Eugene de Kleist

Who was Eugene de Kleist?

Baron Frederick Joseph Eugene de Kleist, was a pioneering German organ builder, who in founding the North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory, started the American style of Band organs.

Eugene de Kleist was born in Duesseldorf on January 18, 1853, the son of Baron Ewald and his Belgium-born wife Charlotte de Kleisi. At the end of his formal schooling, he joined the Prussian Army, and fought in the Franco-Prussian War. After the end of hostilities, he trained as a barrel organ builder with the French company Limonaire Frères, in the Black Forest town of Waldkirch.

In 1880, De Kleist moved to London, England, where he started his own organ building business. Almost from the start of its foundation, De Kleist built contacts in the United States, and commuted regularly across the Atlantic Ocean. After the United States Government announced the impossition of import tariffs from 1893 on new organs, he was pursued by Allan Herschell, to persuade him to set up in business in the United States, and hence supply the various fairground ride manufacturers with locally made European quality barrel organs.

In 1892 De Kleist liquidated his London business and moved to the then unincorporated village of North Tonawanda, New York, backed by Allan Herschell and hence close to his Herschell Armitage Company factory. The location had developed a reputation as an excellent site for those reliant on the lumber trade, and easy access to all of North America via its excellent transport links. De Kleist established the North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory, and began producing organs suitable for a variety of fairground rides. As parts were not subject to the import tariffs, many of his early organs were built from parts imported from the French and German factories of his old employer, Limonaire Frères.