Windmuller-Heynen Family Tree

Like his older brothers, he was educated in the schools of Aachen, and thereafter studied composition, piano and organ at the Conservatory of Music at Brussels, graduating in 1851, when he followed his mother to Baltimore, and shortly thereafter went to California, the same as his older brothers, where he was organist in leading churches in San Francisco until 1858, when he returned to Baltimore and became a church and concert organist there. In 1868 he established a piano, organ and music business in Baltimore, representing Steinway & Sons and other large instrument makers. He founded and was first president of the Oratorio Society...

Mr. Sutro is widely known and esteemed. He was born in Aix-la-Chapelle, Rhenish Prussia, on the 24th of February, 1833. His father was Emanuel Sutro, and his mother, Rosa Warendorf. In business his father was an extensive cloth manufacturer, employing many hundred hands. He was a man of fine natural gifts, highly cultivated, refined, and improved by extensive travel. At an early age Otto Sutro evinced a decided talent for music, which was encouraged and promoted by his parents, themselves especially devoted to the " divine art." After instruction by the best masters of his native city, his father took him to the renowned Mendelssohn in 1845, who advised his being sent to the Conservatory of Music. But, owing to the death of his father in 1847, his mother changed his destination to the Conservatory of Music at Brussels, where his musical studies were begun in real earnest. Making rapid progress, he soon took high position in his classes for composition of music for piano and organ, and so proficient did he become on the latter instrument that the famous organist, Prof. I. Lemmeus, appointed him his assistant. His mother having, with all the children but one, migrated to America, Otto, drawn by his strong affection for her, followed, and arrived in New York, from whence he came directly to Baltimore, in 1851, where he obtained the position of organist to the Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church. Overtaken by the "California fever," he sought his fortune in the El Dorada of the Pacific, along with thousands of other young and energetic men who made the Argonauts of California. In California he gave instructions in music for a short time, but the fever of "gold-digging" carried him to the mines, where, alternately digging and playing, merchant and musician, he passed an eventful life. In concert companies traveling over the State from mining districts to country towns his life was replete with adventure, hardship, and hairbreadth escapes from all kinds of dangers, which matured without hardening his character. While in San Francisco he was organist of the Catholic cathedral, in Vallejo Street; of the Rev. Dr. Scott's church, on Bush Street; and lastly of Bishop Kipp's Protestant Episcopal church, on Rowell Street; and in San Francisco, as elsewhere, he was considered a most proficient and excellent instructor of music.

The same affection for his mother that impelled his coming to America drew him back to the Atlantic States, and he returned to Baltimore in February, 1858, and has made it his permanent home. And here he has had charge of most of the music of the great charity engagements during the war, and in appreciation of his valuable services the " Southern Educational Society" presented him with a handsome silver set. " Wednesday evenings at Sutro's" have a history of music, pleasure, and entertainment that will long be cherished by some of the best people of Baltimore, and laid the foundation of the " Wednesday Club," since become famous in Baltimore for musical and dramatic entertainments by non-professionals.

Upon Mr. Sutro's marriage with Miss Handy, of Mississippi, the Bachelors' Club of Wednesday evening was dissolved, and those who have so long enjoyed the pleasure of these delightful entertainments united in presenting, through William Prescott Smith, a silver pitcher of unique design, commemorative of the " good times" they had had under the hospitable roof of Baltimore's great musician.

Mr. Sutro is the agent for the celebrated Chickering pianos, also George Wood's organs, Kranich & Bach, Haines' Bros., Dunham & Sons' pianos, and Wilcox & White's organs, and is engaged in the business of sheet-music upon a very large scale. Enterprise like that of Mr. Sutro deserves to be, and has been, rewarded with the countenance and full support of the people of Baltimore.