Henry Cresswell Shaw was born November 1855 in Canada, possibly in Guelph, a city in Ontario about 43 miles from Toronto. Guelph had a strong musical and arts tradition. It was also home to the Bell Organ Company. Founded in 1864, it manufactured reed and pump organs, pianos and melodeons, as well as a small number of pipe organs. Perhaps it was not surprising, then, that Shaw studied music and became an organist.
In 1881, Shaw seems to have been a music dealer in Guelph
when he transcribed for publication a piano arrangement of the song, The Palms
(Les Rameaux par Faure). It was
dedicated to a Miss Bertie Geddes, a church organist in Hamilton and Guelph,
Ontario. A copy exists in the University
of Michigan Library.
In 1883, Shaw became the organist for St. Peter’s Church in Berlin, Ontario, a position he would hold for the next sixteen years. (Berlin no longer appears on the map as a Canadian city; its name was changed to Kitchener in 1916, when Canada entered World War I as part of the British Empire.) Shaw proved to be a devoted church worker and was especially popular with the young people’s groups.
Shaw’s hobby was horticulture. In June 1895, he built Rosehurst Conservatories. With the help of a gardener, the Conservatories grew roses, lilies and a variety of other hothouse flowers during Canada’s winters.
By 1896, Shaw was suffering from Bright’s Disease and sought a warmer climate during the winter. He moved to Phoenix permanently in 1899, having secured a position as organist at the First Methodist Episcopal Church, which had recently had its pipe organ refurbished.
In the summer of 1901, he made a brief trip—possibly his last--back home to Canada.
Shaw died on March 31, 1902, in his rooms at 524 South First Avenue11. The Rev. E. A. Penick conducted his funeral, after which Shaw was buried in Rosedale, Section 147, Grave 2.
-by Donna Carr
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