2004-10-30/2019-11-22 - From the OHS PC Database, derived from A Guide to North American Organbuilders, rev. ed. by David H. Fox (Organ Historical Society, 1997). - Partnership of W. G. Shipman and H. C. Barckhoff in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Source: The Diapason July, 1919, 2.
2018-05-07/2019-11-22 - From OHS Database Builders Editor, Stephen Hall, June 25, 2016. — W.G. Shipman and H.C. Barckhoff are listed as the owners of High Point Piano & Organ Co. in High Point, North Carolina during the years 1905-1911. A fire destroyed the factory in 1911, and a new larger one was built at the same site. The business re-opened as Shipman Organ Company. The firm made reed organs under this name through 1924, when it was succeeded by the Piedmont Mfg. Co. The Gatewood Organ Co. was another name used by Shipman. There is no mention of Pittsburgh. [see Editor's Note below] Source: Robert F. Gellerman, "Shipman" Gellerman's International Reed Organ Atlas 2nd edition (New York: Vestal Press, 1998).
2016-09-10/2019-04-29 - Editor's Note: The Diapason article that David Fox cites is the only reference found thus far to Shipman and Barckhoff building pipe organs. Gellerman states that H. C. Barckhoff was co-owner of High Point Piano & Organ Co. of High Point, North Carolina. The May 21, 1920 of the Valley Virginian newspaper states that E. C. Malarky Pipe Organ was the successor of Barckhoff Organ Co. of Basic, Virginia which was Carl Barckhoff Sr.'s last business. Trying to reconcile the above references, there are at least three possibilities: H. C. Barckhoff invested in Shipman's firm, but remained in Pittsburgh acting as a sales agent for the North Carolina firm. The Barckhoff name was well known in the north, and Shipman & Barckhoff may have been chosen to imply that if a church could not afford a Barckhoff pipe organ, there was a reed organ either built by or endorsed by the Barckhoff firm. The editors of The Diapason simply assumed the firm was the successor to Barckhoff Organ Co. Shipman may have been trying to get a toe hold in the pipe organ business, and took Barckhoff as a partner in order to do so. They firm might have built or at least tried to build pipe organs in the Pittsburgh area. Carl Barkhoff Sr might have been the original investor in Shipman's business, and appointed H. C. to watch over that portion of the business. With Carl's death in 1919, Shipman and H. C. could have continued to work together under that name until the partnership fails and the reed organ company becomes Shipman.
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