This is a German Fairground Organ which was originally built as a stepped case barrel organ in the early 1900s by the firm of Gebruders Wellershaus (That was August and Wilhelm) in Mulheim-Saarn in the Rhur valley in Germany. It was converted to play book music in April of 1934, probably by the organization of Louis van Deventer in Holland. Two of the artisans who worked on the conversion were Fred Hellerman and Vern (last name undecipherable) who left their dated autographs inside the machine. The scale used in the conversion was a 58 key Wellershaus scale, but slightly modified so that only music books cut by van Deventer would play on it. The music is in endless loop form, the width is 225.3mm, the key slots are spaced on 3.83mm. centers. The music reader has key spacing of 3.94mm. The Gebruder Wellershaus firm was bombed out of existence in 1944.

  

The march Under The Double Eagle in the music book was arranged, probably in the 1950s, by Marcel van Boxtel of Nijmegen in The Netherlands who is still listed in the phone book as a music arranger for organs, but is now retired.

Louis Ch. Van Deventer who arranged most of the music in the book being played had a long and active life as an arranger and professional organ repair person, and died in 2001 at the age of 94.

The organ came to the DeBence Museum as part of the DeBence collection. Jake got it in Rochester, PA but how and when it got from Holland to America, and where it was before Jake bought, it we do not know. At one time while Jake had it, it played, but when moved here in 1994 it was not playing, and had not been for some time.

Based on the physical evidence this organ had an active and tough life. We do not know any specifics, but the damage to the case and wear on the music holder makes us suspect it was used in an amusement park or traveling show where it would have been taken apart often for moving. The one inch thick boards on the bottom of the music case were worn to 1/2 inch thick from being dr worn, was full of wood borer tunnels, and many of the internal working parts had been jury rigged and patched many times over. The drums were substituted from another machine, mounted in a temporary manner, and many other failures had been fixed in a temporary way.

  

Restoration efforts started in April of 2001. Much of the bottom supporting frame had to be replaced because of the wood borers. At that time we removed the skids and mounted it on casters. Many of the pipes were broken or cracked and had to be repaired. The 58 valves in the main valve chest all had to be releathered, as did the 116 small valves in the book music reader. Perhaps the biggest challenge was reconnecting the music reader to the organ. There are 58 rubber tubes that determine which note plays when, and many were disconnected when the restoration work started. The ones that were still connected were difficult to trace, and though great care was taken we feared that we had incorre to make the connections, but with help from many people, via the internet, over a period of several weeks, we got the information needed to get the connection correctly made. The final information came from two sources in The Netherlands, and though we are indebted to many who helped us, Johan Weima and Henk Veeininger delivered the final information we needed.

Volunteer staff that did the restoration work included Scotty Greene as overall coordinator, general mechanic, and final assembler. Martin Anderson did all of the leather work on the valves and also acted as advisor on all stages of the work. Ed Hlawati did most of the façade reconstruction and other woodworking as needed, along with the painting.

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