William Benjamin Dearborn Simmons
Encyclopedia
William Benjamin Dearborn Simmons (b. Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...

, April 27, 1823 - d. there, Oct. 31, 1876) was an American organ builder.

Simmons apprenticed under Thomas Appleton and founded his own business in 1845 along with Thomas McIntyre
Thomas McIntyre
Thomas McIntyre may refer to:*Thomas Eldon McIntyre, Canadian politician*Thomas J. McIntyre, U.S. politician*Tommy McIntyre, Scottish association football player...

. From 1851 he ran the business alone, and in 1856 George Fisher
George Fisher
George Fisher may refer to:*George Fisher , American politician*Rev George Fisher British arctic scientist*George Fisher , Serbian born Mexican and American citizen*George P...

 became partner. From 1858 to 1860 he and John Henry Willcox
John Henry Willcox
John Henry Willcox was an organist and organ maker educated at Trinity College . He spent the rest of his life as an organist in Boston....

 were partners in the firm.

Simmons's organs were some of the first to use a full Swell division, and he was an innovator in the use of tempered tuning and of steam-powered machinery in construction. In the 1850s his organs took on more Germanic
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 qualities. Among his most important instruments were the 1855 organ built for Dover Hall in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, the 1859 organ for Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, and the 1860 organ for St. Paul's Cathedral in Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

.

Further reading

  • O. Ochse: The History of the Organ in the United States (Bloomington, IN, 1975)
  • B. Owen: The Organ in New England (Raleigh, NC, 1979)
  • B. Owen: ‘John Henry Willcox: Organist and Organ Builder’,The Tracker, 36/4 (1992), pp. 13–24
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