McCormick Pump Organ-

The Jesse French Piano and Organ Company was headquartered in St. Louis and Nashville with stores throughout the South and Midwest, making it the largest music retailer network outside of New York and the Northeast. To further his own business, French involved himself indirectly with the publication of key Mississippi Valley ragtime composers. Ragtime historians have long stressed the important link between the sale of ragtime sheet music and the sale of pianos, both reaching their peak during the ragtime era (c. 1897-1917).