The piano: Heritage

At the antique store with the piano was a framed page that gave some of the piano's history. The piano was made in 1853, but our story begins in 1900.

Krouroe Gordon Jones of Mississippi had asked the beautiful Celeste Bedell Collins for her hand in marriage. Krouroe wanted to give his future bride a wonderful gift; he traveled to New York and bought a piano, just exactly like the Presidential Piano.

The president in question is William McKinley, whose piano was bought by McKinley's father after the 1853 New York Exposition and given to McKinley's mother, who later allowed President McKinley to take it to the White House. Looking at our piano and the McKinley piano, they're not "just exactly" alike, but close. Our is actually a bit fancier.

Krouroe carried the piano home to his betrothed in a wagon from New York City to Franklin, Louisiana, St. Mary Parish, on Bayou Teche. Lessie (as Celeste was called) was thrilled with her beautifully crafted instrument.

Krouroe had an arduous journey by wagon with the heavy piano. The Galveston Hurricane of September 8, 1900, hit and he took shelter. When he made it home, all was well.

The family and the piano lived on the Alice C Plantation, a sugar plantation, from 1900 until 1920, when they moved to Houston. The couple had a daughter, Celeste Bedell Jones, in 1907. The piano stayed in the family until 1990, when it was sold by her daughter to an unrelated family.

Here's where the story gets interesting to us. We did a search for Celeste Bedell Jones, and found the 1928/29 General Announcements from the Rice Institute, which included degrees conferred on June 6, 1927, and showed her graduating "with distinction". Further searching of genealogy sites found her daughter (the one who sold the piano), and her distinctive name led us to find her father, Whitman Denny Mounce, listed as a sophomore back in the same Rice general announcements!

What are the odds that a piano that a couple of Rice graduates (us) buy was previously owned by a pair of Rice graduates?