2004-10-30/2019-10-13 - From the OHS PC Database, derived from A Guide to North American Organbuilders, by David H. Fox (Richmond, Va.: Organ Historical Society, 1991). — Established as J. Estey & Co., reed organs, by Jacob Estey, Riley Burditt, Silas Waite, and Joel Bullard in Brattleboro, Vermont, 1863; successor to the firms of Burditt & Carpenter, Isaac Hines & Co., and Estey & Green; firm reorganized by Jacob Estey, Julius J. Estey, and Levi K. Fuller, 1866; firm renamed Estey Organ Co., 1872; began pipe organ production, c. 1901; bankrupt, 1933; firm reorganized; agents for Rieger Organs of Austria, 1953; firm closed, 1959; corporate relationship with Estey Corporation of Delaware, and Minshall-Estey. {See Estey-Welte Corp.} Staff: H. H. Allen; Amidon; Anderson; David Arthur; M. Austin; Baker; Clyde M. Balcom; Bert Baldwin; Bancroft; C. E. Biggs; Samuel W. Bihr; G. S. Boyer; W. H. Boyle; A. J. Bowers; William F. Brame; C. E. Briggs; G. Brockington; W. Brockington; Alphonse O. Brungardt; G. N. Bucklin; Frederick A. Burness; Leland Buttfield; E. F. Cahill; Cobb; Coombs; Davis; George T. Devereux; A. R. Dolbeer; R. L. Douglas; Doyle; D. E. Dube; E. H. Duncklee; F. C. Duncklee; J. S. Ellingwood; J. Harry Estey; Jacob Gray Estey; Joseph G. Estey; Julius J. Estey; Fred E. Freers; Harold L. Godshalk; Gout; John W. Gratian; William B. Gratian; Norman A. Greenwood; William C. Greenwood; August F. Gunzinger; George H. Hadden; Fred N. Hale; F. W. Hall; Hall Organ Co.; Henry Hancock; Charles E. Haskell; William E. Haskell; L. W. Hawley; Henkel; Charles Henkel; Elroy E. Hewitt; A. Hollender; C. Hollender; Parke V. Hogan; James B. Jamison; William M. Jenkins; Joy; A. D. Kaylor; Herbert E. Kinsley; H. E. Kitchen; Leitsinger; E. L. Lennox Piano Co.; R. E. Letcher; Long; Lyon & Healy; Mack; Walter F. McLaughlin; Charles W. McQuigg; James V. Madden; Ernest L. Mehaffey; C. N. Moran; J. W. Morrison; Fritz Noack; Carl O. Pearson; Benjamin T. Pettit; Powers; H. L. Pratt; Charles R. Putnam; Thomas Radley; Francis Ratti; Premo F. Ratti; Fred E. Raynor; Harry Reed; James A. Reynolds; (Samuel R. Russell?); Charles A. Ryder; Sargent; J. E. Scheirer; Smith; Spear; Hugo E. Stahl; R. E. Staples; Collins R. Stevens; W. A. Vossler; Edwin S. Votey; Samuel R. Warren; Harry F. Waters; A. H. Watson; S. S. Webster; Charles E. Wells; Charles C. White; Joseph F. White; Mrs. Whitney; Josiah D. Whitney; (Edward Wright?). Sources: The Diapason, July 1933, 9. Robert F. Gellerman, Gellerman's International Reed Organ Atlas (Vestal, NY: The Vestal Press, 1985), 43. David Junchen, Encyclopedia of the American Theatre Organ, vol. 1 (Pasadena: Showcase Publications, 1985), 105. Uwe Pape, The Tracker Organ Revival in America, (Berlin: Pape Verlag, 1978), 36, 60. Elizabeth Towne Schmitt.
2015-11-06/2019-10-13 - From OHS Database Builders editor, November 6, 2015. — "The Estey Organ Company manufactured excellent reed organs for more than half a century before engaging the Roosevelt-trained Philadelphia builder, William E. Haskell (1865-1927), to open the pipe organ department in 1901. During the next fifty-nine years, the company built and rebuilt 3261 pipe organs. Estey instruments used tubular-pneumatic or electro-pneumatic action. The large Estey factory continued to build reed organs. During the first decades of the century, the Estey catalogs described standard designs, the stoplists having no upperwork (no mutations, fifteenths or mixtures) and that Haskell specialty, a labial reed stop. A typical stop list had three or four unison stops and a single octave stop on each manual and a 16 foot stopped bass for the pedal. The stop actions included such oddities as the "stop key" and "luminous" types, and while the organs were built of excellent materials, they were often so compact that maintenance was expensive and nearly impossible to perform. Estey concentrated on stock model two-manual instruments and regarded any deviation in size and specification as a "Special" job." Some of their special jobs were as large as four manuals, however, and were found in larger churches, civic auditoriums and colleges. The OHS Database lists 249 Estey organs that were 3 manuals or larger. Sources: Estey Organ Virtual Museum, accessed Nov 6, 2015, http://www.esteyorganmuseum.org/. OHS Online Organ Database.
2016-08-23/2019-10-13 - Suggested for further reading: Estey Organ Virtual Museum. (external website) History of the company, partial opus list with some stoplists and photographs.
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