Oliver Farm Equipment Company
The Oliver Farm Equipment Company was an American farm equipment manufacturer from the 20th century. It was formed as a result of a 1929 merger of four companies:
On November 1, 1960, the
Merger
Four companies merged on April 1, 1929, to form the Oliver Farm Equipment Company: The Oliver Chilled Plow Company, dating from 1855; the Hart-Parr Tractor Company from 1897, and the American Seeding Machine Company and Nichols and Shepard Company, both dating from 1848.
By 1929, each of these companies had reached a point where continuing operations independently would not be feasible. For most of them, the market had some time earlier reached a saturation point, and in some instances, their machines were dated and rapidly approaching obsolescence. By uniting their various and somewhat diverse product lines into a single company, Oliver Farm Equipment immediately became a full-line manufacturer.
Merged companies
American Seeding Machine Company
The American Seeding Machine Company was organized in 1903 from the a merger of seven different manufacturers of
Oliver Chilled Plow Works
Another problem common to cast iron plow bottoms was the lack of soundness and uniformity in the metal's molecular structure, which meant that some cast iron bottoms would have soft spots in the hardened surface, reducing the wearability of the plow bottom. Improvements made by James Oliver to his casting process also overcame this problem.
Thus, James Oliver's chilled plow bottom became a practical success and on July 22, 1868, the Oliver's business was incorporated as the South Bend Iron Works. In 1871, the company sold 1,500 plows per year. By 1874 this figure had increased to 17,000 plows a year.[1]: 107 At the time of death of James Oliver in 1908, the company had again changed names to the Oliver Chilled Plow Works, and their factory site in South Bend, Indiana covered 58 acres (230,000 m2) with 25 of those acres under roof.[1]: 107 In January 1885, the plant's mostly Polish workers went on strike in protest of cuts to wages and hours in response to a glut of stock.[6] Veterans of the Civil War with fixed bayonets finally ejected the strikers from the premises.[7] The ownership considered leaving South Bend in the wake of the destruction of parts of the plant, with newspapers stating that they feared "the Socialistic influences operating among the foreign elements at South Bend...probably emanating from Chicago."[8] Many workers employed in plow factories died from grindstone consumption. This is the result of the dust from emery wheels and grindstone in the grinding and polishing rooms. “In South Bend, the ‘grinder’ is either a Pole or a Belgian; so when he dies, society knows nothing about it.” [9] Upon the death of his father in 1908, Joseph D. Oliver, the only son of James and Susan (Doty) Oliver took over the management of the Oliver Chilled Plow Works. By 1910, the company was manufacturing a wide variety of farm tillage implements in addition to the chilled plow. Production had reached the point that, in 1910, the company purchased over 40,000 tons of pig iron alone.[1]: 107
Hart-Parr Gasoline Engine Company
Following their graduation from the University of Wisconsin in 1897, Hart and Parr gathered $3000 in capital and formed the Hart-Parr Gasoline Engine Company.[10]: 24 Towards the end of 1899, Charles Hart paid a visit to his parents in Charles City, Iowa. He complained to his father that development funds could not be found for his tractor project. "There's money around here that might be interested," replied the elder Hart, admitting for the first time that his son's ambition was not folly. They then found another investor in Charles D. Ellis, a local attorney, who invested $50,000 in additional capital.[10]: 24–25
In 1900, as the engine business expanded, Hart and Parr decided to move their company from Madison to Charles City. Hart-Parr Company was organized on June 12, 1901, at Charles City, Iowa. Ground was broken for the new factory on July 5 that year. By the following December, the Hart-Parr Company was now ready to do business, and had an authorized capitalization of $100,000.
Hart Par No. 2 was a prototype machine with only one being built.
The Hart Par Model 3 was released in 1903 and is recognized by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers as the first successful farm tractor in the world powered by an internal combustion engine. Fifteen tractors were produced in total. The two horizontal cylinders use a hit-and-miss governor along with an oil-cooled engine. It ran on either gasoline or kerosene. It is 14,000 pounds and a copy at the Smithsonian is the oldest surviving internal combustion engine tractor in the United States and is held by the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. It produced 18 horsepower at the drawbar and 30 at the belt. The tractor at the Smithsonian was used at the George Mitchell farm near Charles City Iowa for twenty-three years. Following this, the Oliver Tractor Corporation bought it back and donated it to the Smithsonian in 1960. It was fully restored in 2003, with funding provided by the art-Parr/Oliver Collectors Association.[11]
Little by little, the Hart-Parrs began to gather defenders. Some of the first tractors delivered were gaining a reputation of usefulness that far surpassed that of the steamers.
Later Hart-Parrs were denoted with a two-number name, where the first number stood for horsepower at the draw bar and the pully, respectively.
The Hart-Parr 20-40, also called the "Steel King" is a tricycle tractor produced by the Hart-Parr company at their facility in Charles City Iowa, starting in 1911 and going till 1914. Approximately 197 were produced: 99 in 1912, 49 in 1913, and 49 in 2014. The 20-40 has a two-cylinder vertically mounted engine operating at 400 RPMs. Each cylinder has an 8-inch bore and a 12-inch stroke. The centerline of the crankshaft is offset from the cylinder by 2-3/4 inches to increase torque on the power stroke. The engine is oil-cooled rather than water-cooled. The engine runs either gasoline or a mixture of kerosene and water as the water helps eliminate the knock that occurs when burning kerosene. The tractor had two forward speeds, either 2.2 or 4 MPH. The 20-40 was considered a road-building and maintenance tractor as well as a farm tractor. To help reduce shock, the front and rear axles were spring mounted, a rarity for the time. The name "Steel King" derives from the fact that most of the parts were made from steel or semi-steel, except for some engine parts. It used a Centrifugal governor rather than the older hit-and-miss governors.
The Hart-Parr 30-60 "Old Reliable" is a 2-cylinder Kerosine burning that weighed 10 tons that was built from at least 1913. The engine displaces 2356 cubic inches The tractor is a dual front-wheel style. The 30-60 is so named as it generates 30 horsepower at 300 RPM. at the drawbar and 60 at the pulley. The tractor produces over a thousand pounds of torque. It employs a unique elliptical reverser to allow it to reverse. Ignition impulse is provided by a battery during start-up and a dynomo once the flywheel gains speed. It contains 200 quarts of light oil for coolant, so it never freezes.
By 1915 the sod-busting or “Prairie” style tractor tractors were becoming obsolete as they were far too big and clumsy for the average farmer of the time. The need for smaller tractors led to the two-stroke “Little Devil” which was a complete failure and the tractors were recalled. It was rated at 15-22.
In 1918, Hart-Parr released the “New Hart Parr” 12-25 model. This tractor was significantly smaller than the old “Prairie” style tractor tractors. The 12-25 model formed the basis for all subsequent Hart-Parr tractors and was equipped with a two-cylinder, slow-speed, un-pressurized water-cooled engine. It used forced feed lubrication and open gears used to drive the rear wheels. As required by law in the state of Nebraska, it was tested at the University of Nebraska and re-rated at 15-30. The 15-30 design was upgraded in 1924 to become the 16-30. The Desing was again upgraded in 1926 to become the 18-36. Hart Parr built the 18-36 till 1930.
W.H. Williams, Sales Manager in 1907, decided the words "traction engine" were vague and too long to be used in press releases, so he coined the word "Tractor", a combination of the words "traction" and "power", instead. For this reason, and because the Charles City plant was the first to be continuously and exclusively used for tractor production, Hart-Parr often used the slogan "Founders of the Tractor Industry" in their advertising.[12][13][14]
Nichols and Shepard Company
In 1848, John Nichols opened a
Later acquisitions
For the first couple of years, the tractors carried the Oliver-Hart-Parr designation, but the Hart-Parr essence soon disappeared, just as an entirely new line of purely Oliver tractors made their appearance.
McKenzie Manufacturing Company
Following the 1929 merger of the four companies into the Oliver Farm Equipment Company, several other corporate acquisitions were made by the new company over a period of years. The first of these post-merger acquisitions occurred a mere year later, in 1930, when the Oliver Farm Equipment Company purchased the McKenzie Manufacturing Company of
Ann Arbor Agricultural Machine Company
In 1943, the Oliver Farm Equipment Company purchased the Ann Arbor Agricultural Machine Company of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1885, the Ann Arbor Agricultural Machine Company became the leading manufacturer of "hay presses" or stationary balers.
Cletrac
The Cleveland Tractor Company was created by Rollin H. White in 1916.[15] In 1918 the name was switched to Cletrac.[16] Later they became a part of the Oliver family in 1944. At the October 3, 1944 stockholders meeting, with approval of the stockholders, the corporate name was changed to "The Oliver Corporation".[17] In 1962 White Motors bought Oliver, thus bringing Cletrac back to the White Family.[16] Unfortunately, they didn't seem to miss Cletrac at all, and only three years later, crawler tractor production ended at Charles City in 1965.
A.B. Farquhar Company
In 1952 the A.B. Farquhar Company was sold to the Oliver Corporation. Founded in York, Pennsylvania, in the 1850s as W.W. Dingee & Co, in 1861 young businessman Arthur Briggs Farquhar bought the business and enlarged it during the Civil War as the Pennsylvania Agricultural Works. In 1889, the A. B. Farquhar Company began building threshing machines and other farm machinery. Later, the company started the production of cultivators for farm use (especially potato harvesting equipment). Farquhar produced some steam engines early then moved onto the production of traction engines.
Product development
Crawlers
In 1944 Oliver acquired the Cleveland Tractor Company (Cletrac). They continued production of the existing Cletrac HG model until 1951, and based on the experience with
In 1956 Oliver announced the slightly larger OC-4 with a four-cylinder Hercules IXB3 engine. In late 1957 (diesel) and early 1958 (gas) OC-4's came equipped with 3 cylinder Hercules 130 engines. Most noticeable was the change to a 'beefier' more industrial front grill. In 1962 at the new Charles City, Iowa crawler production line, the last incarnation of the OC-4 was produced. It was a sturdier industrial model named the Series B. They were powered with the same 3 cylinder Hercules GO-130 and DD-130 engines of the mid-series models. The OC-4 product line was discontinued in 1965.
Oliver also produced larger crawlers: the OC-6 from 1953 to 1960; the OC-9 from 1959 to 1965; the OC-12 from 1954 to 1961; and the OC-15 and the large OC-18.
All crawler production was halted in 1965.
Tractors
In 1948, Oliver was ready with an entirely new line of tractors. These were built over the successes of the past, including the Oliver 60, 70, and 80 tractors.
The latter was even built with a diesel engine, although very few were sold. However, in the 1950s, Oliver was an industry leader through their promotion of diesel power. Oliver led the industry in the sale of diesel tractors for several years.
The
In 1958, Oliver began marketing the new
Non-agricultural products
During the war years of the 1940s Oliver Corporation expanded rapidly into non-agricultural production, most notably in the defense sector. By 1947, the Oliver Corporation employed 9,000 with 37% of Oliver's production for defense contracts. Product lines included graders, forklifts, road rollers, crawlers, and power units incorporated into products by other companies.
Oliver also built airplane fuselages for
Acquisition by White Motor Corporation
Oliver Corporation
Further mergers, acquisitions, and branding
White also acquired Cockshutt Farm Equipment of Canada in February 1962, and it was made a subsidiary of Oliver Corporation. Cockshutt had also previously, in 1928, marketed tractors made by Hart-Parr, and again from 1934 through the late 1940s it marketed tractors made by Oliver, only changing the paint color to red, and changing the name tags to Cockshutt. Minneapolis-Moline became a wholly owned subsidiary of White Motor Corporation in 1963. The Cockshutt production line was dropped and went back to using Olivers painted red. The Minneapolis-Moline and Oliver lines were blended until there was virtually no difference between them.
In 1960, the new four-digit tractor models appeared. Among them were the 1600,
White Motor Corporation shut down the original Oliver Chilled Plow Works factory (factory no. 1) in 1985. The Oliver buildings remained vacant until 2002 when most were demolished to make way for an industrial park. The Oliver powerhouse is now restored and occupied by Rose Brick & Material.
FIAT tractors were marketed under the Oliver name in the mid 1970s, such as the Oliver 1465 tractor. Oliver tractors with FIAT gages were available in 1970.
Today White is an AGCO brand. AGCO was formed in 1990 by former Deutz-Allis executives. The executives took over Deutz-Allis and then purchased the White tractor line in 1991. The White tractor line was produced by AGCO from 1991 through 2001 when the White line was merged with AGCO-Allis to create the AGCO brand. The White name continues on under AGCO with the White Planter division.
Legacy
More information about Oliver Tractors can be found in Oliver Heritage Magazine.
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 9780879387426. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
- ^ ISBN 9780873415071. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
- ^ Davis, H. Gail (1908). "The Story of James Oliver and The Oliver Chilled Plow Works". 1. Personal Papers collection housed in the Archives of the Center for History, South Bend, Indiana: n/a. Archived from the original on August 25, 2009.
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(help) - ^ United States Patent Office, Letters Patent No. 17694, "Improvement in Chilling Plowshares," June 30, 1857, to James Oliver and Harvey Little.
- ^ Meikle, Douglas Laing, "James Oliver and the Oliver Chilled Plow Works." unpublished thesis, June 1958. To learn more about the Oliver company visit Oliver Chilled Plow Works online history Archived August 25, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Labor Riots in Progress". New York Times. January 14, 1885.
- ^ "Labor Riots". Chicago Daily Tribune. January 14, 1885.
- ^ "Industrial News". Chicago Daily Tribune. February 20, 1885.
- ^ Putnam, E H (July 1897). "Locomotive Firemen's Magazine, Vol 23, No 1". Retrieved February 16, 2020.
- ^ ISBN 9780879388539. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
- ^ "Hart-Parr #3 Tractor". americanhistory.si.edu. Smithsonian. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
- ISSN 0003-4827.
- ^ ""What does it cost to plow an acre?" [advertisement]". Journal of the American Bankers Association. 12: 569. March 1920. Retrieved January 19, 2016.
- ^ ""The 1923 Hart-Parr Franchise Is Now Ready" [advertisement]". Tractor and Gas Engine Review. 15: 13. October 1922. Retrieved January 19, 2016.
- ^ "CLETRAC, INC". Encyclopedia of Cleveland History | Case Western Reserve University. May 11, 2018. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
- ^ a b "Farm Collector". Farm Collector. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
- ^ a b Culbertson, John D (2001). The Tractor Builders: The People Behind the Production of Hart-Parr/Oliver/White. Sunrise Hill Associates. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
Further reading
- Oliver Tractor Data Book, Motorbooks International, ISBN 978-0-7603-1083-0
- Classic Oliver Tractors: History, Models, Variations & Specifications 1855-1976, Motorbooks International, ISBN 978-0-7603-3199-6