This is the story of a boy who loved pipe organs - "the sound of the soul."

One day the boy saw an article and a picture of a pipe organ built by the students in the technical shop of a school in England. They used a book called "How to Build a Two Manual Pipe Organ" by H.F. Milne.

For the first time he realized he might have an organ of his own, so he sent for the book with high expectations.

Unfortunately the materials needed to begin, while cheap and easily come by in England, were not available in a prairie town, nor did he have the necessary woodworking machinery.

Then, a few years later, he got lucky! He had a chance to visit the city and on visiting the church where he had first touched the keys of a pipe organ, he found the organ tuner at work. This man came from an organ factory in Toronto in Spring and Fall, and told the young man that when his Fall trip came, he would take the young hopeful as an assistant on his trip, and give him a job in the factory! In October of that year, the young man joined the tuner in Saskatoon, and held down the keys for him while he tuned the pipes in the organ above.

On the way East, they stopped in Winnipeg. The young man's boss took him to a big church which had a fine, large Casavant organ of 4 keyboards and one for the feet, called Pedals. Casavant organs were, and still are, made in St. Hyacinthe, Quebec. There are many makes of organs, but the Casavants have the reputation of being the best in the world, but are also very expensive to buy......... although being so well built, they last longer than other makes.

As they gazed upon the huge instrument, nearly 40 feet wide by 18 feet deep and over 20 feet high, the boss prophesied "Some day this organ will be for sale. This church is losing its congregation to the suburbs."

Years later, while attending an army summer school in Winnipeg, the young man remembered the words his boss had said that night. At the first opportunity he visited the church, and asked the janitor if he might try the organ. "Help yourself," the janitor replied. "The church has been sold and will be torn down this coming fall. Do you want to buy the organ? You can speak to that man over by the pulpit, if you like, he is responsible for selling it."

The young man had saved up some money by this time, and, without a hope that it might be accepted, offered it to the official. To his great surprise, he was told "You've bought yourself an organ! Only you must get it out of here in 2 months' time."

As he stood before the great instrument looming above him, the young man thought "Good Lord! What have I done? How will I ever get this monster back home, and where will I put it? Somehow, I'll get it playing again in my own home, although I haven't the faintest idea how or when that may be."

Years were to pass, and much hard work, before his dream became a reality.

1955 - It took six weeks to take the organ apart ready for shipment. Then one day, a month later, two large moving vans drove into the farm yard. The trucks had to return without delay, so the organ's thousands of parts were dumped on the ground. Fortunately the weather was good and dry. The more delicate parts were stored in the farm workshop, and the pipes were carried up to the hayloft. All except a few of the largest wooden pipes, some 16' long, were safely under shelter when a terrible blizzard roared in, without warning. Many people died in the storm, which lasted for three days. When it was over the big pipes were under twelve feet of hard-packed snow! They remained there until the next spring, when the sun softened the top crust of the snowbank, and the pipes were dug out of their frosty grave, undamaged because the snow around them had not yet begun to melt.

Five years later, enough money was saved to start building a music room, and a year after that, the organ was playing in time for a Christmas concert. Visitors came from near and far to see and hear the organ in its new home. Already over 50 years old, so well made was it and so carefully installed, it played as well as when it was new.

Then one day in 1971 its owner announced that Victoria was to be their new home. A house had been found on beautiful Despard Avenue. It had a lot deep enough so that a new music room could be built for the organ. For nearly seven years it stood silent on the Prairies, until the new home could be built for it, an addition on the house in Victoria. Once again it was taken apart, and packed into a huge "piggy-back" van and shipped by rail and boat, arriving in November of 1979, but this time there would be no blizzard to threaten it. By Christmas it was once again playing the beloved Carols as it had in Winnipeg seventy years before.

Now students play it nearly every day, so that anyone who wishes to learn that great instrument will not have to endure the struggle of the farm boy of long ago who loved the organ and its music so dearly. Work is about to start on additions and improvements, and, if properly cared for and maintained, the great Casavant will be sounding for generations to come.

Admin Note: The boy, of course, was Stuart. His boss was Franklin Legge. This is one of the first stories Stuart composed on his new word processor and printer, a state-of-the-art Atari system....... in the early 1970's. The ending of the story was added in the mid-80's. Always eager to try out new technologies, Stuart was quite enamoured with his word processor, and one Christmas each of his 4 daughters received an identical piece of equipment. He was careful to print out copies of everything he composed, and these letters and stories became the inspiration for my project. 

For the heart-wrenching story of the dismantling of the instrument in 1979, see the letter to Stuart Kennedy, dated November 28, 1979

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