2009-03-18 - Identified through information in <i>List of More than 5200 Moller Pipe Organs</i> (Hagerstown, Maryland. M. P. Möller, 1928). -Database Manager
2020-09-26 - The dedicatory concert was scheduled for Friday, September 23, 1898 (tickets were 25 cents) and would feature Professor A.D. Bodfors of Rock Island, IL. There were difficulties with the keyboards, and at the last minute, the entire audience walked up the street to the Independent Congregational Church where Prof. Bodfors played his program on their 1887 Johnson & Sons Organ (currently located in the Lakewood United Methodist Church, Lakewood, NY). It was later discovered that some screws were left out at the time of installation, causing the keys to fall. Prof. Bodfors found the Möller organ unsatisfactory because it did not have "sufficient large pipes to produce the powerful tone necessary for the Lutheran Church." The builder eventually agreed to redo the instruments to Bodfors' specifications at an additional cost of $200. The organ was reinstalled a few months later and was accepted by Bodfors. Meanwhile, the organist and choirmaster, Mr. C.A. Jones, who was in charge of the organ fund monies, embezzled some of the funds for his business. The day after the organ was accepted, he left town, taking with him the accounts books that detailed the donors to the fund and the amounts they had given. Mr. Jones' wife agreed to make up the loss, but it took a great deal of work to figure out how much money was actually missing. Mrs. Jones eventually did pay what was owed and joined her husband in Chicago. Some pipework from this instrument was still in the organ as of 1986, several rebuilds later, and there are pipes dated 1898 and signed by the voicer, Harry T. Clay. -John Anderson
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