In the spring of 1903 Hope-Jones visited this country. At the instigation of Mr. R. P. Elliot, the organizer, Vice-President and Secretary of the Austin Organ Company, of Hartford, Conn., he decided to remain here and join that corporation, taking the office of Vice-president. Subsequently a new firm—Hope-Jones & Harrison—was tentatively formed at Bloomfield, N. J., in July, 1904, but as sufficient capital could not be obtained, Hope-Jones and his corps of skilled employees joined the Ernest M. Skinner Company, of Boston, Hope-Jones taking the office of Vice-president, in 1905. Working in connection with the Skinner Company, Hope-Jones constructed and placed a fine organ in Park Church, Elmira, N. Y., erected in memory of the late Thomas K. Beecher. He there met, as chairman of the committee, Mr. Jervis Langdon (Treasurer of the Chamber of Commerce, Elmira). That gentleman secured the industry for his city by organizing a corporation to build exclusively Hope-Jones organs.
This "Hope-Jones Organ Company" was established in February, 1907, the year of the financial panic. It failed to secure the capital it sought and was seriously embarrassed throughout its three years' existence. It built about forty organs, the best known being the one erected in the great auditorium at Ocean Grove, N. J.
The patents and plant of the Elmira concern were acquired by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Co. in April, 1910, and Mr. Hope-Jones entered its employ, with headquarters at its mammoth factory at North Tonawanda, N. Y., continuing to carry on the business under his own name.
Robert Hope-Jones is a member of the British Institute of Electrical Engineers; of the Royal College of Organists, London, England; of the American Guild of Organists; and of other bodies.
In 1893 he married Cecil Laurence, a musical member of one of the leading families of Maid stone, England. This lady mastered the intricacies of her husband's inventions, and to her help and encouragement in times of difficulty he attributes his success.
We suppose that the reason "history repeats itself" is to be found in the fact that human nature does not vary, but is much the same from generation to generation. From the Bible we learn that one Demetrius, a silversmith of Ephesus, became alarmed at the falling off in demand for silver shrines to Diana, caused by the preaching of the Apostle Paul, and called his fellow craftsmen together with the cry of "Our craft is in danger," and set the whole city in an uproar. (Acts xix-24.)
In the year 1682 a new organ was wanted for the Temple Church in London, England, and "Father" Smith and Renatus Harris, the organ-builders of that day, each brought such powerful influence to bear upon the Benchers that they authorized both builders to erect organs in the church, one at each end. They were alternately played upon certain days, Smith's organ by Purcell and Dr. Blow, and Harris' organ by Baptist Draghi, organist to Queen Catherine. An attempt by the Benchers of the Middle Temple to decide in favor of Smith stirred up violent opposition on the part of the Benchers of the Inner Temple, who favored Harris, and the controversy raged bitterly for nearly five years, when Smith's organ was paid for and Harris' taken away. This is known in history as "The Battle of the Organs." In the thick of the fight one of Harris' partisans, who had more zeal than discretion, made his way inside Smith's organ and cut the bellows to pieces.
In 1875-76 the organ in Chester Cathedral, England, was being rebuilt by the local firm of J. & C. H. Whiteley. The London silversmiths took alarm at the Cathedral job going to a little country builder and got together, with the result that, one by one, Whiteleys' men left their employ, tempted by the offer of work at better wages in London, and had there not been four brothers in the firm, all practical men, they would have been unable to fulfil their contract. The worry was partly responsible for the death of the head of the firm soon after.