Frank Schilling Pardon

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Two days before Christmas 1894, William Steinway sent a petition to New York Governor Roswell P. Flower, asking he pardon young Frank Schilling, who was serving time at the Elmira Reformatory on a charge of forgery. William acted at the request of Emma (Marie) Schilling, Frank Schilling’s younger sister.

Born about 1868 (4) and a son of an Oswego, NY, music teacher and businessman also named Frank Schilling, young Frank Schilling, a member of a well-to-do family, was arrested in May of 1894 in Astoria, N.Y. on a charge of forgery. He was accused by his employer, Joseph Boyce, of forging Boyce's name to a $50 dollar check.(1) For his crime he was sentenced to the Reformatory at Elmira, NY, an institution housing young first offenders.

Frank Schilling’s father, the elder Frank Schilling, was a music teacher born in Germany around 1842. He served as a Band Leader in the Union Army during the American Civil War and taught music in Oswego, N.Y. (2) He also owned a music store in Oswego originally with a partner named Peck, and sold a variety of musical instruments including Steinway pianos(3). When his four children were older, all of them, including the younger Frank, worked in the family's music store in one capacity or another—as clerks, teachers, or piano tuners.

The date and terms of Frank Schilling’s release are not known, but as early as 1900, he was back in Oswego working as a "Professor of Music" at the music store.(5)

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Sources:

 1. "A Clerk Accused of Forgery", The Brooklyn Eagle, May 25, 1894, p.12.

2. "Famous Bandmaster's in Brief," Jacob's Band Monthly (August 1921), p.18.

3. Oliphant and Boyd. "Oswego County Directory," 1888 cover advertisement.

4. United States Census 1870. "US Census, 1870 Oswego, NY 6th Ward Oswego City, Supv. Dist 211," p.28.

5. United States Census 1900. "US Census 1900, Oswego NY 1st Ward, Supervisor's District 13, Enumeration District 119," pp. 5-6.