2004-10-30/2019-02-11 - From the OHS PC Database, derived from A Guide to North American Organbuilders, by David H. Fox (Richmond, Va.: Organ Historical Society, 1991). - James Cole was born May 4, 1854 in England; he was an organist. He trained as a voicer with Carlton Michell while still in England. After coming to the United States circa 1880, he started his American career with the firm E. & G.G. Hook & Hastings, of Boston, Massachusetts. Leaving Hook & Hastings in 1886, he partnered with brothers Jesse and James Woodberry in Cole & Woodberry until 1899. He briefly was a partner with Ernest M. Skinner in Skinner & Cole of Boston, Massachusetts, in 1903, lasting six months. He established Cole Church Organ Co. by 1906; was briefly a partner with James E. Treat in Cole & Treat, in 1907. He then established James Cole & Co. of Melrose, Massachusetts; moving to Malden, Massachusetts by 1917, and then to Medford, Massachusetts, in 1925. He was a representative of Welte Organ Co. of New York City, in 1928. The Cole firm was last listed around 1932; he died April 8, 1934 in Melrose, Massachusetts. NOTE: Cole used several different forms of his name or his corporate name on nameplates. They cannot reliably be used to date instruments. Staff: Arthur W. Birkmaier; Joseph G. Cooper; Frederick J. Flaherty; John E. Linhares; Frederick I. White. Sources: The Diapason, February 1914, 9. The Diapason, January 1917, 17. The Diapason, August 1928, 42. The Diapason, June 1934, 16. Holden, Dorothy, The Life and Work of Ernest M. Skinner (Richmond, VA: The Organ Historical Society) 1985. 27. [This is the editor's supposition, in Fox's Guide, the abbreviation used is H which is not listed in the table of sources, HO [Holden] is the only source listed using an H.] Orpha Ochse, The History of the Organ in the United States (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1975), 247. Barbara Owen, The Organ in New England (Raleigh: Sunbury Press, 1979), 400. Barbara Owen.
2015-09-30/2020-04-09 - For further information, see: Cole & Woodberry, and E. & G.G. Hook & Hastings,
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