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Archiver > CAN-ONT-OXFORD > 2001-10 > 1003878640


From: "Dave Cooper" <>
Subject: Re: [OXFORD] Thomas Organ Factory
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 19:10:40 -0400
References: <003d01c15c04$652172c0$1cc98bcf@nanmar>


The following two messages are found in the Oxford County List Archives at
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/can-ont-oxford

The Thomas Organ Co. is mentioned in the second message. You may want to
contact the author.
___________________________________________________________

DW Karn and Co made Organs and Pianos in Woodstock. Dennis Walter Karn b
1843 in West Zorra died 10 Feb 1915.


D. W. Karn was one of the largest builders of pianos, reed organs and pipe
organs in Canada at the turn of the century. The company went on to be
later known as - ( among other names) Karn-Warren, Karn-Morris, Warren and
Sons, Woodstock Pipe Organ Builders etc. Dennis Karn was the mayor of
Woodstock Ontario for many years. With his retirement from the company about
1910 things went sadly downhill. The company employed 240 workers at the
turn of the century.

D.W. Karn & Co. was established in 1867 in Woodstock, Canada as Miller &
Karn. The name was changed to D.W. Karn & Co. in 1873. Around 1896 they made
a Karn-Warren pipe organ. From 1909 to 1920 the company name was Karn-Morris
due to an arrangement with the Morris Piano Co. of Listowel, Ontario. In
1924 the Sherlock-Manning Co. bought the firms assets and produced a Karn
named piano until 1961. At one time they were one of the largest Canadian
Organ builders.

Morris, Field and Rogers Piano Co. was established in 1891 in Listwel,
Ontario, Canada. In 1904 the firm was reorganized as Morris Piano Co., Ltd.
After a fire in 1908 the factory was rebuilt and renamed Morris & Karn Piano
& Organ Co., Ltd. The business shut down in 1924, but reopened in 1926 and
1927. All production was finally stopped in 1928.

Tom Glad

http://www.myGladFamily.com
Nevada City, CA
_____________________________________________________
Although this article focuses on my ggrandfather, a number of people and
industries in Woodstock in the late 1800s are mentioned, so I thought it
might be of some interest here.

I don't have the name of the paper or exact date this article was printed,
but I figure it to be 1925.

JOHN BAIN TELLS OF CITY'S INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT DURING LIFE IN WOODSTOCK

Founder of One of the City's Most Important Industries comes Out of His
Retirement to Give Interesting Recollections of the Old Town as it Was in
His Boyhood and Early Manufacturing Days - Was Born in One of the First
Brick Residences in Woodstock in September of the Year 1852

The founder of one of Woodstock's most important industries, the Bain Wagon
Company, now the Massey-Harris Company, John A. Bain, has in his lifetime
witnessed practically all the phases of the industrial development of the
city up to the present time. He is now retired after a busy business career
linked with active public service, and he has many interesting recollections
of the old town in his boyhood and early manufacturing days.

Mr. Bain's father, John Bain, was among the early manufacturers of
Woodstock, starting a furniture factory on Dundas Street about 1840. Mr.
Bain tells an interesting story about his father's plant. When the telegraph
wires were being strung along Dundas Street, there were a number of
apprentices in the factory and among them one who was not very bright. He
said that he could understand how the letters traveled along the wire but
could not make out how they got past the glass knobs. It was typical of the
lad that when a phrenologist, who visited the city, told him that he would
make a good minister and a good penman, he was bound to be a minister and
went to college. He was a failure as a preacher and decided to try
penmanship. Strangely enough he did remarkably well at penmanship, and
eventually went to Chicago where he became a teacher of the art of
penmanship.

EARLY INDUSTRIES

Some years later, Mr. Bain's father went into partnership with James Hay,
Sr., and together, they built a factory on Broadway Street. By an act of
arson, this factory was later burnt out and Bain and Hay dissolved
partnership and James Hay, Jr., built the factory on Mill Street which in
later years merged into the Canada Furniture Manufacturers Limited.

Among the industries in Woodstock that Mr. Bain remembers in his boyhood
days are F. B. Scholfield's planing mill which was located on Wilson Street,
where Cullen's Mill is now, John Weeks' cabinet making factory where the
waterwork's office is now, and Bayne and McKenzie's planing mill and
carpenter's shop on Vansittart Avenue, north of Dundas Street. H. P. Brown,
the father of J. Henry Brown conducted a foundry where the Natural Gas
Company's office is at present. Mr. Brown sold out his business to a company
where he was appointed county treasurer. The business was carried on by the
company for a number of years and was then dropped.

An interesting if small industry that Woodstock had for a time was when a
man from the United States started a Java coffee plant. His coffee was
produced by roasting field peas, a fact which was discovered by some small
boys who found a bath of peas, spoiled in the roasting thrown away.

THE OLD FOUNDRY

Mr. Bain recalls the foundry which used to stand on Vansittart Avenue. It
was first operated by a company of which a Mr. Paulin was a member. The
business was later bought by the late Alex Watson, father of Alex Watson,
Riddell Street, who recently retired from the local Customs House.

About the time that Mr. Bain established the Bain Wagon Company, a number of
new industries began to locate on Woodstock. The Thomas Organ Company was
started by E. G. Thomas of Hamilton who was succeeded by James Dunlop. The
Karn Piano and Organ factory was taken over by D. W. Karn after it had been
started by a Mr. Miller on a site where Berlettes Garage stands now. The
plant was moved to the east end later.

Farther east then the Karn factory and behind the house on Dundas Street
occupied by City Clerk Morrison was Collins' Brewery, quite an important
industry in its day. The original brewery was burnt down by the fire and a
new brick plant built on Norwich Avenue. This plant was also burnt down in
later years.

BORN ON CHAPEL STREET

In a brick cottage, one of the first brick residences in Woodstock, located
on Chapel Street, John A. Bain was born in September, 1852. He was the son
of the late John Bain and Isabella Robb. He spent his boyhood in that house,
which is still standing and attended the local public schools and the old
Grammar School, located at the corner of Graham and Hunter Streets.

He remained in the city until he was eighteen years of age, when he went to
Brantford and spent four years and three months learning the wagon and
carriage building trade at the plant of T. and J. Hinks. At the conclusion
of his apprenticeship, the business boom which followed the American Civil
War was in full swing in the United States. Work was plentiful and wages
high south of the line and Mr. Bain, like many others took advantage of the
opportunity to get good employment in the States. He was there for a number
of years working in Milwaukee, Wis., and Aurora, Batavia, Rock Island,
Moline and Milan, Ill.

THE BAIN WAGON CO.

While he was in the United States, the Bain Wagon Company was born in Mr.
Bain's mind and he made a proposal to his late brother, George Bain, to join
with him in opening a wagon factory with modern machinery in Canada. This
was made possible by the adoption of the National Policy by Sir John A.
McDonald's government, and Mr. Bain states, and the Bain Wagon Company, for
many years Woodstock's principal industry, was established here in 1882. The
first factory was located west of the Canada Furniture Manufacturers' plant
and the building is now part of C.F.M. plant. After ten years operation in
Woodstock the business moved to Brantford for a period of five years but in
1897 returned to Woodstock taking over the buildings erected by the
Patterson Company.

RETIRED TWO YEARS AGO.

Mr. Bain steered the company for many years as its general manager, until he
retired two years ago and was succeeded by E. B. Terryberry, the assistant
manager. Since then the Massey-Harris Company has purchased the plant and is
continuing business under its own name.

In addition to his business enterprise, Mr. Bain has been very prominent in
Woodstock public affairs. He was for some time a member of the city council
for St. Patrick's Ward and has served on the water and light commission, of
which he was chairman. He was an active member of the Board of Trade and has
acted as president of the body. A member of the board for twenty years, Mr.
Bain is one of the oldest trustees of the Woodstock General Hospital and has
served as chairman of the board. He is also a former chairman of the board
of Trustees of Knock Church and was treasurer for some time.

RECREATIONS.

One of Mr. Bain's chief interests now is his garden. He has one of the most
beautiful gardens in the city, at his residence on Light Street and spends
many enjoyable hours each day among his flowers. His other recreation is
lawn bowling. Mr. Bain is a member of Chalmers United Church.

In 1882, Mr. Bain was married to Esther J. Kale of Rock Island, Ill. He has
one daughter and three sons, William George Bain of Detroit, James A. Bain
of Woodstock, who is chairman of the Board of Education this year, Miss
Esther Belle Bain, at home and Harold Bain of London.

OF SCOTTISH DESCENT.

Mr. Bain's father, John Bain, was a well known figure in the old town of
Woodstock. He was born in Keith, Scotland, and came to Woodstock as a young
man. He started a furniture factory on Dundas Street, opposite Old St.
Paul's Church, about 1840. He installed the first steam engine in Woodstock
and the only upright engine that there has been in Woodstock at any time. He
was for a number of years, a member of the old school board. Mr. Bain's
mother, Isabella Robb, came from Aberdeen, Scotland.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Nancy & Marcel Smith" <>
To: <>
Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2001 4:50 PM
Subject: [OXFORD] Thomas Organ Factory


> Dear Listers
> Does anyone have any information about The Thomas Organ Factory
established in Woodstock in the late 1800's?
>
>
> ==============================
> Visit Ancestry.com for a FREE 14-Day Trial and enjoy access to the #1
> Source for Family History Online. Go to:
> http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=702&sourceid=1237
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>

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