Posted 3 years ago
naylor1212
(2 items)
Hello there I have posted this Hamilton pump organ and hope that you can help us find out of it's origin and anything else regarding the history of these lovely organs. This one did have a lovely wooden top on it but one of our earlier family members decided to cut it off. The certificate was found inside pasted to the organ and as you can see clearly says No.50987 hope these pictures are of some help. I am reaching out to you from County Durham North East England and to let you know that it has been in our family for many years, lots of our family have spent many hours playing it and having a great sing song. still works in a fashion ,any help with any information would be appreciated thank you Alan Murray
Hi, naylor1212. :-)
That's so nice that your family had fun with this instrument. <3
I found some information about the Hamilton Organ Company of Chicago, [IL], U.S.A., along with some serial number ranges, but the way they've formatted the serial number information is confusing:
*snip*
This is just about all the information that’s survived the passing of time on the Hamilton Organ Company.
In 1889 they were located on 85-89 West 14th Place, Chicago, IL. In 1899 the company was sold to D.H. Baldwin & Co. who made the "Monarch" organ. They discontinued organ production probably in 1913.
Serial numbers:
1889 - 1000 1907 - 57149 1908 – 62748 1890 - 2090 1899 – 26000 1909 – 65574 1891 - 4010 1900 - 31000 1910 – 67181 1892 - 6300 1901 - 34000 1911 -68773 1893 - 8000 1902 - 37000 1912 - 70388
1894 - 11000 1903 - 40000 1913 – 71722 1895 - 14000 1904 - 40001
1896 - 17000 1905 – 45931 1897 - 20000 1906 – 50382 1898 - 23000
*snip*
https://www.pumporganrestorations.com/hamilton_organ_company.htm
FYI, that address in Chicago doesn't seem to exist anymore (a not unusual circumstance in the USA). The modern West 14th Place seems to survive in fragments, and I couldn't find that specific number range (85-89). As low as I could find was 501 West 14th Place.
You might want to contact that business (Pump Organ Restorations) for clarification on the serial numbers:
https://www.pumporganrestorations.com/contact_me.htm
A'ight.
I took another look at those serial numbers, and realized that it was probably a case of the webmaster not formatting/reformatting the information properly. I've edited it so that each year appears on a single line below (because I don't want CW S&T software tripping me up), and then put them in chronological order:
1889 - 1000
1890 - 2090
1891 - 4010
1892 - 6300
1893 - 8000
1894 - 11000
1895 - 14000
1896 - 17000
1897 - 20000
1898 - 23000
1899 - 26000
1900 - 31000
1901 - 34000
1902 - 37000
1903 - 40000
1904 - 40001
1905 - 45931
1906 - 50382
1907 - 57149
1908 - 62748
1909 - 65574
1910 - 67181
1911 - 68773
1912 - 70388
1913 - 71722
That first year (1889), they assigned the first 1,000 serial numbers. The second year (1890), they assigned the next 1,090 serial numbers, finishing with 2090. And so on and so forth.
That should mean that the serial number on yours (50987) was assigned in 1907.
BTW, I don't know exactly what went wrong in 1904, but unless there's a typographical error on the website, the company assigned exactly one serial number (40001).