History
Samuel Marshall (15 June 1803 – 28 March 1879) emigrated to South Australia on the Thomas Harrison, arriving in February 1839, one of the first ships after the First Fleet of South Australia. He was trained as an organ-builder, but realizing there would be little call for such skills in a pioneering colony (apart from assembly of a small pipe organ for a Mr. Richman), applied his ingenuity and dexterity to other mechanisms. He not only developed a reaping machine in competition with John Ridley's, [1] but helped that gentleman in the production of his pioneering machine. [2]
In 1850 he set up a shop in Currie Street (the site of the later Adelaide Steamship Buildings) where he sold harmoniums and other musical instruments, later moving to 52 Rundle Street, at the corner of Gawler Place, extending to North Terrace. [3] That building was demolished in 1879, [4] and a new three-storey building erected in its place, with a lift operating between basement and top floor. [5]
In 1875 his sons Alfred Witter Marshall (31 October 1850 – 16 December 1915) and John Myles Marshall (14 May 1854 – 6 May 1877) became partners in the firm, and John travelled to England to learn techniques of piano-making at the factory of Pohlmann & Son, in Halifax, Yorkshire. John however died quite young, followed closely by his father. Harold Witter Marshall (7 May 1874 – 20 November 1953) joined his father in the business in 1891, and became sole proprietor in 1917. He served an apprenticeship in London for some years with Chappell & Co. Myles Witter Marshall (1907 – 23 March 1987) joined his father's business around 1925.
In 1856 Samuel Marshall built a pipe organ for the Archer Street Wesleyan Church, and, the story goes, he was responsible for Rev. Maughan settling in South Australia rather than Victoria: the two met in a dramatic fashion in mid-ocean, when their respective ships linked up to exchange provisions and passengers were free to circulate between the two ships and Marshall met Maughan and persuaded him where his vocation lay. Marshall was certainly at the forefront in the foundation of his church.
The Marshall Music Rooms in Rundle Street hosted a good number of overseas artists: Madame Patey, Charles Santley, Signor Foli, Mademoiselle Dolores, and the Sheffield Choir, as well as up-and-coming local artists like Maude Puddy and Percy Grainger. Harold Marshall had also been of assistance to established South Australians organist T. H. Jones, Professor Ives, Dr. E. Harold Davies, J. M. Dunn, I. G. Reimann, Hermann Heinicke, T. Grigg, F. Bevan, E. E. Mitchell, and A. R. Mumme.
The earliest record of any pipe organ in this State was in 1839, when a Mr. John Richmond who purchased property at Prospect, brought out an organ and placed it in his home called Prospect House. The next reference is in 1846, when an organ was built in South Australia by one Samuel Marshall. Incidentally Mr. Marshall began making reaping machines in 1839: then in 1846 he started to build a pipe organ. The organ was temporarily erected in the Pulteney Street School, and later on a gallery in the old St. John's Church, the organ and gallery costing £300. The opening of the organ look place in July, 1848, the organist on this occasion being a Mr. Bennett, who was at that time a business associate of Mr. Marshall. [6]
