Developed by the late 1800s, the horse-drawn hay rake, like many of the farm implements here at Stuhr Museum, reveals the transition from human power to horse power that took place during the second half of the nineteenth century. By using the hay rake alongside the mower – an example of which you can see right next to this rake – farmers could cut and gather their hay in a matter of a few days, depending on the size of their farms. By using these horse-drawn implements, farmers spent less time working in the heat and less money hiring and feeding extra hands to help with the process. In the centuries before the widespread use of the mower and the hay rake, farmers (and their hired hands) used scythes, grain cradles, handheld rakes, or similar tools to cut and gather their hay, often taking several days to complete this part of the process.
In order to use a hay rake like this one, a farmer hitched the tongue to a pair of horses who pulled the rake forward. The rake’s tines gathered the hay, which had been cut by the mower, as the rake was pulled along. Once a sufficient amount of hay had been gathered in the tines, the farmer stopped the horses and had them back up in order to release the hay into piles. Then the farmer repeated the process until the hay had been gathered into several piles around the field to be bundled and stacked.
By the turn of the twentieth century, inventors had made improvements to the horse-drawn hay rake. One of the most important changes was the addition of a dumping mechanism which allowed the farmer, who sat in the seat on top of the rake, to drop the gathered hay without having to back the rake up. If you look closely at the hay rake here, you will notice a handle at one side of the seat. When the farmer, riding on the seat, decided it was time to dump the hay from the tines, he stopped the horses and released the gathered hay by pulling on that handle. The handle was a form of lever which lifted all of the tines up at an angle, allowing the hay to fall into a pile on the ground. The farmer then pushed the handle back in order to lower the tines for the next section of hay to be gathered. By using this self-dumping mechanism, a farmer could save even more time during the hay gathering process.
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A close-up of the self-dumping mechanism next to the seat.
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Unfortunately, we have been unable to identify the maker of this hay rake. Looking at the quality of construction and the fact that several parts have part numbers, we might claim that either a manufacturing company or a highly skilled individual assembled this hay rake possibly sometime around 1910. Although we are unsure of the hay rake’s identity, we can clearly identify the maker of the wheels on this implement as the Bettendorf Metal Wheel Company of Davenport, Iowa.
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The hub of the Bettendorf Metal Company Wheel, with
its September 1, 1885 patent date. |
William Peter Bettendorf, and his younger brother, Joseph William, began their company in 1886, getting financial aide from E. P. Lynch, the president of Eagle Manufacturing Company. William and Joseph were the two oldest children of German immigrants who eventually settled in Peru, Illinois in 1872. While in Peru, William worked at the A. L. Shepard & Company hardware store and at the Peru Plow Company as a machinist’s apprentice. While at the Peru Plow Company, William patented an early “power lift” sulky plow in 1878, a plow which led to $5,000 in royalties from seven manufacturers who wished to use his designs. He then moved on to work for two other companies in Moline and Canton, Illinois before returning to Peru Plow Company as superintendent in 1882.
By some point in 1883, William invented the Bettendorf Metal Wheel which was made of an iron hub and steel spokes. He then invented the machinery to make the wheels. Unable to get the Peru Plow Company to fund his projects, William looked elsewhere for support, eventually finding it in E. P. Lynch of the Eagle Manufacturing Company. Not long after William and his brother, Joseph, started the Bettendorf Metal Wheel Company in Davenport, Iowa, they found a huge market for their products. In 1890, they added a second, larger plant in Springfield, Ohio. William, ever the inventor and risk-taker, sold his interests in Bettendorf Metal Wheel in 1892; and two years later, he and Joseph started a new venture which they incorporated as the Bettendorf Axle Company in 1895.1
After two disastrous fires in 1902, the brothers moved their new company to the nearby town of Gilbert which was renamed Bettendorf the following year. Eventually the brothers focused their attention on railroad cars, William patenting several designs, including the “Bettendorf frame.” William died in 1910 at the age of 53, but Joseph continued the company’s success, renaming it simply the Bettendorf Company. Joseph died in 1933 at the age of 68; but his two sons, Edwin J. and William, continued the family’s presence in the company. As far as the original Bettendorf Metal Wheel Company in Davenport was concerned, the owners after William left in 1892 continued the company’s success, making wheels for wagons, trucks, and farm equipment like the hay rake seen here at Stuhr Museum. Although it is difficult to date this hay rake, the design for the dumping mechanism on this hay rake somewhat resembles those found in patent drawings from the first decade of the twentieth century. The manufacturer or individual who built the rake might have acquired the Bettendorf wheels from the Davenport factory or from a Bettendorf agent at some point around 1910.
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A 1909 advertisement for the Bettendorf Metal Wheel.
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Notes
1 The patent for the Bettendorf Wheel design is Patent 325585, dated September 1, 1885. William applied for this patent on August 24, 1883. You can view and download the patent here.
2 A very good source for the Bettendorf brothers and their ventures is Pam Rees, “Bettendorf, William Peter,” The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2009). This source can be found online here.
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