Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Steger, John V 
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Author: Past & Present Will County, 1907

JOHN V. STEGER. An analyzation of the life and work of John V. Steger would 
doubtless lead one to arrive at the conclusion that he has been actuated at 
all times by a sense of duty—the duty which he owes to himself to best improve 
his opportunities and the duty which he owes to others, a duty which also 
finds joy in its doing. Laudable ambition was perhaps the first foundation 
stone that he laid upon which he has builded a success that seems almost 
phenomenal. To this he added unfaltering energy and unabating persistency of 
purpose, but all the time he recognized individual responsibility toward those 
whom he served and toward those who served him. It is this which has made 
Steger an ideal manufacturing town, the piano factory a veritable Eden in this 
work of turmoil and labor troubles, while the founder of the business and of 
the village is undoubtedly one of the best loved employers in America because 
of the just, fair and considerate treatment he gives those in his employ, thus 
recognizing the brotherhood of man. John V. Steger is a splendid type of the 
self-made man. It is this which has probably made him so fully in sympathy 
with his own workmen and the straightforward methods in his business career 
constitute the secret of an honor which is accorded him everywhere in business 
circles. He was born in the little city of Ulm, Wurtemberg, Germany, in 1854. 
He was reared amid humble and even inauspicious surroundings, yet he was 
destined to set an example to the world and formulate a plan which would, when 
fully developed and exemplified, revolutionize and change the existing order 
of affairs connected with the world of labor and of industry. His father, a 
cabinetmaker by trade, apprenticed him to a woodworker, whom he served between 
the ages of fourteen and seventeen years. He then started for America, imbued 
with a desire to benefit his financial condition by utilization of the broader 
opportunities of the new world. He had no knowledge of the English language 
and his capital consisted of but twelve cents when he landed on American soil. 
This condition rendered immediate employment a necessity, and within six hours 
he was at work, being employed at rough carpenter work on the reconstruction 
of ice houses on the Hudson river. His previous training fitted him for 
something better, for he was fully competent to earn more than he would 
receive at this work, but it was the best that he could get at the moment and 
he took it. He formed at that time a resolution to live within his resources 
and in fact to save a certain sum from all that he earned. Within two months 
he returned to New York city with more than half of the wages that he had 
received during that period. This sum he divided into two equal parts, one 
that was not to be expended under any circumstances, the other to supply his 
wants and necessities until he could again be in receipt of wages. These facts 
are given in detail because it gives the keynote of the success of Mr. Steger. 
In the city he secured employment at the cabinetmaker's trade, his yearly wage 
averaging ten and a half dollars per week, and of this he placed at least five 
dollars and a half per week with the reserve fund. Thinking that business 
conditions were still more favorable in the west, Mr. Steger left the Atlantic 
coast for Chicago. His capital was indeed small at that time, but he was rich 
in determination and a fixed, unchangeable resolution to live economically, to 
add to his stores rather than to deplete them, and thus was made possible the 
creation of one of the most wonderful of all American towns and the foundation 
of a system of industrial economics which the world can not but admire and 
which would solve all labor questions if it were universally adopted. Soon 
after his arrival in Chicago Mr. Steger wedded Louise R. Jacobs, to whose 
assistance, advice and cooperation he attributes much of his success. For 
eight years he worked for others, saving the greater part of his earnings, 
until his accumulated sum amounted to thirty-nine hundred dollars. He then 
made his start in the piano business at No. 154 State street, Chicago. The 
greatly increased trade necessitated a removal to larger quarters in 1881, and 
within three years another change was necessitated and the business was opened 
at Adams street and Wabash avenue. He suffered heavy losses in the Langham 
hotel fire; and the succeeding four years were devoted to retrieving his lost 
possessions. In 1891 he removed to the present location, at the northeast 
corner of Jackson boulevard and Wabash avenue, where he has established a 
trade second to none in the United States. These quarters and adjoining 
property at 233 Wabash avenue have lately been acquired by Mr. Steger on a 
ninety-nine year term of lease, where he will soon erect a magnificent 
fourteen-story building specially adapted to his business and needs. It is 
estimated that nothing finer will find place in Chicago. Mr. Steger 
contemplates to make this building a monument to perpetuate the name "Steger" 
and establish a home for the "Steger Piano." In Will county is found a town 
bearing his name, but, more than that, bearing the impress of his 
individuality, his lofty purpose and his recognition of the rights of others 
with his own individual responsibility. All the theories that have been 
expounded and the plans that have been promulgated have never solved the labor 
question as have the practical workings of Mr. Steger in the establishment and 
development of the piano factory and of the town. When he announced that 
Columbia Heights, now Steger, a little cross-roads village out on the prairie, 
would be an ideal situation for a piano factory, those who knew him laughed at 
the idea. Former plans, however, had awakened derision from those who were 
less far-sighted than he, and again time has proven the merit of his ideas and 
plans. He built the piano factory, began the manufacture of pianos and has 
continuously found it necessary to enlarge the plant to meet the growing 
demands of the trade until today in Steger, Illinois, stands the largest 
exclusive piano factory in the world. This is due to two causes—his treatment 
of employes from whom he receives in return faithful and efficient service, 
and his close study and able management of the business. The equipment of the 
Steger factory when it was organized in 1879 was small mechanically but it had 
a mental equipment which made ample amends for this deficiency. Mr. Steger had 
given years of thought and study to the development of the pianoforte. He had 
a complete understanding of the needs of the instrument from the performer's 
standpoint and was one of the first to realize the error of striving to keep 
the piano in competition with the orchestra. He had also a capacity for 
organization and he also studied the question of economics in manufacture. Up 
to that time all the instruments with any pretentions as to quality were 
expensive. Mr. Steger at the beginning of his career was firmly convinced that 
the cost of manufacturing the best pianos could be materially reduced without 
any sacrifice of musical quality, and his judgment has been fully and 
continuously confirmed from the time the first Steger piano was completed. The 
guiding principle in the factory has always been not to merely produce a 
piano "as good as it could be made for the money," but to make a piano worthy 
of being selected purely on its merits by the most discriminating people. That 
is the primary purpose of the company. After that comes the arrangement of the 
processes of manufacture and distribution so as to eliminate all waste—all 
useless expense of every nature; and to secure the maximum efficiency in all 
departments, thus making it possible to sell an instrument of the highest 
possible attainment and worth at a moderate price. The product takes first 
rank with the finest pianos manufactured in Europe and America. The output 
includes the upright and grand pianos and the recent extension of the business 
includes the manufacture of the Steger self-player, which is an inside player 
and supersedes the old style of the mechanical player which is attached to the 
front of the piano and strikes the keys from the outside mechanically. This 
embodies nothing of the experimental nature but is constructed according to 
the best known scientific principles of pneumatics. In connection with the 
extensive plant at Steger, Mr. Steger has other financial interests. He is a 
director of the bank of Steger, Bank of Chicago Heights and Monroe National 
Bank of Chicago and is also one of the large stockholders of the Flanner-
Steger Land & Lumber Company, owning extensive lumber interests in Wisconsin, 
together with a splendidly equipped sawmill, from which point logs and lumber 
are shipped to Steger to be used in the factory here. While engaged in the 
stupendous task of establishing, developing and controlling the new 
organization Mr. Steger realized that an element of paramount importance to 
his success was the comfort and welfare of his men. He keeps in close touch 
with them, many of whom he knows by name, and they feel that their interests 
are his interests. Mr. Steger made a close study of labor problems. He saw 
that thousands of workmen through the country in large institutions were 
expending brain, brawn and muscle for their employers and that after years of 
such labor they had not advanced in their individual positions in life and 
were not better prepared for the days of old age and inability to work. This 
fact appealed to Mr. Steger and after much thought and planning he evolved 
from his fertile brain the solution of such conditions. His plans and ideas 
are shown in the results. Today there are about twenty-five hundred people 
living in Steger, mainly composed of workmen in the extensive manufacturing 
plant and their families, yet there are others also who are engaged in 
business in the city and have chosen Steger as a place of residence to enjoy 
the delights of suburban life. It is a noticeable fact that the employes are 
men. There are no women or girls and but few boys in the factory. He resolved 
to pay his men a good living wage, so that it would not be necessary for the 
feminine members of the household to engage in labor in order to eke out a 
living, and the workmen receive from fifteen to twenty-five dollars per week. 
They work eight hours a day in well ventilated and well lighted buildings and 
their surroundings are such as to imbue the mind with the love of the pure and 
the beautiful and to give a feeling of rest and repose. Mr. Steger resolved, 
too, that the workmen should have comfortable, pleasant homes. For this 
purpose he built cottages, each with its garden and lawn and the homes were 
sold at from eight hundred and fifty to ten hundred and fifty dollars, 
regardless of the constantly increasing demand which would have much advanced 
the value. To those who work in the factories these homes were sold on 
payment, of ten dollars per month. Mr. Steger is reported to have said that he 
proceeded on the theory that when a man became a real-estate owner he 
appreciated the value of citizenship and that it was his observation that men 
became better workmen, more careful of stock and more considerate in their 
associations just as soon as they possessed an interest in a home. Another 
sentiment expressed by Mr. Steger will explain why it is that he has secured 
the unalloyed services, the devoted support of each man who works for him. He 
said, "I believe in putting my men on their honor and encouraging honesty and 
strength of character by trusting them and letting them know I trust them. And 
as to labor troubles—when a man becomes the owner of a little home and feels 
that he is a factor in a community he has no time to give to walking 
delegates. These fellows are an unknown quantity in Steger." There are no 
strikes in Steger, for each employe feels that his services to the company 
will be justly rewarded and each year the workmen have a share in the profits 
of the house according to their length of service and the merit of their work. 
For the benefit of the workmen, their family and friends, Mr. Steger has given 
twelve acres for park purposes. The intention is to make this park as 
beautiful as the landscape gardener of art can suggest and unstinted outlay 
carry into reality. Special attention will be given to equipments for the 
amusement, and entertainment of the children who have a warm place in the 
heart of Mr. Steger. He sees to it also that there are theaters, amusements 
and other entertainments of high class and there is probably no factory town 
of the size of Steger that has as little intoxication and lawlessness of any 
kind. The employes are not forced to patronize company stores and thus turn 
their earnings back into the business from which they receive them, for on the 
contrary the stores are not owned by Mr. Steger but by independent merchants. 
He is making the village a clean, healthful, enjoyable and beautiful place of 
residence and is doing this because of the broad humanitarian principle which 
is one of the most strongly marked characteristics of his life. Mr. Steger has 
found able assistance given to him by his two sons, C. G. and George F. 
Steger, who are associated with him in business, the former having charge of 
the city headquarters at Wabash avenue and Jackson boulevard, while the latter 
is the general superintendent of all the factories. They receive practical 
efficiency and thorough training from their father, are thoroughly acquainted 
with the business and are displaying the strong traits which have made John Y. 
Steger, the once penniless German emigrant, an American multi-millionaire. The 
other members of the Steger family are: Mrs. Thomas E. Northen and Mrs. H. E. 
Johnson, Jr., both residing in Steger; and Miss Estella, attending school at 
Ferry Hall, Lake Forest, Illinois. Such in outline is the life and work of 
John Y. Steger. He has been called a theorist but he is an idealist. He is not 
a dreamer but is a man of action, working toward ideals by using practical 
methods whereby he secures the results he undertakes. He has come to a 
realization of the fact which others have preached but which few have had the 
courage to demonstrate, that the man who works for and with his employes 
serves best his own purposes and solves harmoniously the labor question which 
is today one of the paramount issues before the American people.

Additional Comments:
PAST AND PRESENT OF WILL COUNTY, ILLINOIS By W. W. Stevens President of the 
Will County Pioneers Association; Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing 
Company, 1907

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