The William A. Johnson Organ Company of

Westfield, Massachusetts Westfield is a city in Hampden County, in the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts, United States. Westfield was first settled by Europeans in 1660. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population w ...

, which later became Johnson & Son Organ Company, was a highly respected firm that built 860

pipe organs The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...

throughout the United States and in Canada and Bermuda. The company operated from 1844 through 1898. All Johnson organs were completely mechanical ( tracker action) organs, with Barker lever tracker-pneumatic actions utilized in larger organs after 1871.

History

In 1843, William Allen Johnson operated a contracting business in Westfield, Massachusetts. While he was completing the construction of a new church building for his own Westfield church, an organ builder of the firm E. and G.G. Hook & Hastings arrived with wagon loads of parts, pipes and materials which were to be installed in the new church. When asked about the availability of a worker to help set up the organ, Mr. Johnson readily applied for the job. During the construction of the Hook organ, Johnson became interested in the art of organ building. The following winter he built a small parlor organ of just one rank. He continued his new craft, building seven more parlor organs in the next five years. In 1848, he built two small one-manual church organs of five or six ranks. Continuing with church organ construction, Johnson built organs of increasing size. His first two-manual organ was Opus 13, 1849, at the Congregational Church in Westfield, Massachusetts. This organ contained about 15 ranks. Further expanding his territory and size, Opus 40, a 34-stop three-manual organ, was built in 1855 for the Park Presbyterian Church in

Troy, New York Troy is a city in the U.S. state of New York and the county seat of Rensselaer County. The city is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany ...

. Another 1855 organ is believed to be the oldest Johnson organ which still exists in its original form. It is Johnson's Opus 43, built at the First Ward Presbyterian Church (later the Westminster Presbyterian Church) in Syracuse, New York. In 1871, a fire destroyed the Johnson factory. All tools and materials, along with Opus 348, 349, and 350 that were under construction were destroyed. At the time of the fire, Opus 345, a typical William Johnson tracker pipe organ of about 18 ranks (Pictured) was being installed at the First Baptist Church of Penn Yan, New York. Most of its pipework, some the last to be built at the original factory, is still in use in the Church's present organ. After the fire, an old Westfield church building was utilized for a factory. About that time William A. Johnson's son William H. Johnson, who had worked in the shop since he was 16, became an official member of the firm. With a new name, "Johnson and Son", the company was back in operation soon enough to produce 52 new organs in Chicago, Illinois, after the

1871 Great Chicago Fire The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned in the American city of Chicago during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed roughly of the city including over 17,000 structures, and left more than 1 ...

. A new factory was built in 1873, and another in the mid-1880s. Johnson and Son continued the work of the William A. Johnson Organ Company, building an additional 500 organs. Their largest organs were of around 55 ranks. Throughout the years, Johnson organs were well known for their "excellent balance, splendid dignity, and beautiful voicing". Highest quality materials and workmanship were used, and Johnson's

organ pipe An organ pipe is a sound-producing element of the pipe organ that resonates at a specific pitch when pressurized air (commonly referred to as ''wind'') is driven through it. Each pipe is tuned to a specific note of the musical scale. A set o ...

s were always of the finest quality. Tracker organs eventually became less popular, and, not wishing to switch to tubular-pneumatic- or electro-pneumatic-action organs, the company ceased operations in 1898. Their last organ was a large 3-manual organ, Opus 860, at St. Paul's Church in Chicago.

Citations

{{cite book , last=Elsworth , first=John Van Varick , date=1984 , title=The Johnson Organs , location=Boston , publisher=Boston Organ Club or the Organ Historical Society

External links

Video clip
Johnson & Son Pipe Organ at Saint Stanislaus, Buffalo, New York. Opus 797, 1893

History of rebuilt William A. Johnson organ, Opus 345 (1871) at First Baptist Church, Penn Yan, New York. Contains specification and links to photos. Retrieved 01/31/2011
Web site
History of extant Johnson & Son organ, Opus 690 (1888) at Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church, Chicago, Illinois. Contains specification and additional company information. Retrieved 01/31/2011 Musical instrument manufacturing companies of the United States Pipe organ building companies Manufacturing companies established in 1843 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1898 1843 establishments in Massachusetts 1898 disestablishments in Illinois American companies disestablished in 1898 American companies established in 1843