E. S. Votey

Biography

E. S. Votey, described as a practical organ maker, joined C. J. Whitney in 1883 to buy the failed Detroit Organ Company's assets, forming the Whitney Organ Company, where he was in charge of manufacturing; when W. R. Farrand joined in the same year to handle finances, Votey retained the manufacturing role, continuing after the firm became the Farrand & Votey Company. The text credits him with ingenuity as an inventor, devising many improvements in church-organ mechanism and especially in piano-player work. He had such faith in the future of the piano player that in 1897 he joined the Aeolian Company, buying the pipe-organ and player-piano departments of Farrand & Votey and building the company's first thousand Pianolas in the Detroit shops.

Highlights

• A practical organ maker who took charge of manufacturing at the Whitney Organ Company and its successor Farrand & Votey
• Devised many improvements in church-organ mechanism and piano players
• Joined the Aeolian Company in 1897 and built the first thousand Pianolas in the Detroit shops

Source

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911).

Public domain.