Pipe Organ Database

See main entry: Hinners Organ Co.

From the OHS PC Database, derived from A Guide to North American Organbuilders by David H. Fox (Organ Historical Society, 1991). -

John L. Hinners was born August 11, 1846 in Chicago, Illinois. He was the father of Arthur W. Hinners. Hinners was in the service during the American Civil War, 1864-1865. After the war, he was with Mason & Hamlin. 1865-1879, and became foreman there. Hinners was with Fred Schaefer of Pekin, Illinois, 1879, a maker of reed organs. Hinners then operated his own company, Hinners Reed Organ Co., 1879-1881. He then partnered with J. J. Fink in Fink & Co., 1881-1885, reed organs

Hinners began building pipe organs as well as reed organs with his partner U. J. Albertsen in Hinners & Albertsen of Pekin, Illinois, 1885-1902. He established Hinners Organ Co. of Pekin, Illinois in 1902. John L. Hinners died August 24, 1906; he was succeeded by his son, Arthur as head of Hinners Organ Company.

Hinners held two patents:

• Patent #243,899; 5 Jul. 1881; reed organ action.
• Patent #330,117; 10 Nov. 1885; tracker pin.

Sources:

• Robert F. Gellerman, Gellerman-s International Reed Organ Atlas (Vestal, NY: The Vestal Press, 1985), 57.
• David Junchen, Encyclopedia of the American Theatre Organ, Vol. 1 (Pasadena: Showcase Publications, 1985), 170;
• Music: (American Guild of Organist, May 1976) 31. [Music was renamed The American Organist in January, 1979.]
• Orpha Ochse, The History of the Organ in the United States (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1975), 300.
• Organ Handbook (Richmond, Va.; Organ Historical Society, 1986), 13.
• Elizabeth Towne Schmitt.
• John R. Hinners, "Chronicle of The Hinners Organ Company", The Tracker: 7:2, 1.