Oxton Kennels and The Piano
Jake and Sally Huizenga (of Oxton Kennels in Salinas, California) and my parents (Gerry and Shirlee Roberts of Robalee Setters) became best of friends in the late 1960's.
Jake was a little older than my dad and they both raised pure-bred dogs so they became almost father and son, in a familial way.
Jake and Sally gave my parents a Steinway Box Grand piano and they moved it to the room between the kennel office and the living room.
My dad called Steinway in New York City. Steinway asked for the serial number and when my dad gave them number, they came back with, "That's not enough digits." After repeating the number on the piano, he was asked to describe it. "A shipping container with four Redwood Trees for legs.
After a good laugh, Steinway offered to buy it sight unseen for a lot of money. "I don't want to sell it, I want to find someone to tune it."
A loud asp preceded the, "Do you mean it still plays?"
After many calls and letters between California and New York, the history of the piano was rebuilt.
It seems a ships captain from Boston and his wife wanted to move to San Francisco. She agreed to the move if she could take a piano with her. He was named Captain Roberts, (no relation to my family) and he moved his entire family and their household effects to San Francisco: overland by wagon across the Isthmus of Panama. (The canal would not be built until 1916 some three decades later.)
They bought a house on the northeast quadrant of Telegraph Hill (today, the site of Coit Tower) where she could watch the ships entering the harbor before sailing to Howard Street or Mission Rock whaling stations. They had several children, one of the girls married into the Huizenga family and moved to an estancia in the Salinas family. Two generations later the piano was owned by Jake and Sally.
Another period passes and the piano passes back to another part of the Roberts family name.
When my mother passed, my sister had it auctioned off. I don't know where it is today, but I would like to hope this 1880-era piano is in a good home.
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