St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church

On Sunday Feb. 6, God willing, the dedication of the new pipe organ in St. John's Lutheran church will take place. The Sunday school will be at the usual time. The services begin at 10:30 a.m. The Rev. E. M. Lehmann of Chicago will preach in German.
In the afternoon at 2 o'clock an organ concert will be given by the Rev. Professor W. Knappe of Wartburg College, Clinton, Ia., who is a famous player and an artist. The hearers will have an opportunity to hear not only the popular, but also classical pieces of great composers.
In the evening Prof. Knappe will preach in English, services beginning at 7:30. Everybody is welcome.

The large and beautiful pipe organ, which is being installed in the Evangelical Lutheran church, is a product of the famous Hinners Organ Company of Pekin, Ill. It has two manuals of keyboards, with sixty-one notes each and thirty keys in the pedals, which can be played with the feet only. The action is known as the tubular pneumatic, requiring nearly one mile of small lead tubing to make the different connections. There are ten entirely different sets of pipes in this large instrument, making a total of 600 pipes, the smallest one being about a quarter of an inch long, while the largest pipe is somewhat over eight feet long and twelve inches square.
These sets of stops are controlled by small tablets placed within easy reach of the organist, and which enables the performer to play any set of pipes at will. Another important and very desirable feature is the crescendo pedal, which is operated by the right foot. When pressing this pedal the softest toned pipes will play and gradually increase in volume until the full organ is reached and vice versa.
This grand instrument is really composed of three separate and distinct organs, which might be used separately or all three at the same time; each organ has or course a keyboard of its own. One organ is called the Swell Organ and is enclosed in a special compartment having the following stops: Violin Diapason, Echo Sailcional, Flute Harmonique, Oboe and Lieblich Gedect or stopped Diapason.
The second organ is called the Great Organ, with the large stips, viz: Open Diapason, Melodia, Gamba, Dulcinia. The smallest organ is the Pedal Organ, having the big bass pipes known as the Bourdon and Sub Bass.
The location of the organ is an ideal one, having been placed on the left side of the altar in the space previously provided for by the church architect.
The committee which was instructed to buy the organ was composed of Messrs. Hans Thedens, H.W. Lage, Hans Timcke, G. Willke and Martin Klintworth.

Newspaper clipping, March 22, 1920; the dedication of the organ

After over 90 years of operation, the organ began to really show, and sound, its age. In 2012, the congregation of St. John's voted to restore the organ with a complete releathering, incorporation of a new relay, and a complete cleaning of the instrument. John-Paul Buzard Pipe Organ Builders were selected by the council to conduct the work.

To say that the renovation was a major undertaking is an understatement. All of the over six hundred pipes were removed from the organ chamber for work and cleaning. It was strange for many of us was seeing the empty organ chamber on Sunday mornings. We did take some advantage of the empty chamber though. The building committee fixed and painted the walls, as well as conducting some work on the window. The Vacation Bible School turned the chamber into a fiery furnace, and a little later, a lion's den.

Upon completion, the organ sounds beautiful and continues to lead us in worship each Sunday. To celebrate, we hosted an organ recital and luncheon. Keith Williams of John-Paul Buzards, Nick Ream, the organist of our Methodist friends of Saybrook, and Brian Simpsen, our talented organist, all performed. We at St. John's felt very blessed to hear such gifted musicians perform on such a magnificent instrument.

To learn more of the restoration check out John-Paul Buzard's renovation page.