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Company history:
Started in Detroit, MI, .as Detroit Organ Co. in 1881, as a worker-owned
enterprise. It proved unsuccessful and was bought out by Detroit music
dealer C.J. Whitney and organ builder Edwin S. Votey, a former Estey
Employee, in 1883 and incorporated as the Whitney Organ Co. W.R. Farrand
joined the same year as financial manager. Whitney retired in 1887, and
the name changed to Farrand & Votey. Started building pipe organs in
1888 and in 1889 acquired the patents of Frank Roosevelt, successor to
Hilborne Roosevelt. Acquired the Granville Wood Pipe Organ Co. in 1890. In
1897 the company split up, Farrand remaining with the reed organs as the
Farrand Organ Co, and Votey taking the pipe organ and player piano
business into the Aeolian Co where he became a vice-president. The Farrand
Organ co. later brought out its own piano player, the Cecilian, and went
bankrupt in 1915.
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