Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1892-08-19
The Estey Organ Company
Commentaries the Production of an Organ
Bearing this Number.


L L
| Winchester, n. H., bringing in a two-horse-
wagon load their earthly possessions, con-
sisting of two work-benches, tools, small
quantity of lumber for use in their trade,
and trunk with clothing and other per-
sonal effects. The older of these two
young men was Samuel II. Jones, who had
been at work for Joseph Foster and Albert
Thayer, who for fifteen years had been
making melodeons and small pipe organs
at Winchester, and who had dissolved part
nership, Mr.. Foster taking the business to
| Keene. The younger man was Joseph L.
| Jones, aged p, who has ever since been
connected with the organ trade in Brattle
! bOro, and is today one of the oldest and
best known of the Estey workmen. The
| young men carried their tools and effects
up to Centrevlle and put them into three
rooms in the upper part of what is now
Larkin's grist-mil. The elder Jones was
the proprietor and here he went to making
melodeons, the old-fashioned "elbow ma
Chimes" on his own account. This was
the beginning of the organ industry in
Brattleboro. 1t was a very small begin
ming, but that "great oaks from little
acorns grow is as true in the industrial as
in the natural world.
With Woodbury. IL Burdett, makers of
bass-viols and violins, as partners, the firm
was 5. III. Jones IL Co., and the business
stayed in Centreville until November, lS4S,
when, Burdett having bought out Wood
bury, and tire llrm having become Jones d
Burdett, they moved down to this village
into the upper part of the old brick paper
mill building, now used for storage. Two
years later f. b. Carpenter bought out
Jones. The business had grown and was
employing ten hands. The days of the old
meodeons were going by and eolians and
seraphines were taking their places. But
there was no man alive who at that time
had any idea of the possibilities which
were lying hidden in this trade waiting for
the right man to uncover them.
This man was alive, however, and the
events of the next twenty years proved
that he was very much alive. He lived
right here in Brattleboro. His name was
Jacob Estey. At this time, 1850, he was
about 35 years old. He was born in Hins-
dale, n. H., in 1914, and after a boyhood
and youth of hardship and prvation had
gone gone to Worcester, Mass, where he
learned what would now be called the
plumbers trade. This trade then consisted
in the main of makingand putting in pumps
and lead pipe In 1884 business or other
errand called young Estey to Bratteboro
He thought there was a good opening here
for his trade and here he came and estab-
lished himself in the pump and lead-pipe
business. He prospered because he worked
hard, did as he agreed, and had a good
head on his shoulders. About 1S40 or
1850 he erected the building shown i'm one
of our engravings, which stood on the site
near the Main street bridge now occupied
by the Miner, or DIR. Sholes, four-story
brick building. Mr. Estey occupied part
of this building for his pump business, and
part of it he rented to Burdett S Car
penter for their organ or melodeon bust
ness, so that they m,ved in there from the
paper-mll building late in 1850.
Jacob Estey first had an interest in the
organ business in February, 1852, when he
bought out Mr.. Burdett and the firm be-
came E. b. Carpenter & Co. That the
business was not over profitable may be
guessed from the frequent changes of own
ership, for the next year Isaac Hines
bought out Carpenter and for a time the
firm was Isaac Hines & Co. Mr.. Fstey
was, however, beginning to discover the
possibilities of the business, and in due
time came into its control, selling an inter
est to II. p. Green, who looked after the
shop while he was on the road selling its
product. Up to this time, even, no more
than ten or a dozen hands were employed
and the annual output was six or seven me-
lodeons a month. ID. II. Bement, another
of the Estey workmen, relates that when
he first came to work for the concern, in
1858, he did all the filing and fitting of
the reeds and Mr.. Burdett did all the tun-
ing and kept the books-and neither of
them thought himself overworked.
We suppose it would make some of the
Estey agents of today smile-those, we
mean, who sell the company's goods in ele-
CANT stores i'm the great cities-could they
now see Jacob Estey as he, in those days,
started out on the country roads with
load of melodeons or seraphnes, making a
round trip over into New York or up the
west side of the state and back through
the Connecticut river towns, selling his in
struments for barter-butter, cheese, lum-
Der, peltry, or what not-and reaching
home finally with load which bore little
semblance to that with which he started