile trip to Richmond to record their music.

Indiana University in Bloomington also provided historic talent in the person of Hoagy Carmichael, a student at IU in the 1920s. He came to Richmond on several occasions, and in October 1927 made his first recording of Stardust at the Gennett studio.

In the mid to late 1920s the company branched out into blues, classical, gospel and hillbilly music. They also recorded political speeches, and in 1928 began making sound effects records for movies and radio programs.

In 1928 Starr’s Richmond plant employed 1,000 workers, had grown to cover 45 acres with 31 buildings and one half million square feet of floor space. By this time more than 250,000 pianos had been sold, with annual production about 20,000 instruments, including pianos, player pianos, phonographs and other instruments.

In the early 1930s the factory added another line to their manufactured products; Starr Freeze electric refrigeration equipment. A chain of refrigeration supplies stores was opened in Richmond, Cleveland, Nashville, Birmingham and Los Angeles to support the distribution of these products.

When Henry Gennett died in 1922 his sons assumed management of The Starr Piano Company until 1936 when Mr. Gennett’s estate was settled. The division of the company gave various properties and enterprises to his four children, and his widow, Mrs. Henry Gennett.

His eldest son, Harry, his daughter, Rose Gennett Martin, and Mrs. Gennett together received 70 percent of the piano company stock, plus the Pacific Division which included real estate, a retail piano store in downtown Los Angeles, along with the first branch of Refrigeration Supplies Distributor.

Following the settlement, Mrs. Martin moved permanently to Los Angeles to assume the presidency of the Pacific Division of the Starr Piano Company.