Unknown Builder
1875

Updated through online information from T. Daniel Hancock.

Identified through online information from T. Daniel Hancock. -- One all-too-brief newspaper account sheds some light on what must was probably the first pipe organ in Springfield, Missouri, and also in this part of the region. The Missouri Weekly Patriot, a Springfield paper, reported on May 20, 1875: "The Congregational Church has bought a pipe organ. The instrument is represented to be splendid both in tone and finish. It is the first one, we believe, ever introduced in the Southwest; and in its purchase, the church has taken a step in the right direction.� Very little information survives pertaining to this instrument or the church structure it was housed in. The First Congregational Church of Springfield, founded in 1869, built their first church building in 1870-a small wood frame structure on the northeast corner of Jefferson Avenue and Locust Street. They served as the "college church� for Drury College (now University), with many students and faculty attending in earlier years when Drury-s affiliation was strong to the Congregational Church. By 1900, a larger structure was needed, and a new brick gothic church was completed in 1904, and a new pipe organ installed sometime thereafter.