Valley Girl Views: When Andrew Carnegie Helped Churches Buy Pipe Organs

The pipe organ in the Lutheran Church, Watsontown Pa, is one of the more than 7,000 "Caregie Fund" pipe organs. Carnegie provided matching funds for churches across the nation, including more than 3,000 in his adopted state of Pennsylvania, to install pipe organs.

The Watsontown Lutheran Church took advantage of this generous offer , and raised matching funds to enable to them to purchase a $3,000 Hook & Hastings pipe organ. It was installed in 1904, and renovated in 1995 by Parsons Organ Builders.

"Carnegie was not himself religious, but his love of organ music was so strong that he had one installed in each of his primary residences at Skibo Castle in Scotland and in New York City at 2 E. 91st St, now the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, part of the Smithsonian Institution. Organists played at breakfast and dinner, and at the Carnegie Mansion in New York City, an organist arrived each day at 7:00 a.m. so that Carnegie could awaken to music. (A bag piper performed the same alarm clock function at Skibo.) Home organs became the fashion among the wealthy: John D. Rockefeller, George Eastman, Henry Clay Frick, Charles Schwab, and William K. Vanderbilt all had them. The New York Times estimated in 1911 that there were between 200 to 300 home organs in the New York metropolitan area."
https://secondchances636.wordpress.com/2021/08/23/one-good-deed-deserves-another-andrew-carnegie-organ-donor/

Carnegie donated his first church organ to the Swedenborgian chapel he and his father attended in Allegheny City, and several more to churches in and about the Pittsburgh area. It was in churches that most workingmen and their families were introduced, as he had been, to sacred and classical music. So it was to churches he gave his organs. As he told his friend William Stead, with a smile, "the organ performance in the morning at Skibo... is my substitute for family prayers." Andrew Carnegie by Nasaw, D. (2007).

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Other Churches In The Central Susquehanna Valley

Who Received Funds From Carnegie For Pipe Organs

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Danville

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Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, Danville Pa $1250, 1914

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Elysburg

Jacob's Lutheran and German Reformed, Elysburg Pa $240

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Freeburg

St Peter's Lutheran And Reformed Church, Freeburg Pa

Pipe Organ, St Peters Union, Freeburg Pa

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Lewisburg

Pipe Organ in the Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church, Lewisburg

After the new "Brown Stone Church" was built in Lewisburg, the 1885 Fegelmaker organ was dismantled and rebuilt inside a new case, constructed by the Felgemaker Company.

The case featured a rank of exposed

metal speaking pipes that were decorated in French Gold Bronze and stood on a chest with an oak paneled front. The church received $1,500 towards the cost of the new organ.

Lewisburg Journal, 1905

The 1905 article notes that this was the 3rd generous donation by Carnegie to the town - the first two being the Carnegie Library at Bucknell, and the Reformed Church Organ.

Additional renovations, additions, and repairs were performed in 1917, 1941, 1963, and 1970. In 1993 the "much-altered" Felgemaker organ was replaced with a new Austin organ.

1993

Reformed Church, Lewisburg Pa

"St. John’s United Church of Christ began holding services in Lewisburg in 1824 in a log schoolhouse. In 1847, the First German Reformed Church was built at 3rd and St. John’s Streets. The building was replaced in 1902 and would be the place of worship until 1989"

The 1902 building still stands at the corner of 3rd & St John's St. I do not know if the organ is still inside.

Lewisburg Journal, March 5th 1903

Warren B. Smith went to Erie to look after the completion of the new pipe organ for the Reformed Church. Cargnegie donated $1000 towards its cost.

July 1903

Pipe Organ partially funded by Carnegie, in Reformed Church, Lewisburg Pa

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Lock Haven

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First Evangelical Lutheran Church Lock Haven Pa, $750

First United Evangelical Church, Lock Haven Pa $1250

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Mifflinburg

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First Evangelical Lutheran Church, Mifflinburg Pa

The first pipe organ for the new Lutheran church building, dedicated in 1900, was

Moeller Opus 1254 built by the M.P. Moeller Organ Company of Hagerstown, Maryland. It was installed in 1911 at a cost of $2,500 with half the cost provided by Carnegie. That instrument was located in a two-story, arched recess on the right side of the chancel.

September 1911

Evangelical Lutheran Church, Mifflinburg Pa

During an extensive remodel in 1950, a new organ was installed, using some of the original pipes from the 1911 instrument. In 2014 the new pipe organ was replaced by an electric organ. The pipes remain, intact and unused, in the organ chambers.

Methodist Church, Mifflinburg Pa

On Sunday, December 8 1907, Pastor J.A. Mattern's people celebrated the installation of a new pipe organ in (the) Mifflinburg Church. They paid $2,500, built a recess for the

instrument, costing $350, and put in electric light. Pastor G.M. Glenn, of Chambersburg,

came to preach and secure $310; asked for $400, received $425."

Carnegie contributed $1,000 towards the cost.

In 1924, Mrs Alice M. Schoch provided money for chimes to be added to the organ, i memory of her brother, the Rev. Abraham H. Mensch.

St. John's United Church Of Christ (Reformed)

In 1903, St John's UCC in Mifflinburg replaced their 1867 organ with a new Estey Organ Company organ.

The organ was renovated in the 1940s by Robert Minium Organ Company of Mifflinburg.

In 2015 the organ was replaced with an instrument Gerger and Sons of Croyden Pa. The new organ uses some of the pipework from the 1903 organ.

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Milton

Interior Of The Trinity Lutheran Church, Milton, showing the Pipe Organ

Pipe Organ, Trinity Lutheran Church Milton Pa

1903

J.J. Reimensnyder was pastor of the Trinity Lutheran Church, 100 Mahoning Street.

Organ inside the Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church in Milton Pa

This church was located along south center street in Milton Pa, and no longer stands.

I do not know which Lutheran church received the Carnegie money. Possibly [unlikely] even both - I simply do not know. I'm putting photos of both here for now, and will see what I can find to clarify when I look at the histories of the churches in Milton.

1903 - Lutheran Church, Milton Pa

Pipe Organ at the Bethany United Methodist Church, Milton Pa

M.E. Church, Milton

The Pipe Organ in the Bethany United Methodist Church was destroyed in the 2019 fire.

There is a second Methodist Church in Milton, but I believe this most likely referred to the pipe organ at Bethany United Methodist?

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Mount Carmel

Grace Evangelical Lutheran, Mount Caramel $625

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Muncy

Saint Andrew Evangelical Lutheran Church – 1914

" A pipe organ was dedicated on December 20, 1914. The cost was $2,400, of which $875 was paid from funds provided by Andrew Carnegie."

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Picture Rocks

The Methodist Church in Picture Rocks also had a pipe organ installed in 1905, receiving $1250 from Carnegie, towards the purchase.

They chose a Lyon and Healy Pipe Organ, from Chicago, at a cost of $2,500.

Unfortunately, the organ was removed in the 1970s.

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Selinsgrove

Pipe Organ at the Sharon Lutheran Church, Selinsgrove Pa

November, 1905

Sharon First Lutheran Church, Selinsgrove Pa

Andrew Carnegie paid 1/2 of the $1500 cost

This was the last made under the supervision of Mr Felgemecher

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Sunbury

Pipe Organ in St John's Methodist Episcopal Church, Sunbury Pa

Again, without knowing more about the history of the churches, I can't be certain this is the organ purchased with the Carnegie funds.

Carnegie contributed $1,500 towards the pipe organ installed at the Sunbury Methodist Church in 1905.

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Washingtonville

$600 was given by Carnegie to the Washingtonville Lutheran Church, for their Moller Pipe Organ, in 1912

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Williamsport

At the Swedish Lutheran Church, 1914

$1,100 was promised by Carnegie to the Calvary Baptist Church of Williamsport Pa, to be paid in April of 1917

Pine Street Methodist Church in Williamsport received just over $1,000 from Carnegie, in 1910. The Pine Street Methodist Church was destroyed by fire in 1977.

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More

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Millville - Saint John’s German Lutheran Church – circa 1905 – Total cost $1,500
Mount Carmel - Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church
Shamokin - mentioned in Milton newspaper article

Not all of the organs went to churches. Carnegie gave $25,000 to Cornell President Andrew Dickson White to buy a 4-manual, 64 rank J.W. Steere symphonic pipe organ for the University concert hall , which was built in 1912.

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https://www.wglt.org/illinois/2019-07-16/searching-for-historic-carnegie-pipe-organs

There are 3 volumes listing the more than 7,000 organs Carnegie helped to fund.
Find them here:
Carnegie Corporation Register of Donations, Church Organs No. 1,, 1901
https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nnc2.ark:/13960/t83k0gq4x
Carnegie Corporation Register of Donations, Church Organs No. 2,, 1908
https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nnc2.ark:/13960/t4bp74818
Carnegie Corporation Register of Donations, Church Organs No. 3,, 1913
https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nnc2.ark:/13960/t9s250b5w

These totals (below, year unknown) were tallied sometime before the end of the program, as the numbers are just over half of the total Caregie would eventually donate: