WOOLWICH

Local tradition at Day’s Ferry has it that the church’s beloved Wilcox & White reed organ was the first organ east of the Kennebec River in the state of Maine. When new, over 130 years ago, the organ was a gift to the Day’s Ferry Church. It has been in regular use in worship services ever since.

A crew of volunteers from the Days Ferry Congregational Church, United Church of Christ (UCC), recently removed the congregation’s reed organ from the church chancel and transport it to Brooklin. There longtime UCC pastor, now-retired, the Rev. Allen Myers of Mudfog Reed Organ Revival, will restore the instrument.

Myers is no stranger to the reed organ restorations, having worked on these musical instruments since 1988. Reed organs are also known as “pump organs” or “parlor organs.”

Originally a foot-treadled instrument, nearly 25 years ago it was given a vacuum cleaner motor and a pedal clavier to relieve the organist of the work of pumping air into the organ and increase its musical versatility. The pedals have not proved to be useful. The change to the electrical wind supply diminished the organist’s control over volume and musical shading. Also, the vacuum motor is noisy and leaves the organ vulnerable to Maine’s all-toofrequent electrical outages.

Myers will remove the pedalboard and restore the organ to foot-powered wind. He also plans to retune the organ to standard concert pitch, allowing it to play with the piano, the church’s new digital organ, and other instruments. (Reed organs were manufactured in a variety of pitches. Current concert pitch — A440 — was finally standardized in the 1930s, after most reed organ manufacturers had gone out of business.)

While the Wilcox & White has continued to be played in Sunday worship at Day’s Ferry, not all parts work as they should. Valves are tired and leak air. Reeds are dirty and go out of tune. Dust clogs some reeds and those don’t speak at all. Moths have eaten the wool felt parts, so mechanical parts don’t seal as they should, and so on. Felt, leather and bellows cloth (rubberized canvas) are all available from organ supply houses. Missing or broken wooden parts can be made as needed.

Myers will document his work in notes and pictures for the church’s members, its archives, the Woolwich Historical Society, and for the (International) Reed Organ Society, of which he is secretary.

The Day’s Ferry reed organ is quite large (for reed organs), including a wide range of reed timbres and pitches. One of the reasons for the original popularity of reed organs was the fact that a 5-inch-long reed can produce the same pitch as a 16- foot organ pipe — thus the tremendous range of a pipe organ can be reproduced in the much more portable and smaller size of a reed organ.

Although reed organs went out of favor a hundred years ago, they have survived to the present time because they are mechanically robust, don’t go out of tune easily or quickly, stay in pitch over a wide range of wind pressures and room temperatures, and don’t require electricity to play.

Reed organs functioned well in rooms that were only heated once a week, and took the wide fluctuations in room temperature in stride. These days Victorian “overthe top” decoration of the cases strikes us as interesting, even charming, now that there is not so much of it everywhere. The Wilcox & White at Day’s Ferry has a solid American black walnut case and real ivory keyboard. The richly decorated pipe top doesn’t make any sound, but adds to the “presence” of the instrument.

The Wilcox & White Organ Co. was established in Meriden, Conn. in 1877, and manufactured reed organs there until 1896, when the company name changed. In 1888, Wilcox & White started making player organs of all sizes, proving to be very popular. As musical tastes in the United States shifted to pianos, radios and records, the company finally went bankrupt in 1921.

An estimated 3 million reed organs were manufactured by more than 260 American companies, many of them in New England. Most gave up manufacturing soon after World War I, though one company kept going until the early 1960s.

The Day’s Ferry congregation is fortunate to have a good working instrument by a quality builder. The church is committed to restoring and maintaining this fine instrument as an important element in the worship life of the church and community.

Day’s Ferry Congregational Church is located at 50 Old Stage Road. Sunday worship service begins at 10 a.m.

THE REV. DR. ALAN BAUGHCUM is pastor of Day’s Ferry Congregational Church.