Read the inscriptions and notes,
that C.K. Beaman inscibed inside the organ during the years while building his beloved organ.
I don't expect anyone else would ever take this organ apart, we are so near the end of time, 5 years have been add to my life since I first started to rebuild this organ for which I am truly thankful. This organ has been in the S.D.A. Church Otego N.Y. for nearly 2 years and only a few appreciate it.
C. K. Beaman Mar. 20, 1923
This set of reeds was put in,
Feb. 1928 Oneonta
C. K. Beaman
A pretty poor job, on account of being bothered by an old woman trying to boss my business, She meant all right.
C.K. Beaman Feb 27 / 1928,
245 Main St., Oneonta N.Y.
This organ is being rebuilt under very strenuous circumstances, I have been sick with the flue for three weeks and am not hardly able to work.
C. K. Beaman Morris, N.Y. Feb. 12, 1929
Feb 26, 1929
The organ is nearly finished I am over the flue, but am left with a very weak heart. I am 58 years old and I fear that I may not live very much longer I would like to live to enjoy this little organ, but if I am not permitted, I am sure I will have a better organ in the next world I want to live from now on so I will have a home in the new earth. This I intend to do with the help of my Saviour. K.C.B.
Repaired reed board Mar. 20th 1933
Dampness caused reed board to unglue from valve board.
C.K. Beaman
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Information provided by: David Friedkin,
This Old reed/pump organ was built / rebuilt by organ builder C.K. Beaman in Hampton N.Y. The organ has two sets of bellows, one in the cabinet and another in the pipe top, which drive 27 stops. The organ has a double keyboard (upper & lower) The top is a pipe organ facade on three side which conceals the second bellows. I have owned this organ for over 20 years with hopes of rebuilding it. I purchased it from a trustee of the William Miller Chapel in Upstate N.Y. and actually helped him move the organ from the chapel which has since become a Nationally recognized Historic Sight as the foundation of the Advent Christian Church. The most interesting and unique feature of this organ is that the organ builder wrote inscriptions on the inside of the bellows board. The organ is in need of complete restoration but everything is there and ready for some tender loving care. This will not only be a show-piece when finished but also a very important historical artifact, in the development of the Seven Day Adventist.
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If you can add anything at all, let me know about it.
As Charles must by recognized for the organ builder and genius that he was.
Taking a simple 15 stop organ and building it up to a very respectable 27 stop instrument.
Charles Kenyon Beeman was born in Otsdawa, near Otego, NY.
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Information below provided by Jill Walch (Niece to Charles Beaman)
Charles was one of
two children of Wesley A. Beeman and Sarah Elizabeth Hyatt Beeman. His
older sister, Ida Sarah Beeman, married Horton J. Smith and was my great
grandmother.
An article by his father, Wesley Beeman, is posted on the Otsego County
site. Wesley Beeman was the last postmaster at Otsdawa before the post
office was closed and Otsdawa became part of Otego.
Charles Kenyon Beaman
Organ Builder
Charles K. Beaman (known as Charley) was born January 13, 1871 in the tiny town of Otsdawa, near Oneonta, Otsego County, New York and died July 21, 1951. He is buried in Hillington Cemetery, Morris, NY.
He was the son of Wesley A. and Sarah E. (Hyatt) Beaman who descended from the hardy pioneers from Connecticut who settled in the area shortly after the Revolutionary War. Charley could claim two ancestors who served three years in the Connecticut Line of the Continental Army under George Washington and one, Samuel Hyatt, who froze his feet that awful winter at Valley Forge. Another ancestor, Jesse Hyatt, also served under George Washington and his War Record File includes a discharge paper that was signed by “His Excellency, General George Washington”.
Though Charles was not an only child, his older sister, Ida, married when he was only four. This left little Charley lots of time for solitary pursuits. When he was eight, his parents took him to New York City where he heard an organ with carillon bells. This sparked little Charley’s imagination and organ building became a life-long passion. He moved to Otego and when he was 20 he went to Brooklyn and took and organ course from Professor Whitley at historic Plymouth church made famous in Civil War days by Henry Ward Beecher. Charley enjoyed “tinkering” with the organs he fixed and used the mind of an engineer to improve the tone and the range of the organs he designed. Though money was scarce in his little hill town, Charley used his fertile imagination and was able to improvise with materials that were easily found. Some of the more unusual items that he recycled into parts for his organs were, his father’s old crow bar and even the axle from an old Brockway truck.
Charles Beaman married Alta Hurlbut, of Otego, New York and they had one daughter, Celia Laurena Beaman, born in 1900. The family later moved to Oneonta, New York, where Charles had an organ and piano tuning business. At the end of his life Charles had moved back to Otego, where he enjoyed playing one of his hand-built organs in the Seventh Day Adventist church near his home.
Information supplied by Jill Walsh
