Kurtz Organ receives historical citation.

The Kurtz Organ received a Historic Organ Citation from the Organ Historical Society at a ceremony and recital on Sunday evening, Oct. 16, during the fall General Board meeting.

Stephen Schnurr, chair of the Historic Organ Citations Committee, presented the citation to general secretary Stan Noffsinger and Ken Shaffer, archivist for the Brethren Historical Library and Archives (BHLA). The small pipe organ is part of the BHLA collection. Since the awarding of the first citation in 1975, some 330 organs in the US and Canada have received the honor. Susan Friesen, a member of the society's Chicago-Midwest Chapter, gave the recital at the chapel at the Church of the Brethren General Offices. Several other members of the society attended along with board members, staff, and guests.

The organ also is known as the 1698 Johann Christoph Harttman pipe organ, named after its maker, and is one of the oldest organs in the United States. It is the only known surviving work of Harttman, who was an organ builder in the Wurttemberg region of Germany in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Henry Kurtz, editor of the first Church of the Brethren periodical the Gospel Visiter (sic), owned the organ and probably brought it with him from Germany. After Kurtz's death, the organ remained in the family for awhile and then was placed in Bethel Church in Poland, Ohio. A great-grandson of Kurtz, Levi P. Good, acquired the organ again by 1952. In 1957 it was given to the Brethren Historical Committee and moved to Elgin.

The organ arrived in Elgin in badly deteriorated condition. In the 1960s preliminary work to restore it was done by Al Brightbill, a noted Church of the Brethren musician and seminary professor, along with other General Board staff. In 1976, organ restorer John Brombaugh of Middletown, Ohio, finished the restoration over a period of two months. Brombaugh, who is of Church of the Brethren background, was trained in Europe.

After its restoration, the organ was played at the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference in 1976. It also was featured in a recital at the 1984 National Convention of the Organ Historical Society.

Source: 10/27/2005 Special Newsline
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