Scan 383
The American history and encyclopedia of music .., 1908
6 lines. Read by computer on 10 September 2026. Printed page 331. See the scan on archive.org.
1Western States especially its instruments have been favorably received. Some of the finest examples of the organ builders' art to be found in the country are to its credit—William Wallace Kimball was the founder of the piano and organ industry of Chicago. His career as a wholesale dealer in pianos and organs began in 1864.
3Also noteworthy in this branch of the music trade are the Hinners Organ Company, of Pekin, Illinois, a conservative and successful firm incorporated in 1902; George Kilgen & Son, established in New York in 1851 and removing to St. Louis in 1873, whose instruments are considered strictly high grade; the Estey Organ Company of Brattleboro, Vt., long famous for its reed organs, which began the manufacture of pipe organs in 1901; and the Austin Organ Company of Hartford, Conn. John T. Austin, who now is president of this company, originally went to work for the Farrand & Votey Company, of Detroit Mich., when it started business there and stayed with it until it bought out the Roosevelt Company of New York, at which time he invented and patented the universal air chest, and went with the Clough & Warren Company, which manufactured reed organs. This company built the first organ of the universal wind pressure type. The Clough & Warren Company continued building organs for some years under royalty. After its factory in Detroit was burned Mr. Austin started a company in Hartford, Conn., under the name of "Austin Organ Company." This business was steadily increased until in 1907 it reached nearly a quarter of a million dollars.
5One of the oldest and most distinguished of the pipe organ houses is that of Henry Pilcher's Sons, which was established early in the Nineteenth Century in Louisville, Ky. Their instruments were found in many leading churches throughout the land. Henry Pilcher, the founder, began his organ building career in England in 1820 and established a business in this country in 1832. Henry Pilcher, the second, succeeded his father in 1856 and four grandsons of the first Henry Pilcher in turn have succeeded to its management.
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