Residence: Donald R. Stagg, Blaine, Washington ca. 1860, William A. Johnson NOTES The silver nameplate is characteristic of Wm. A. Johnson organs from the 1860's, however it contains no date. The origins of this organ are not yet known. The present owner, Mr. Don T. Stagg of Blaine, Washington, was given the following information about about the organ's history from St. James Episcopal Church in Dillon, Montana. [augmented by this author]. The organ is thought to have come from a Synagogue in Cincinnati, Ohio. Johnson did build two organs for Cincinnati according to the opus list of Johnson organs in Jan van Varick Elsworth's book, The Johnson Organs, but they were not until the 1890's. From Cincinnati the organ is reported to have been moved to Jeffersonville, Indiana. Johnson also built a I-manual organ for an unspecified church in that town, but it is listed as having only 11 registers, which is too small to be the instrument in question. That was opus 167, 1864. From Jeffersonville, the organ was taken to St. Louis and shipped up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to Fort Benton, Montana. It is not definitively known if it ever served a church in this town. A survey of pipe organs in Montana made by Eugene M. Nye and William J. Bunch of Balcom and Vaughan Pipe Organs, Inc. of Seattle, Washington does list an unspecified church as having [had] a pipe organ, but the name of the builder is also unspecified. In 1938, the Johnson was installed at St. James Episcopal Church in Dillon, Montana. It was placed towards the front of the room in a left-side transept that later housed the M.P. Möller organ which replaced it. That was Möller's Opus 7528, 1948 -- a 2/4 chambered "Artiste" unit organ. From Dillon, the organ was moved to St. John's Episcopal Church in Townsend, Montana. Its location in that edifice is not known. The Johnson served here for 10 years until 1958 when it was replaced by an electronic Hammond - given to the church by a wealthy, progressive, and musically ignorant member of the parish. At that time, the Johnson was literally given to Don Stagg of Butte, Montana and was moved to storage in his parent's home. Mr. Stagg attended the University of Montana in Missoula, earning his degrees in Music and Math. In 1974, he moved to Vancouver, British Columbia to teach. He spent from 1974 to 1978 carefully refurbishing and reconstructing the organ in his home there. In 1988, he retired and moved to Blaine, Washington, where he presently resides in a 14-room ranch house affectionately known as the Staggsonian, due to the large and wonderful collection of antique furniture, clocks, porcelain and china, music collections and scores, books, and musical instruments. In addition to the Johnson, Mr. Stagg has a two-manual, ten-rank Estey -- previously electrified by Balcom and Vaughan -- and relocated from a church in Bellingham, Washington. He also has 8 grand pianos, two clavichords, a double II-manual harpsichord, 4 melodeons (one a large Packard), a compensating reed organ, a Hammond, an accordian, a cello, two violins, and two clarinets. Other musical "treasures" include an Austrian "Vorsetzer" (a type of automatic player device that may be placed in front of most any keyboard instrument and which plays rolls and has two free-reed ranks: 8' Melodia and 4' Principal); a Regina music box with several "discs", and some 500 wax records only playable on his 1911 Edison phonograph. Johnson organ historian Dr. Susan Armstrong of West Newbury, Masschusetts has suggested in a letter to Don Stagg dated January 23, 1990 that perhaps the organ is Opus 270 of 1869. Opus 270 was built for the Presbyterian Church in Circleville, Ohio, which is in relative proximity to Cincinnati. This seems highly plausible since that Johnson was replaced by a III-manual Page and its subsequent disposition is unknown. The Johnson opus list also lists the Circlevile organ as a I-manual, 14-register instrument. This exactly matches the present instrument when counting speaking stops, the Tremulant, and the pedal coupler. While the names Cincinnati, Jeffersonville, and Dillon have been found inside the organ, the name of Circleville has, alas, not yet been found inscribed anywhere. James R. Stettner, Seattle, Washington, 2007.