 1902 - 1961 (59 years)
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| Name |
Mathias Peter Jr. Moller |
| Birth |
8 May 1902 |
Hagerstown, Washington County, Maryland  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Death |
20 Oct 1961 |
Hagerstown, Washington County, Maryland |
| Notes |
- Wedding of Hilda McKenzie to Mathias P. Moller, Jr., took place May 9, 1923, at Garrett Park Methodist Church, Baltimore,
Mathias P. Moller, Jr., widely known industrialist, banker and lay church leader, died at 7 o'clock this morning at the Washington County Hospital after a prolonged illness. He was a patient at the hospital two weeks. Mr. Moller was born in Hagerstown May 8, 1902, a son of Mrs. Julia M. Greenlund (not sure of spelling; print is blurred) Moller and the late Mathias Peter Moller, Sr. He resided at 473 North Potomac St. At the time of his death Mr. Moller was president of M. P. Moller, Inc., one of the leading pipe organ manufacturing corporations in the nation. He was also president of the Hagerstown Trust Company, a director of the Potomac Edison Company and of the Remington Book Co., Baltimore. He succeeded his late father as president of M. P. Moller, Inc., and also as president of the Hagerstown Trust Company in 1937. He had been a director of the Hagerstown Trust for a number of years prior to his election as president. Mr. Moller was widely known in church circles as a lay leader. He was a devout member of St. John's Lutheran Church all his life and for many years was a member of the Board of Foreign Missions of the United Lutheran Church of America and also a member of the National Council of Churches of Christ. He was a graduate of Susquehanna University and in 1954 the degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred on him by Mullenburg College. He was a trustee of his alma mater for many years and also of the Gettysburg Theological Seminary and the Loysville Orphanage, Loysville, Pa. He was a director for the Hagerstown Y.M.C.A. for years and the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts. He was a member of the Hagerstown Assembly Club. Mr. Moller had been in failing health for a number of years, but still maintained an active interest in his business, his church and civic endeavors. Mr. Moller joined M. P. Moller shortly after graduating from college, and having been a confidant of his father, was well prepared to take over as president when the company's founder died in 1937. During World War II, he quickly converted the plant into manufacturing aircraft materials, and the corporation soon became a big supplier of such materials to Fairfield Aircraft. Following the war the plant resumed the manufacture of pipe organs for which it is famous the world over. Mr. Moller married the former Hilda Mackenzie, who survives along with their sons Kevin M., this city, and Mathias P. Moller III, New York City; his mother, and sisters Mrs. John Wagaman, Mrs. Mary Moller Hanson, and Mrs. W. Riley Daniels. Three grandchildren also survive. Funeral services will be held at St. John's Lutheran Church, Monday at 4 p.m. with Rev. George E. Whetstone, the pastor, officiating, assisted by Rev. Dr. Wilson P. Ard, Rev. Dr. W. P. Gerberding, Kings Mt., N. C., and Rev. Dr. Ralph Lowe, Buffalo, N. Y. Burial will he made in the family mausoleum in Rose Hill Cemetery. Honorary pallbearers will be R. Riley Daniels, John Wagaman, Willard Slifer, and Monroe Ridgley, officers of M. P. Moller, Inc. (list continues with 20+ names). Active pallbearers will be the following nephews of Mr. Moller: W. Riley Daniels III, John Wagaman, Jr., Henry W. A. Hanson III, Peter Moller Daniels, Howard Carlisle Mackenzie, Jr., and Kenneth Mackenzie Gassman. The body was removed to the Suler-Rouzer Funeral Home. The casket will not be opened. Hagerstown Daily Mail, October 20, 1961.
Nice article here for reference.
M.P. Moller Organ Co. music and memories live on
July 14, 2008|By ANGELICA Roberts
Editor's note: The following story about the M.P. Moller Organ Co. is one in an occasional series of stories about some of the treasures of Washington County's past.
HAGERSTOWN - The M.P. Moller Organ Co., once one of the largest makers of pipe organs in the world, had a turbulent few years before closing its doors in 1992, but the memories and the beautiful music the company made live on.
Company founder, Mathias P. Moller, was born Sept. 29, 1854, in Denmark, and came to America in 1872. Moller worked in Warren, Pa., as a woodworker at a furniture manufacturing firm, and in Erie, Pa., with the Derrick & Felgemaker organ building shop. Moller returned to Warren, where he built a pipe organ in 1875. A year later, he went to Philadelphia, where he manufactured and sold four pipe organs before moving his operation to Greencastle, Pa., in 1877.
According to the Allison-Antrim Museum's Web site at www.greencastlemuse um.org, Moller organized and named his early business Moller Brenishottz and Co. "When Moller was unsuccessful at securing financing from the Greencastle banks to expand his business, he moved to Hagerstown in April 1881," the Web site states.
In Hagerstown, Moller set up shop in a small building near the Western Maryland Railroad on Potomac Street. He only had eight workers. That building burned in 1895. In an attempt to keep the company in Hagerstown, property on North Prospect Street was deeded to Moller, and the factory reopened in January 1896.
According to the book "M.P. Moller and the Urban Fabric of Hagerstown," by 1902, the factory had 50,000 square feet of floor space, offices and sheds. It was on the western side of the factory complex where the actual work of building organs took place and where raw materials arrived by rail.
"The western and eastern sides of the building had utilitarian brickwork, the western side displayed Moller's name, and the side of the building dealt with work, labor and production," according to the book.
The organ factory imported wood materials, metals and animal products from around the world. Lumber was the most important raw material for making an organ, and 2 million board feet of lumber always were on site.
Unique Skills
Over the years, the organ-maker's space expanded to 125,000 square feet, according to a 1962 story in The Herald-Mail, and it was here that skilled craftsmen plied their trades. There were voicers, whose job it was to make sure each pipe had the correct tone, color, transparency and timbre. There were people who carved parts by hand, and Moller cast its own metal alloys to ensure the proper combinations, according to the 1962 newspaper story. There were fathers who passed on to their sons the skills involved in crafting the custom-made organs, thus making sure the Moller tradition would continue, according to the story.
William Penner, 91, of Hagerstown, worked for the company for 50 years, some of those years while Moller was president, and said in a recent interview that he would describe Moller as a kind and gentle, yet strict boss. "He required everyone to produce a full day's work all the time," Penner said.
Frederick Morrison, who worked for the company from 1967 to 1992, said Moller organs were some of the best ever made.
"In the company's lifetime, they've built more organs than anybody else," Morrison, 60, of Shepherdstown, W.Va., said in a recent interview. "They were considered to be reliable, and I think there are some Moller organs out there now that have gone on for 60 to 70 years. They're very durable."
And Moller organs were in demand.
Moller organs could be found at West Point, the U.S. Naval and Air Force academies, the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., and Lincoln Center in New York. Even the chapel at Camp David had a Moller organ, which was dedicated in April 1991 with President George H.W. Bush present.
A number of Moller organs were installed locally, including one at St. John's Episcopal Church at 101 S. Prospect St. in Hagerstown, where the organ still makes music for the congregation.
To get the organs to their new owners, the company used its own truck, and at one time had three or four tractor-trailers.
In later years, the company started using commercial van lines to transport the smaller organs.
"It was a nice company to work for," Penner said. "It was always something new to work on because mechanical, electrical and architectural were all things involved with building an organ, so the job became interesting."
Penner, who worked with production, engineering, consulting and the sales department at the organ company from 1935 to 1985, said making an organ was a complex job.
Hard Times
The company remained family owned until 1989, when it was sold to a limited partnership.
By 1992, the company's fortunes had fallen. A story in The Herald-Mail referred to outdated equipment and increasingly bitter labor relations. Its economic situation resulted in 30 employees being laid off in February 1992.
On April 15 of that year, the company shut its doors for what was to be a two-week period, with officials saying they needed the time for a financial restructuring and possible sale of the business. Paul Coughlin, chairman of the board, was quoted as saying the company needed $600,000 to stay afloat.
The plant never would reopen.
Early in the shutdown, a union official said workers were owed two weeks of back pay, and that more than half of the union workers and members of the clerical staff were continuing to work without pay.
The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August 1992.
Moller continued to fight to remain viable, seeking loans from the state. An attempt by employees to buy out the business fell through in September. The last effort to reopen the plant came from a group of investors, led by John L. Grove, then-chairman of JLG Industries Inc. in McConnellsburg, Pa. That attempt collapsed at the end of September 1992.
Facing the Music
In October, the members of Local 21108 of the International Union of Electrical Workers, which represented Moller union employees, held a reception to thank the community for its help in its unsuccessful attempt to buy the company. Moller would make no more organs. The company's closing left 115 people out of work. Delphin Frushour was one of them. "I was devastated when the place closed," Frushour said recently. "I shed a few tears because it's all I'd known since I was 19 years old. It was heartbreaking."
An auction was held at the Moller plant on Jan. 13, 1993, and the company's organ equipment, office equipment, tools and hardware went on the block.
While the company is gone, it left behind a musical legacy. In its lifetime, M.P. Moller Organ Co. produced about 12,000 organs. "I don't think the whole organ industry has turned out as many organs annually as Moller did," Morrison said.
Today, the building where the M.P. Moller Organ Co. built its organs still stands. Vincent Groh bought the property at a liquidation auction, and later sold it to the Ridgecrest Investments of Frederick, Md., the current owner of the property.
A representative from the firm did not want to comment on whether there were any plans for the site.
Morrison, Frushour and Alvin Rogers worked at the M.P. Moller plant, and today they rent 18,000 square feet of the old Moller building for their Eastern Organ Pipe Co., which is a pipe-making and repair business. The Blue Mountain Wood Works Co. also has space at the location.
Despite its eventual end, Morrison said he thinks the story of the M.P. Moller Organ Co. is remarkable.
"It's an amazing story of how he started on his own, and in 50 years time, the company became the largest organ company in the country," Morrison said.
Moller Did More
In addition to the M.P. Moller Organ Co., Mathias Moller was involved in other businesses.
With Robert Crawford, Moller formed the Crawford Automobile Co. in 1905. The company produced cars at a plant on Surrey Avenue in Hagerstown, which Moller later converted to apartments.
Moller eventually purchased the car company and changed its name to the M.P. Moller Motor Car Co., which turned out high-quality taxicabs and custom-built truck bodies.
In 1922, Moller began manufacturing the Dagmar car, which he named for his daughter, Dagmar, who in turn was named for the legendary queen of Bohemia.
Fewer than a thousand Dagmars were manufactured before production ceased in 1927, according to published reports.
Moller, in 1911, built the Dagmar Hotel, a luxury hotel and, at the time, the tallest building in Hagerstown. The hotel still stands at the corner of Summit Avenue and Antietam Street in downtown Hagerstown.
Moller was one of the founders of the Home Builders Building and Loan Association in Hagerstown and was its president for years. Moller spearheaded the movement to erect a YMCA in Hagerstown and was a substantial contributor to its building fund. Moller also was president of the Hagerstown Trust Co. and owner of Moller Music shop.
Moller died April 13, 1937, at the age of 82.
This link hopefully will take you to a selection of Moller themed articles/pics. Please try it before posting. If it doesn't work, let me know and I'll try again.
http://www.herald-mail.com/search/dispatcher.front?Query=Moller+Organs&target=adv_article
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| Person ID |
I16158 |
McKenzie Genealogy |
| Last Modified |
29 Oct 2021 |
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