2004-10-30/2019-04-29 - From the OHS Database Builders Listing editor, December 31, 2016. - German organbuilder Felix Barckhoff immigrated to the United States in 1865, bringing his sons Carl and Lorenze with him. He established his firm as Felix Barckhoff in Philadalphia, Pennsylvania that same year. The firm became Felix Barckhoff & Sons as his sons came of age and joined the firm. When Felix died in 1877, Carl Barckhoff Sr. succeeded his father as head of the firm in 1878, and relocated it to the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, as Barckhoff Brothers. Carl relocated the business to Salem, Ohio in 1882. Lorenze apparently did not follow him, the firm was organized as Carl Barckhoff Church Organ Company. Carl used the same company name through a series of moves and reorganizations over the next 25 years until his final move and reorganization to Basic, Virginia in 1913 at which time the company became the Barckhoff Organ Company. The firm lasted in this form for three years, declaring bankruptcy in 1916. The firm was acquired by E. C. Malarkey in 1917. Staff: Frederick R. Durst; Val P. Durst; Frank A. Meyer; Jerome B. Meyer; Oscar Müller; Adolph C. Reuter; William Verney; William Walter; Peter Wetzel. Sources: Vernon Brown, Carl Barckhoff and the Barckhoff Church Organ Company, (unpublished essay in the OHS Archives, not dated). David H. Fox, A Guide to North American Organbuilders (Organ Historical Society, 1997), 62.
2016-09-10/2020-04-19 - From the OHS Database Builders Listing editor, September 10, 2016. - Barckhoff's obituary in the Diapason, July 1919, includes the statement "The business has been taken over by his son, H. C. Barckhoff, in conjunction with W. G. Shipman, under the name of Shipman & Barckhoff. However, Vernon Brown comments, "The business taken over by Shipman and Barckhoff may have been another business venture of Carl's. (According to Robert Gellerman, the Shipman & Barckhoff firm sold reed organs.) There is no indication that Shipman and Barckhoff played any part in the organ firm after Carl's death. An article in The Valley Virginian of May 21, 1920 entitled The E. C. Malarkey Pipe Organ Plant mentions that the business was established in 1913 by Carl Barckhoff, who was succeeded by E. C. Malarkey ... in 1917. Sources: Vernon Brown, Essay Carl Barckhoff and the Barckhoff Church Organ Company (Organ Historical Society Archives, not dated), 16. Robert F. Gellerman, "Shipman" Gellerman's International Reed Organ Atlas 2nd edition (New York: Vestal Press, 1998).
2016-09-09/2020-04-09 - See also Carl Barckhoff Sr
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