Note from the OHS PC Database, derived from A Guide to North American Organbuilders, by David H. Fox (Organ Historical Society, 1991). Edited for the revised OHS Online Database website, 2017. —

Edmund Giesecke was born c. 1850 in Göttingen, Germany; he trained with the family firm. He immigrated to United States ca. 1870; and was active in Evansville, Indiana, ca. 1872-1909.

Sources:

• Martin Kares, The German Element in American Organbuilding, 1700-1900 (dissertation, Marburg 1990).
• Piano and Organ Purchaser-s Guide, Purchaser-s Guide to the Music Industries, (published by Music Trades, New York).

From the OHS Database Builders Listing editor, Stephen Hall, January 9, 2017. —

Edmund Gieseke came to the United States from the university town of Goettingen, Germany in the 1860s, accompanying his father, who was carrying out an order of a St. Louis church to erect an organ the Gieseckes had built in their Goettingen shops.

Young Edmund Giesecke decided to stay in America, and after a short say in St. Louis he came to Evansville around 1868 and engaged in organ building here. Many churches throughout the Tri-state installed organs built by Mr. Giesecke, who followed the trade that had been in the Giesecke family in Germany for many generations. Two of the organs he built remain in use in the area, those at St. Boniface Catholic Church in Fulda Indiana near St. Meinrad, and at St. Francis Catholic Church in Poseyville Indiana.

He stopped building organs in 1918 when failing eyesight caused him to retire. Total blindness came to the veteran organ builder around 1925. He died at his home at 320 Read St. in Evansville in 1928 of influenza.

Source:

• Obituary in Evansville Press, December 26, 1928. Accessed from Evansville AGO, http://www.evansvilleago.org/organs/EdmundGiesecke.html