Scan 27
Musical Courier 1892-09-07: Vol 25 Iss 654, 1892
111 lines. Read by computer on 20 September 2026. Printed page 28. See the scan on archive.org.
A town on its own line is one of the directory's headings. That is where the town on a maker's page comes from.
1CHICAGO.
3Latest from Our Chicago Representative.
5CHICAGO OFFICE MUSICAL COURIER,
6226 WABASH AVENUE,
7CHICAGO, September 3, 1892.
9IT is something to begin the manufacture of organs in May, 1891, make during that year an average of 125 per month; increase the output to an average of 300 per month up to July 1, and then prepare themselves for an average of 400 per month for the remaining months of this year; yet that is the record which the Columbian Organ and Piano Company have the honor of placing to their credit since they began manufacturing. They have not done this, however, without previous experience.
11Mr. Jacob R. Hessler, one of the company and the superintendent of the factory, is a thorough organ man, and is the inventor and originator of quite a number of very useful improvements in reed organs, and was for many years the superintendent of the organ factory of the Kimball Company. Mr. Wm. H. Howard, another of the company, is also an experienced organ man; Mr. J. D. Van Etten, the secretary, is an able and accustomed road salesman with a large acquaintance, and the president, Mr. John S. Woollacott, sees that the means are not lacking to permit the business to increase in the unusual manner recounted.
13The factory of the Columbian Organ and Piano Company is located at Grand Crossing, at the corner of Seventy-seventh street and Storms avenue, which is in the city and only a mile south of the world's fair grounds. The company have an excellent plant, all the necessary means of production, including buildings, machinery, large dry kilns and some of the best workmen in the city. They use only solid walnut or oak in the cases and first-class material throughout, which gives them the right to claim them to be fine grade instruments.
15They are making but four or five styles of cases, including a very attractive chapel organ, all of which are really taking in appearance and good sellers.
17The Story & Clark Organ Company have well under way an organ for exhibition at the world's fair. The designs were drawn by that admirable artistic architect, Mr. Louis Marston, who is under contract with the above mentioned house to furnish them exclusively with original drawings of organ cases. This does not conflict with piano case designs, a field in which Mr. Marston is yet free to act.
19I cannot speak too highly of the design and execution of this particular organ; from an artistic standpoint it cannot be questioned, for it is absolutely the handsomest case I have ever seen; the carving on it has already been a work of months and it will still be months before it will be finished, and the cost will run up into several thousands of dollars. The material is English oak. In the interior there are to be introduced some novel features of reed organ construction; there are three banks of keys, a pedal bass, and it will contain both means of operating, either by blast or exhaust worked by electricity, the peculiar feature of which is that there will be no bellows.
21Mr. Melville Clark is the genius who has directed the work and invented the novel characteristics which this organ will contain, and I am led to believe he has still other peculiarities in organ construction which will be brought before the public at no very distant day.
23The N. P. T. A. of Illinois passed resolutions at their last meeting thanking Messrs. Wessell, Nickel & Gross for the beautiful action models recently forwarded to the association.
25It is truly an unfortunate phase of the music business that many otherwise valuable and highly capable salesmen should be untrustworthy. I have been requested to mention that one F. L. Jordan, who is now working in the capacity of a piano salesman for a St. Louis house, is in the habit of passing worthless checks on whomsoever he can induce to cash them, and that he has also victimized former employers of his by collecting on piano sales to the extend of several hundreds of dollars and devoting the proceeds to his own personal use. Mr. Jordan is represented to be a stout built, attractive young man of medium height, with a smooth face and gray eyes and a persuasive tongue.
27Mr. G. Lehman, of East St. Louis, Ill., who has been in town this week, says his acquaintance with Mr. Jordan cost him about $300, and there are several parties in this city who have had very unpleasant monetary transactions with the same individual, and one in particular who regrets exceedingly his leniency towards him.
29There is an impression that Siegel, Cooper & Co. are simply renting the premises in their store to a combination consisting of Joseph Bohmann and the S. L. House Company, and that the latter named concerns are the parties who are running the music department in the aforementioned establishment; but both Mr. Siegel and the manager of the department inform the writer that the sole proprietors are Siegel, Cooper & Co., who control the Bohmann goods for this locality and all the pianos as well. They purpose selling a piano to be called the "Florence," and in order to have all the goods strictly legitimate an incorporation bearing the same name will be formed.
31The following letter has just been received from a prominent dealer in an important city in the West and speaks volumes for the Chase Brothers pianos. Having seen the original of the letter I can vouch for its genuineness, and I can say further that I am not surprised at the writer's enthusiasm, for Chase Brothers' high priced pianos are truly what is claimed for them in the subjoined letter:
33Messrs. Chase Brothers, Muskegon, Mich.:
34GENTLEMEN—We received your shipment of pianos yesterday, and to say that we are pleased with them is putting it very mild. We have handled many of the finest and most expensive pianos made and have never yet unpacked so handsome a lot of pianos. The natural woods used by your factory are decidedly finer in quality than anything we have ever seen, and as to tone, action and resonance, and in fact all that goes to make up a first-class piano, they are right up to the standard mark. Please accept our thanks for the elegant selections made by yourselves. We feel sure the Chase Brothers piano is destined to become very popular in this territory.
36Mr. L. Cavalli, the accredited and favorite representative of Mr. Alfred Dolge, made his appearance in town this week. He is accompanied by Mr. H. Leonard, who it is understood will hereafter also be an agent for the Dolge house.
38Mr. I. N. Camp has returned from his Eastern trip. He, of course, attended the Estey celebration at Brattleboro, visited Boston and several other points, and suffered a slight fit of indisposition from which he recovered as soon as he started back home, the thoughts of the bracing air of Chicago acting like a tonic.
40Mr. A. L. Jepson, a very capable employé of the Chicago Cottage Organ Company, has resigned his position on account of his health, which he wishes to recuperate by an extended rest. Mr. Jepson has been with the company some five years and was a valuable man in many different positions.
42Lyon & Healy received eleven carloads of Fischer pianos in August; they have also doubled their Knabe sales in the same month as compared with the previous August, and report the month's business to be much the largest of any August in the whole history of the house. This information comes directly from Mr. P. J. Healy, who seemingly, in a little memorandum book which he carries, has every detail of the business from the very beginning of their career down to the present time.
44Mr. George Nembach is in town, and was met here by Mr. C. E. Hollenbeck, the Steck traveler, who, I am sorry to say, has had a severe siege of illness, but is much improved, though he thinks a little longer rest is what he needs to fully recover.
46Mr. David G. Calder, of the D. O. Calder Estate, of Salt Lake City, is in town buying goods; his orders placed with the Kimball house were very large. Mr. Calder says the city of Salt Lake is destined to be a very large one, and has now a population of about 55,000; he also says that just at present the business is dampened by the low price of lead, quantities of which are produced there as well as silver; in fact, nearly all kinds of minerals, with the exception of tin, and even a little of the latter.
48The following item is from the Detroit "News," and relates to the fine showing of Mr. C. W. Marvin in the Detroit Exposition:
50This house is to be congratulated upon its exposition display. A photograph of Tower C, in which this display is held, would form a fine companion picture to the view given below. It is undoubtedly the most artistic and tastily arranged booth in the building, and contains a line of pianos unsurpassed for variety, beauty and quality.
52The remarkable grand piano of Chase Brothers' make has formed one of the most attractive features of the exposition to music lovers and critics.
54Mr. R. B. Gregory and Mr. P. J. Healy leave Chicago tomorrow for New York.
56Miller Brothers, West Bend, Wis., have been closed up on a chattel mortgage given to their father, who advanced the money for them to begin business. Their business transactions are said by conservative people not to be open to the most charitable construction.
58A. A. Long, Clinton, Ia., was closed out on a chattel mortgage for $1,875; another questionable affair, and hardly consistent with statements made to a prominent house in this city a very short time ago.
60Mr. Charles H. MacDonald, the general manager of the popular Pease Piano Company in this city, has reason to be well satisfied with his progress thus far in establishing a branch business in this city. Bearing in mind that he has only the one instrument to work with, the fact that he has succeeded in disposing of them from the very beginning at the rate of 100 per month is a fine instance of good, solid business ability on Mr. MacDonald's part; but one of the causes of Mac's success lies in his popularity as well as in the popularity of the Pease piano.
62A reed organ containing three manuals with pedals, 46 stops and combinations extra, and 36 sets of reeds, is the last production of the Lyon & Healy organ department. It is now being set up in the warerooms, and has already attracted much notice from leading organists.
64Lyon & Healy's new catalogue of mandolin music (No. 21 of their list) is one of the most attractive little volumes imaginable. Its cover, designed by one of Chicago's leading artists, is far more handsome than the design of many a book that is charged to "mdse." instead of "expense." Members of the trade who wish to keep posted upon the latest and best in the way of printing should not fail to send for a copy.
66Lieut. Johnnie Hartnell puffed up his cheeks and curled the ends of his dainty mustache this morning. He had located and recovered that piano so neatly taken from Dr. R. J. Hutchinson's residence on Washington boulevard Tuesday. Furthermore, the leader of the Lake street "finest" had found the man responsible for the taking of the stringed instrument.
68In the same house with Dr. Hutchinson lived a man named Gordon Christie. Christie was hard up for coin of the realm, so one day while the Hutchinson family were away he called in a couple of strangers and taking them into the Hutchinson household secured a loan of several hundred dollars on the musical affair, giving the men a mortgage in return. Then he skipped.
70Tuesday the mortgage sharks descended on the Hutchinson household and carried away the piano. Detective Duffy trailed it and finally located the instrument on Western avenue, and Dr. Hutchinson recovered his piano on the strength of a writ of replevin. Now Lieutenant Hartnell is preparing to send after Christie, who languishes in a dark, damp cell at Milwaukee, charged with larceny.—Chicago "Evening Journal."
72The Needham Piano-Organ Company.
74FOR the first time in the history of the Needham Piano Organ Company the magnitude of their business has demanded a continuance of activity in the factory during the months of July and August.
76In the years past it has been the invariable custom for the Needham people to close down during July and August, a matter of no little concern to the merchants of the place as well as the employees; but the steadily increasing demand for Needham organs and Needham pianos has compelled them to keep the factory running to its full capacity, and additional help even has been taken on, that the output might be increased.
78The indication with this firm at least will hardly confirm the opinion regarding the future of cabinet organs advanced by some of the wiseacres that the maximum output of these instruments will be represented by the product of 1892, and from that time on the product will gradually decrease to the number purchased by those who would from choice prefer an organ to the piano.
80The Needham organs have been growing in popularity in this country and very noticeably abroad, especially in England and Australia.
82The direct arrangements under which this firm ship their goods to foreign markets are such that returns are quicker and more satisfactory than they have been able to obtain from the home market, furnishing an incentive for pushing this trade, the increase of which will place them in a position of comparative independence, should there develop a disposition on the part of the American people to relegate to obscurity the present popular cabinet organ.
84The Three Graces is the name which has been applied to the three latest styles of Needham organs.
86The Oriental, Occidental and Lyric.
88The Oriental, or Style 52, the first of the three, was made some few months ago, not with the expectation that it would meet with a great sale, but more particularly to demonstrate their ability to turn out an organ thoroughly artistic and beautiful in design, and furthermore cheap for the money.
90To their surprise it proved the best seller they were making.
92Having discovered that there was a demand for fine work, they produced the other two, forming the "Three Graces"—the Occidental, No. 54 and Lyric, No. 56.
94The cases of all are elegant in design, the voicing of the reeds varied and beautiful.
96The Needham people believe the "Three Graces" have no competitors.
98In the piano department, which is under the supervision of Mr. A. Gleitz, they are turning out some very creditable instruments in tone and finish.
100Heretofore but one size scale has been produced, that a large one, but in process of construction is a smaller piano, the case 4 inches lower than the large one, and which they anticipate will make an excellent instrument and good seller.
102The Needham plant is a large one, the main building being 400 feet long by three stories high, with extension and dry house in addition.
104It is located within a very short distance from the D., L. and W. RR., with branch tracks running from the main line to their lumber yard, dry houses and coal sheds, and the question of handling material, both unfinished and finished, is to them a matter of but little importance.
106Every arrangement in connection with the factory is most conveniently adjusted and the system employed almost perfect.
108—Wyatt Brothers, of Roodhouse, Ill., have removed to larger and more commodious warerooms.
110—There has been a raft of Western men along during the past week. Geo. T. McGloughlin, of the H. D. Smith Company, Denver; E. P. Hawkins, from Denver; Shaw, of Albany; C. C. Curtiss, president of the Manufacturers Company, of Chicago; A. D. Coe, Cleveland (Coe has been down to see Washington); H. W. Crawford, of Smith & Nixon, Cincinnati (Mr. Crawford got back from Europe last Wednesday and left for home on Saturday); McArthur, of Knoxville, and James Butler, of the repair department of Smith & Nixon, Cincinnati, were all in town or in Boston. So was Arthur Bissell, of Chicago.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.