Richard M. Geddes, Sr.
1968

I examined the organ in detail on Sept. 30, 2023. This now is a new organ built in 1968 by Richard Geddes and Ted Gilbert, who was briefly in Geddes' employ at that time. At this point the organ is a grab bag of parts and pipework of various ages and provenance. It's respectable enough for a rebuild, but there is nothing historic about the instrument in its present form.

The facts is this case, and as explained in various versions of the Johnson opus list, conflict. The Litchfield church bought an Austin, No. 368 in 1914. The organ in Canaan was given in 1905 and "built" by A. L. Conkey. Neither the keydesk nor the case is from 1857, and they present an appearance of an instrument built in the late-1870s to the 1890s. An 1857 Johnson keydesk would have been recessed inside the case behind doors, with single-row vertical jambs and flat-fronted stop knobs. The projecting keydesk with its unusual flat-front jambs and oblique knobs could be the work of Conkey, or represent an organ built some years later than Johnson. The extent of the Geddes work is unknown, although the reverse-color keyboard is an obvious give away, as is the 2' in the Swell without a 4', and this may have been the original 4' Principal repitched an octave higher. There are a large number of capped draw-knob holes and hand-written label annotations indicating later changes, and the quirky stoplist suggests many original stops are missing, especially in the Swell. The Twelfth label appears to be newer than the others. The non-tracker pedal could date from either rebuild, but the difference in type font indicates it does not date from the time of the other stop knobs. A quick look at the windchest would answer the question regarding what stop toeboards are empty, with a possible explanation why.

The contemporary biography of the organ is documented for 1905 and 1968 but the attribution to Johnson is circumstantial, largely based on early work by F.R. Webber, the mid-20th-century Johnson expert, who may have had knowledge from documents or church histories now lost. In the absence of a nameplate or primary-source documentation, the current status citing William Johnson as the builder of this organ is strictly an attribution, but this could quickly be cleared up by looking for graffiti inside the organ citing Litchfield as the destination, or other construction characteristics specific to Johnson. The 2015 annotated opus list published in conjunction with the O.H.S. convention held that year, is circumspect in the attribution of this organ as Johnson Op. 70. The stated timeline doesn't quite add up. What is known definitively, is this organ was given to the Canaan church, ostensibly as a "new" organ, by Mary Corbett in 1905, and there is no primary documentation regarding the Johnson after 1857. The extant Canaan organ by Conkey is a rebuild of an older instrument, but it will require a forensic examination of the organ to determine by whom--whether William Johnson or someone else. Litchfield replaced an extant organ in 1914, which rules out the Canaan organ as the instrument the Austin replaced.

Per William Degan the church was built in 1867/8. Organ facade looks like ca. 1870.

I visited the church 8/12/23, hoping to hear it. The blower would not turn on. A new circuit box had been installed in the church that week, so presumably the blower was not properly connected. The organ is used occasionally so some of it plays, but it is not maintained.

From Litchfield in 1874? Rebuilt A. L. Conkey & Son, 1905; rebuilt Richard Geddes 1968.