c 1910 - Organ with post and rail facade (Photograph from an archival source: Vintage postcard, submitted by Rick Erickson/Rick Erickson)
2021-02-18 - Vintage postcard of organ states it was built in 1906 at a cost of $10,000. -Rick Erickson
2023-05-13 - Announcement of the contract, "A $9,000 Organ: Grinnell's Congregational Church Has Let the Contract for a Fine New Pipe Organ," *Marshalltown (IA) Evening Times-Republican*, Monday, September 4, 1905, 2, Chronicling America, accessed May 13, 2023, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85049554/1905-09-04/ed-1/seq-2/: Grinnell, Sept. 4.—The contract for the new church organ has been signed and a meeting of all members of the Congregational society has been called for Tuesday evening at 7:30 to consider the matter of how the new instrument should be placed in the church. The contract price is $9,000, and time given to get all completed and in place is to May 1, next. Hutchens, Cotey [*sic*] Company, of Boston, are the parties with whom the contract was made. It is expected that this instrument will be equal to the best and will be equipped with all the most modern improvements, such as an electric fan and motor to blow the bellows. There appears to have been a delay in the delivery of the organ, for it was not until October 24, 1906, that the Marshalltown newspaper announced that the dedicatory recital was to be performed on Friday, October 26. The program listing contained several errors (e.g., "Here Ye, Israel" from Mendelssohn's *Elijah*), and the builder was not named ("Dedicate New Pipe Organ: Recital to Be Given in Congregational Church at Grinnell," *Marshalltown (IA) Evening Times-Republican*, Wednesday, October 24, 1906, 2, Chronicling America, accessed May 13, 2023, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85049554/1906-10-24/ed-1/seq-2/; see under "Documents"). Also, the price appears to have increased; in the Marshalltown newspaper of November 3, 1906, "a looker-on in Iowa" reported that the organ "is a $10,000 instrument, built by the Hutchings-Votey Organ Co., of Boston, Mass." ("Looker-on in Iowa" (column), *Marshalltown (IA) Evening Times-Republican*, Saturday, November 3, 1906, 4, Chronicling America, accessed May 12, 2023, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85049554/1906-11-03/ed-1/seq-4/; see under "Documents"). The looker-on's comments on "the appearance of one of the artists" suggest that he was too distracted to evaluate the sound of the organ. -Charles Eberline
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