MINSHALL-ESTEY ORGAN MODEL 1322 Manufacture year 1947

The organ in the old St. Marys convent in Silver City, NM is identified
as a Minshall-Estey Reed Organ, model number 1322. It is fairly rare,
and one of the first Estey organs to be modified with electronics
developed by Miessner Inventions, New Jersey. These inventions
contributed to the manufacture of organ model 1322 at the Estey Organ
Company, in Battleboro, Vermont. This model was made in 1947, the
organ being branded as a Minshall-Estey. Below are photos persevered
by the Reed Organ Society of the same organ model, though different
serial numbers.

MINSHALL-ESTEY ORGAN MODEL 1322 Manufacture year 1947

Two newspaper ads for this model, recommended this model 1322 for
use in churches and auditoriums. Reprinted here is one ads description
for easier reading.
THE NEWS-HERALD, FRANKLIN AND OIL CITY, PA. PAGE
TWELVE. THURSDAY. JUNE 3. 1943
The Minshall-Estey Organ
Ideal for Churches, Chapels, Homes, Auditoriums
Famous for its Cathedral Tones ... for its ease of playing . . .
and moderate cost the Minshall-Estey electronic organ has
won nation-wide approval. In churches, chapels, homes,
auditoriums, the Minshall-Estey is the piano-size organ
with the "big voice." Any pianist can play it! A new
experience in music Exclusive 6-octave keyboard with
"Contra Bass." Tone cabinet duplicates the action of the 16foot diapason pipe. See and HEAR the Minshall-Estey ... at
our showrooms exclusively! "An Achievement in Music"
Harvey C. Trader Butler, Pa. 115-121 E. North St.

Partial List of Churches Using This Organ St. Joseph's

Catholic Church Cabot, Pa. Boyers Methodist Church Boyers, Pa. Callery
Presbyterian Church Callery, Pa. Calvary Baptist Church Franklin, Pa. Christ's
Lutheran Church Muerysville, Pa. Crestview Presbyterian Church Callery, Pa.
Grace Evangelical Cong. Church Harmony, Pa. Harmony-Zelienopole Methodist
Church Harmony, Pa. Mater-Dolorosa Church Chicora, Pa. First Methodist Church
Connoquenessing, Pa. Methodist Episcopal Church Chicora, Pa. Petrolia Methodist
Church Petrol ia, Pa. St. Mark's Lutheran Church New Stanton, Pa. Spring Church
Lutheran Church Apollo, Pa. St. Joseph's Catholic Church North Oakland, Pa.
Trinity Lutheran Church Butler, Pa. Worthington Lutheran Church Worthington,
Pa. Westminster Presbyterian Church Saxonburg, Pa. Methodist Church Karns
City, Pa. St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church Emlenton, Pa. Methodist Church
Cranberry, Pa.

MINSHALL-ESTEY ORGAN MODEL 1322 Manufacture year 1947

Note, in the Pittsburg advertisement on this page, the words Contra

Bass that was apparently a new sound for the model 1322.

MINSHALL-ESTEY ORGAN MODEL 1322 Manufacture year 1947

The photos below shows the contra bass label on model 1322 in the St.
Marys convent.

Here is a photo of model 1322 in the convent chapel

MINSHALL-ESTEY ORGAN MODEL 1322 Manufacture year 1947

The next photo, below, shows the plate on the back of model 1322,
which gives credit to the Miessner Inventions patents, founded by
Benjamin Franklin Miessner, Millburn, New Jersey. He is probably
more responsible for the creation and promotion of the electronic
reproduction of music than any other person in the country. His
practical developments in electronics revolutionized the reproduction of
music.
Miessner also contributed to the development of an early model of the
Minshall organ, the Radareed organ, an instrument made by the
television pioneer John Logie Baird (1927) in which reeds were placed
inside organ pipes.

The Minshall range of electronic organs were designed by the ex-radio

repairman Burton Minshall (Born; Dereham Township, Oxford,
Ontario, Canada 9th aug 1907 . Died; 10 Feb 1957 aged 49 ). These
electronic tube organs were an early post war design targeting a new
and affluent US middle class and competing with tone wheel, pipe and
reed based organs.

MINSHALL-ESTEY ORGAN MODEL 1322 Manufacture year 1947

Minshalls design eventually lead to the establishment of a successful

organ manufacturing company selling mainly to churches and funeral
parlorrs as well as the home organ market.
Minshalls original plant in Ontario Canada moved in 1946
to Brattleboro, Vermont USA due to the proximity of Estey Organ Co
a well known and established manufacturer of reed organs.
In 1947 Minshalls company merged with Estey to form Minshall-Estey
Organ Inc where they continued to produce electronic organs based on
Minshalls designs until 1954 when Minshall severed ties with Estey.
Estey Organ Company continued production on a limited scale until
1941 having gained lucrative military contracts. A new model of organ the portable chaplain organ. The organs were accompanied by
production of ammunition and bomb boxes and pontoon bridges. After
the end of the second world war, the Estey brothers became president
and vice-president, respectively The firm then employed 165 persons,
and had diversified its output to silverware chests and phonograph
cases along with organs (the latter including a new Minshall-Estey
model).
Estey's leap into electric organs was certainly influenced by the
relationship they shared with nearby Minshall Organ Inc. Minshall
entered the organ market with tube based electric organs, in Ontario,
Canada and opened a plant in Brattleboro in the 1940s. Minshall's
founder and namesake was Burton Minshall, a radio repairman who
initially engineered and built his first organ for his wife. Most likely,
Minshall's choice of Brattleboro for a US-based manufacturing center
was due to proximity to Estey, and for the purpose of buying organ subassemblies from Estey. Estey didn't have prospects in the electric organ
market in the 1940s, and Minshall had no desire to get into reed organs
so the relationship would have been mutually beneficial arrangement.
Minshall became Minshall-Estey, circa 1947.

MINSHALL-ESTEY ORGAN MODEL 1322 Manufacture year 1947