The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 829 

CLAUDE BRIGGS.

Claude Briggs, of the Bush S Lane Piano Company, is one of the foremost dealers
in his line in the northwest. The business was established in Yakima on the 1st
of January, 1913, with Mr. Briggs as manager and he has since remained in
charge, his efforts carrying the enterprise forward to continued success. Mr.
Briggs is a native of New York. He was born in 1855, a son of John and Jane A.
Briggs. The father was a farmer throughout his active life but spent his last
clays in retirement and passed away at the very venerable age of ninety-three
years, his death occurring in 1913. His widow is still living at the age of
ninety-four years. They had become residents of Wisconsin in 1855 and there
resided until 1875, when they removed to Minnesota and with the farming
interests of that state the father was connected up to the time of his
retirement from business. He was a man who possessed a wonderfully fine
constitution and his longevity was largely the result of a well spent life.

Claude Briggs, after pursuing a public school education in Wisconsin, attended a
business college there. He entered the sewing machine business when a youth of
but fifteen years and became connected with the piano trade in 1881. He has sold
pianos and sewing machines constantly from the age of fifteen. In 1885 he
arrived in Sprague, Washington, and was manager for the Singer Sewing Machine
Company for several years, in connection with which he also sold pianos, but his
place of business was destroyed by fire in 1895 and in the same year he came to
Yakima. He here turned his attention to the sale of pianos, organs, sewing
machines and household furniture. He rented a building at five dollars per month
but could not at that time make a success of the piano trade. He then began
selling fruit trees and was the agent in the sale of trees for most of the old
established orchards found in this section of the state. He worked hard, winning
success as the result of his unfaltering energy and close application, being one
of the pioneer nurserymen of the district, whose eloquence and logic in making
sales converted many into prosperous fruit growers. He traveled on horseback and
by team all over the valley and his arguments convinced many that fruit growing
might be profitably followed in this section of the state -- a fact which has
been demonstrated by many of his customers. He again started in the piano trade
in connection with Wiley B. Allen and later organized the firm of Briggs & Dam,
having the only piano store between Spokane and Tacoma. He sold goods all
through the territory, but later the firm was dissolved. In 1911 Mr. Briggs
closed out his piano business and entered the real estate field, to which he
devoted his energies for about two years. He afterward accepted the position of
manager with the Bush & Lane Piano Company, in which capacity he is still
serving. This company established a store in Yakima on the 1st of January,
1913, placing Mr. Briggs in charge. His first location was opposite the
Commercial Hotel and in 1914 a removal was made to 29 South Second street, the
building being twenty-five by one hundred and thirty feet. The firm carries a
full line of pianos and musical instruments. This company had at one time over
six thousand retail stores in the United States but in 1918 closed out over five
thousand of their stores. the Yakima establishment being one of the four left in
the five northwest states of California, Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
Mr. Briggs does the leading business in the piano trade in Yakima and has over
six hundred paying accounts. He has made most of the sales himself and has sold
hundreds of pianos and phonographs. He possesses in large measure that quality
which for want of a better term has been called commercial sense. He is a
splendid type of modern salesman and even in the present unfavorable conditions
for the music trade, owing to the war, he is building up a substantial business
that indicates his excellent ability.

Mr. Briggs belongs to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, the Modern
Woodmen of America and the Knights of Pythias. He maintains an independent
course in politics but loyally stands by all progressive elements and movements
in citizenship and is one of the reliable and substantial residents of Yakima.
His business affairs have been carefully and wisely directed and he eagerly
avails himself of any opportunity pointing to success. He is a man of genial
qualities, of kindly spirit, and his popularity is the direct result of his many
admirable characteristics. While sewing as alderman of Yakima he was
instrumental in the planting of the beautiful shade trees on Naches avenue which
now make that thoroughfare one of the most attractive in the west.

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Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in January 2008 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.