Reuter Organ Company
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In 1917, two Highland, Illinois gentlemen, Earl Schwartz and Henry Jost, (with the encouragement of several other local businessmen) approached Mr. A.C. Reuter with the idea of starting a pipe organ company. As a result of these discussions, the Reuter-Schwartz Organ Company was founded and established in Trenton, Illinois.
Mr. Reuter had served in several responsible positions with the Wicks, Pilcher, and Casavant firms since about 1904. Mr. A. G. Sabol Sr., who was with the Casavant Organ Company at that time, joined his uncle, A.C. Reuter, in the new firm. Mr. Reuter became President, and the first board of directors was comprised of Mr. Earl Schwartz, Mr. Henry Jost, Mr. R.A. "Cully" Ruegger, Mr. A. B. Hammel and Mr. J. Kuhn.
The company started with six employees besides Reuter and Sabol: Jake Schaeffer, a noted voicer who had worked with Mr. Reuter at Casavant; E.J. "Pat" Netzer, wood worker; William Zweifel, pipe maker; and Frank Jost, console builder. Only one organ was built in 1917. This instrument, of eight stops over two manuals and pedal, was sold to the Trinity Episcopal Church in Mattoon, Illinois. After this organ was completed and set up in the erecting room, a tornado struck Trenton and blew out one factory wall. (It is believed this storm was likely part of one of the deadliest days of tornado activity in Illinois history. A tornado or tornadoes swept through 188 miles of central Illinois, devastating the town of Mattoon, destination of the Reuter opus 1, and taking 102 lives.) The assembled organ was severely damaged. The company carried insurance, thus no financial loss was incurred by Reuter or the church. A new instrument, opus 2, was built and installed in Trinity Episcopal Church.
During the following year, a total of 10 instruments were built and installed. In 1919, 14 instruments were built and installed, one of which was opus 22 for the Masonic Temple in Lawrence, Kansas.
On March 10, 1919, Mr. Carl Preyer, head of the piano department of the University of Kansas, was in St. Louis to perform with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. Following his concert, Mr. Preyer, who had recommended the Reuter for the Masonic Temple, traveled to Trenton, Illinois to visit the Reuter factory at the invitation of Mr. Sam Bihr, the Reuter representative for Kansas. While in Trenton, Mr. Preyer learned that Reuter was contemplating a move. Of the three sites under consideration, one was Lawrence, Kansas. During the installation of opus 22 at the Masonic Temple in April of 1919, Mr. Preyer convinced the company officials to select Lawrence as its new home. The Wilder Brothers shirt factory, vacant at the time, was purchased as the new Reuter headquarters. A Wichita engineering firm was commissioned to renovate and remodel the building.
On September 5, 1919, the company was incorporated in the State of Kansas. The board of directors was listed as E.G Schwartz, A.C. Reuter, H.T. Jost, G.O. Foster, and W.B Downing. Foster and Downing were both with the University of Kansas. The Lawrence Chamber of Commerce had pledged funds to help defray the cost of moving. On January 1, 1920, the new office was open for business, and on March 1 the remodeled factory opened for production. The city of Lawrence could now boast that it was one of the few communities in the nation with a pipe organ factory.
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While the factory in Lawrence was being prepared, the employees in Trenton started the arduous task of dismantling, crating and loading all of the equipment and furnishings. Eventually it took eight railway boxcars to move the production operation from Trenton to Lawrence.
The first instrument built in the Lawrence plant was opus 27, a 23-rank organ for the Central Congregational Church in Topeka, Kansas. On July 3, 1920, the Lawrence community was invited to a public recital on the completed instrument in the assembly room. The performers were Professor C. S. Skilton, Professor C. Preyer, and Mrs. Sylvia Osborn at the console; Professor W.B. Downing and Miss Helmick sang solos; and Mr. W.B. Dalton played the cello.
Mr. Earl Schwartz left the company shortly after the move to Lawrence, and the name was changed to "The Reuter Organ Company." During these "roaring twenties" business increased rapidly to 51 instruments built in 1928.
[image:http://www.reuter822.com/reuterphotos/images/reuter2.jpg]
[image:http://www.reuter822.com/reuterphotos/images/reuter4.jpg]
The Reuter Organ Company has steadily navigated the lean times of the depression era, the forced closings during World War II, and the tremendous changes in American church music over the last 40 years. Today, Reuter has grown into one of the country's leading and most respected pipe organ builders. With a highly skilled and dedicated workforce of craftsmen, Reuter designs and constructs instruments in a state-of-the-art manufacturing and corporate complex. On June 4, 2001, Albert Neutel, Chairman of the Board of Reuter, officially opened Reuter's new $4 million headquarters on the northwest edge of town, a building with double the space of the old Wilder Bros. shirt factory and truly the leading facility in the industry. The company, which in its first year of business in 1917 had but a single $1,800 contract, has become a multi-million dollar, international firm with organs in the United States, Canada, Taiwan and Korea.
Link on the 1999 Reuter organ at Sandy Hook United Methodist Church, Columbus, Indiana:
