Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer's Harvesting Implements: June 2014

1931 Replica McCormick Reaper

A copy of Cyrus McCormick’s 1831 reaper, this replica reaper was built by International Harvester Company in 1931 to celebrate the machine’s centennial. I.H.C. made about 300 of these replicas and gave them to colleges, museums, and individuals throughout the U.S. and Canada. Many of these replica reapers were put on display for the public. Along with these replicas, I.H.C. also had a commemorative coin minted to celebrate the centennial in 1931.
Successfully tested in July 1831, the McCormick reaper was one of the most significant inventions of the 19th century. By studying this replica – you are looking at the rear from the walkway – you can see firsthand the reaper’s many significant parts. 1) It has a straight sickle bar at the front of the platform that reciprocated side to side as the reaper was pulled forward, the sickle bar being attached to the wheel axle by gears. 2) It has guards or fingers (they look like teeth) sticking out front with the sickle bar. Those guards guide the grain into the sickle bar blade and hold the grain so it gets cut cleanly and falls neatly onto the platform. 3) It has a reel that revolves, pushing the grain into the sickle bar while holding the grain heads up as the stalks get cut. 4) It has a platform to catch the grain as it falls. A person would rake the cut grain off into piles to be tied. 5) It has a wide wheel directly behind the hitched horse. That wheel is attached by gears to all of the moving parts so that it activated those parts as the reaper was pulled forward. 6) It has a line of draft wherein the horse walked on grain that had already been cut while the reaper cut standing grain. And 7) It has a divider on the side of the platform opposite the horse and wheel which neatly divided the cut grain from the standing grain.

From Reuben Gold Thwaites, Cyrus Hall
McCormick and the Reaper, published in 1909.

The original inventor of this reaper was Cyrus Hall McCormick. The great-grandson of Scotch-Irish immigrants, Cyrus was born on February 15, 1809 in Virginia. Cyrus’ father, Robert, was an inventive farmer who began working on designs for a reaper as early as 1809. After helping his father with his later reaper designs, which were mildly effective, Cyrus developed his own reaper and successfully demonstrated it, as stated above, in July 1831. After moving to Chicago in 1847, Cyrus became business partners with C. M. Gray. That partnership only lasted a few months. In October 1848, Cyrus formed McCormick, Ogden & Company along with William B. Ogden and William E. Jones. By September 1849, Ogden and Jones sold their share to McCormick, leaving him with the business.

After splitting with Ogden and Jones, Cyrus brought his brothers, Leander and William, to help him with the business, and they helped him turn his company into one of the largest in the world. After William died in 1865, Cyrus and Leander got into a series of disputes, probably relating to incidents from their long past together. On August 11, 1879, the two brothers organized McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, with Cyrus receiving three-fourths interest and Leander one-fourth. Personal problems, however, continued to plague their relationship. After Cyrus died in 1884, problems arose between Leander and Cyrus’ family. Finally, in 1890, Cyrus’ widow, Nancy, and their son, Cyrus, Jr., bought Leander’s share in the company for $3.25 million, a very large amount of money at that time. Leander died in 1900. In 1902, the McCormick heirs became part of the group that created International Harvester Company; that group included stockholders and managers of the Milwaukee Harvester Company, the Deering Harvester Company, the Plano Harvester Company, and the Warder, Bushnell & Glessner Company.

Notes

Information on McCormick can be found in C. H. Wendel, 150 Years of International Harvester (Sarasota, FL: Crestline Publishing Company, 1981).
You can see McCormick's 1847 patent for his reaper, patent 5335, by clicking or touching here.

c. 1920s Letz Model 110 Type A Feed Grinder

This feed grinder (serial #801768), sometimes called a buhr mill or grinding mill, was made by the Letz Manufacturing Company in Crown Point, Indiana. Looking around this part of the exhibit, you will quickly notice this is one of four Letz feed grinders.
The Letz Manufacturing Company had a long history before the company produced Stuhr Museum's feed grinders. The company was founded by Louis Letz, a German immigrant to the United States. Louis, the son of a German farm machinery builder in Steinbach, Hallenberg, Germany, first settled with his wife and three young children in Chicago, Illinois. Growing weary of the big city, Louis and his family moved to Crown Point, Indiana, in 1881, where he started the Crown Point Manufacturing Company. He soon began manufacturing his first feed mill.
Spurred on by supporters, Letz entered his mills into several competitions, including the 1890 Paris Fair, the 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. He garnered awards and acclaim at these events, and his company slowly grew. Louis died in 1908, but his children, George, John, Otto, William, Ludwig, Eva, and Carol continued the business. George, John, and William published several patents for feed grinders and similar machinery during the 1910s to 1930s. The company closed it doors in 1965, after eight decades in the feed grinder business.
Feed grinders first came on the scene by the 1860s, although many farmers did not have a horse treadmill to power them. By the early 1900s, however, as more and more farmers purchased not just horse treadmills but early gas engines like the examples here at Stuhr Museum, the feed grinder became very popular. The Letz Manufacturing Company was one of many companies developing very effective mills for grinding a wide variety of plants into feed. The four Letz grinders here at Stuhr Museum show part of the offerings farmers had to choose from as they considered how they were going to feed their cattle and pigs in the 1920s and 1930s. During the 1930s, the hammermill gradually replaced the feed grinder, or buhr mill, as the tool for preparing animal feed.
You can see a video of a Letz Model 110 in action, powered by a Farmall tractor and used to grind up whole corn cobs, by clicking or touching here. You can view another video of another Letz feed grinder in action, powered by a 1940s John Deere engine, by clicking or touching here.

From The Country Gentleman, vol. LXXXIII,
no. 50 (December 14, 1918).

c. 1920s Letz Model 210 Type A Feed Grinder

This feed grinder, sometimes called a buhr mill or grinding mill, was made by the Letz Manufacturing Company in Crown Point, Indiana. Looking around this part of the exhibit, you will quickly notice this is one of four Letz feed grinders.
The Letz Manufacturing Company had a long history before the company produced Stuhr Museum's feed grinders. The company was founded by Louis Letz, a German immigrant to the United States. Louis, the son of a German farm machinery builder in Steinbach, Hallenberg, Germany, first settled with his wife and three young children in Chicago, Illinois. Growing weary of the big city, Louis and his family moved to Crown Point, Indiana, in 1881, where he started the Crown Point Manufacturing Company. He soon began manufacturing his first feed mill.
Spurred on by supporters, Letz entered his mills into several competitions, including the 1890 Paris Fair, the 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. He garnered awards and acclaim at these events, and his company slowly grew. Louis died in 1908, but his children, George, John, Otto, William, Ludwig, Eva, and Carol continued the business. George, John, and William published several patents for feed grinders and similar machinery during the 1910s to 1930s. The company closed it doors in 1965, after eight decades in the feed grinder business.
Feed grinders first came on the scene by the 1860s, although many farmers did not have a horse treadmill to power them. By the early 1900s, however, as more and more farmers purchased not just horse treadmills but early gas engines like the examples here at Stuhr Museum, the feed grinder became very popular. The Letz Manufacturing Company was one of many companies developing very effective mills for grinding a wide variety of plants into feed. The four Letz grinders here at Stuhr Museum show part of the offerings farmers had to choose from as they considered how they were going to feed their cattle and pigs in the 1920s and 1930s. During the 1930s, the hammermill gradually replaced the feed grinder, or buhr mill, as the tool for preparing animal feed.
You can see a video of a Letz Model 110 in action, powered by a Farmall tractor and used to grind up whole corn cobs, by clicking or touching here. You can view another video of another Letz feed grinder in action, powered by a 1940s John Deere engine, by clicking or touching here.

From The Country Gentleman, vol. LXXXIII,
no. 50 (December 14, 1918).

c. 1890 Letz Feed Mill Grinding Disk

This grinding disk, sometimes called a buhr or millstone, was made sometime after its October 7, 1890 patent date by the Letz Manufacturing Company in Crown Point, Indiana. You can view the patent for this millstone as a pdf here.
The Letz Manufacturing Company had a long history before the company produced Stuhr Museum's feed grinders and grinding disk. The company was founded by Louis Holland Letz, a German immigrant to the United States. Louis, the son of a German farm machinery builder in Steinbach, Hallenberg, Germany, first settled with his wife and three young children in Chicago, Illinois. Growing weary of the big city, Louis and his family moved to Crown Point, Indiana, in 1881, where he started the Crown Point Manufacturing Company. He soon began manufacturing his first feed mill.
Spurred on by supporters, Letz entered his mills into several competitions, including the 1890 Paris Fair, the 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. He garnered awards and acclaim at these events, and his company slowly grew. Louis died in 1908, but his children, George, John, Otto, William, Ludwig, Eva, and Carol continued the business. George, John, and William published several patents for feed grinders and similar machinery during the 1910s to 1930s. The company closed it doors in 1965, after eight decades in the feed grinder business.
Feed grinders first came on the scene by the 1860s, although many farmers did not have a horse treadmill to power them. By the early 1900s, however, as more and more farmers purchased not just horse treadmills but early gas engines like the examples here at Stuhr Museum, the feed grinder became very popular. The Letz Manufacturing Company was one of many companies developing very effective mills for grinding a wide variety of plants into feed. The four Letz grinders here at Stuhr Museum show part of the offerings farmers had to choose from as they considered how they were going to feed their cattle and pigs in the 1920s and 1930s. During the 1930s, the hammermill gradually replaced the feed grinder, or buhr mill, as the tool for preparing animal feed.

Farm Implements, vol. XXIX,
no. 9 (September 30, 1915).

c. 1930s Letz Model 430 Type A Feed Grinder

From The Country Gentleman, vol. LXXXIII,
no. 50 (December 14, 1918).

Feed grinders first came on the scene by the 1860s, although many farmers did not have a horse treadmill to power them. By the early 1900s, however, as more and more farmers purchased not just horse treadmills but early gas engines like the examples here at Stuhr Museum, the feed grinder became very popular. The Letz Manufacturing Company was one of many companies developing very effective mills for grinding a wide variety of plants into feed. The four Letz grinders here at Stuhr Museum show part of the offerings farmers had to choose from as they considered how they were going to feed their cattle and pigs in the 1920s and 1930s. During the 1930s, the hammermill gradually replaced the feed grinder, or buhr mill, as the tool for preparing animal feed.

As you can see, this feed grinder has a conveyor belt which made loading corn cobs into the machine much easier. A farmer or hired hand needed only to shovel the corn onto the conveyor and let the belt take it from there. Unlike the other feed grinders in this exhibit, this Model 430 also has an elevator which made it possible to load the finely ground feed into a bin for storage, or onto a truck for transport.
You can see a video of a Letz Model 110 in action, powered by a Farmall tractor and used to grind up whole corn cobs, by clicking or touching here. You can view another video of another Letz feed grinder in action, powered by a 1940s John Deere engine, by clicking or touching here.

c. 1926 John Deere Binder

This binder was made by Deere & Company of Moline, Illinois. Like the International Harvester Company binder here in Stuhr Museum's exhibit, this John Deere binder was used to cut, gather, and bind grain together in one quick process. Unlike the International Harvester binder, this John Deere example is lacking the reels which would have been attached to the bar running across the top of the binder. If you look closely, you might see where the reels would have been attached to that bar.
As horses or a tractor pulled this binder forward, the reels, were they attached, would have rotated, pushing the grain into the sickle, or cutting bar at the binder's front. The sickle bar moved from side to side in order to better cut the grain. Guards – they look like teeth – held the grain in place as it was cut. After the sickle bar cut the grain, the reel pushed the grain onto the canvas.
The canvas, wrapped around a series of bars connected to gears, carried the cut grain past the driver's seat up into the binding mechanism. While inside the mechanism, the grain was bound with twine and then spit out onto the fingers you see near the walkway to the north. The bound grain then fell onto the ground where it sat waiting to be stacked, or shocked.

You can see a 36 second video of a John Deere binder very similar to this one in action, being pulled by a tractor, by clicking or touching here. Or you can watch a 3 minute and 8 second video of another John Deere binder being pulled by a John Deere tractor by clicking or touching here. To see a 2 minute and 35 second video of an International Harvester Company binder at work, and of men shocking the grain after it had been bound, click or touch here.

c. 1920s McCormick-Deering Reaper

This reaper was made by International Harvester Company in Chicago, Illinois. Like the nearby Royal Royce reaper, this reaper was used to cut and gather grain. Unlike the Royal Royce reaper, this example is lacking the seat which would be located on the walkway side of the main wheel. As this reaper was pulled forward by a pair of horses, the arm rakes, which are connected by gears to the wheel axle, rotated around. As the reaper moved forward, those arm rakes pushed the grain into the sickle bar at the front of the platform, holding the grain heads firm to get a clean cut. The grain then fell onto the platform where the arm rakes pushed it into piles off the platform's side. Hired hands or members of the farmer's family followed behind, gathering up the cut grain and binding it by hand with a piece of straw or with binder twine.

On August 12, 1902, International Harvester Company, the builder of this reaper, was formed when an agreement was made between people representing five different firms that specialized in harvesting equipment. Those firms were the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company; the Deering Harvester Company; the Plano Harvester Company; the Warder, Bushnell & Glessner Company; and the Milwaukee Harvester Company.

c. 1920s J. I. Case Threshing Machine

This threshing machine – sometimes called a thrashing machine, thresher, or separator – was made by the J. I. Case Threshing Machine Company of Racine, Wisconsin. Like the Sawyer-Massey and Emerson-Brantingham threshers here in Stuhr Museum's exhibit, this Case model was used to separate the edible part of grain from the rest of the plant. Before the development of the threshing machine, farmers and their families or hired hands usually crushed the grain plants (hay, chaff, and kernels) on the floor of their barns or on a specially created indoor or outdoor threshing floor.
The farmers, family members, and hired hands would stomp on the grain themselves, walk animals on top of the grain, or beat the grain with a flail to loosen the chaff from the kernels. Taking advantage of the breeze to separate the straw from the rest of the grain, they swept up the remaining grain to be further processed in a fanning mill or through winnowing which separated the chaff from the kernels. This was time-consuming and tiring work.
With the development of threshing machines, the time spent separating the kernels from the rest of the grain plant was significantly shortened. Instead of hauling the cut and bundled grain to the barn to be separated, the thresher could be hauled out into the field along with a steam engine or tractor. As the whole grain plants were carried to the thresher in wagons, the farmers or hired hands pitched the grain plants onto a conveyor at one end of the machine. Powered by the steam engine or tractor, the thresher's conveyor carried the grain plants into the thresher body where it first separated the straw from the chaff and kernels. The thresher then loosened and separated the kernels from the chaff, emptying the kernels into a wagon to be taken to market, and emptying the rest of the plant into a pile to be used as fodder, to be composted into the ground, or to be burned.
To get a feel for the look and the sound of a running thresher, you can view a 52 second video here.
This Case thresher has five faded but still readable patent dates printed on it, including:
May 2, 1899, which probably corresponds to patent 624333, which you can view here;
January 9, 1900, which corresponds to patent 640997, which you can view here;
November 27, 1906 and November 5, 1907, for which we have not found corresponding patents; and
December 23, 1919, which corresponds to patent 1325691, which you can view here.

Beginning production of threshers in the 1840s, Jerome Increase Case created a company that would continually be on the leading edge of not only the thresher market but also the tractor and other farm implement markets over the decades. In 1904, for example, Case's company was the first to announce that its threshers would be all steel, a change that caused a bit of a stir at the time. When the advantages of steel became apparent – the steel threshers weathered better than the wooden ones and did not catch fire like the wooden ones – many of the threshing machine companies were producing steel threshers within a few years. When Stuhr Museum's Case thresher was made – probably in the 1920s – the threshing machine was already being used less and less, gradually being replaced by the combine harvester, a machine that essentially combined the actions of a reaper and a thresher. By 1930, the end of the thresher's run as one of the most important tools on the farm was drawing near. Despite the thresher's decline, Case continued to build them until the early 1950s.

Notes

A great source for Case products, including the threshing machines, is C. H. Wendel, 150 Years of J. I. Case (Iola, WI: KP Books, 2005).

Late 19th to Early 20th Century Sawyer & Massey Threshing Machine

This threshing machine – sometimes called a thrashing machine, thresher, or separator – was made by the Sawyer & Massey Company, Limited, of Hamilton, Ontario. It was reportedly used near Ailsa Craig, Ontario, an agricultural center for that part of the Canadian province.
Started in Hamilton in 1835 or 1836 by John Fisher, the firm that would become Sawyer & Massey built its first threshing machine in 1836. That same year, Fisher was joined in the company by his cousin, Calvin McQuesten. In the early 1840s, they were joined by L. D., Payson, and Samuel Sawyer, nephews of McQuesten and highly skilled machinists. The Sawyers gradually became leaders of the company, and when Fisher died in 1856, the company became L. D. Sawyer & Company.
In 1889, Hart A., Walter E., and Chester D. Massey acquired 40% interest in the company, and Hart became president of the company. The company was soon reorganized and renamed the Sawyer & Massey Company, Limited. In 1910, the Masseys withdrew from the company and it was reorganized again, this time being called the Sawyer-Massey Company.

Like the Emerson-Brantingham and J. I. Case threshers here in Stuhr Museum's exhibit, this Sawyer-Massey model was used to separate the edible part of grain from the rest of the plant. Before the development of the threshing machine, farmers and their families or hired hands usually crushed the grain plants (hay, chaff, and kernels) on the floor of their barns or on a specially created indoor or outdoor threshing floor.
The farmers, family members, and hired hands would stomp on the grain themselves, walk animals on top of the grain, or beat the grain with a flail to loosen the chaff from the kernels. Taking advantage of the breeze to separate the straw from the rest of the grain, they swept up the remaining grain to be further processed in a fanning mill or through winnowing which separated the chaff from the kernels. This was time-consuming and tiring work.
With the development of threshing machines, the time spent separating the kernels from the rest of the grain plant was significantly shortened. Instead of hauling the cut and bundled grain to the barn to be separated, the thresher could be hauled out into the field along with a steam engine or tractor. As the whole grain plants were carried to the thresher in wagons, the farmers or hired hands pitched the grain plants onto a conveyor at one end of the machine. Powered by the steam engine or tractor, the thresher's conveyor carried the grain plants into the thresher body where it first separated the straw from the chaff and kernels. The thresher then loosened and separated the kernels from the chaff, emptying the kernels into a wagon to be taken to market, and emptying the rest of the plant into a pile to be used as fodder, to be composted into the ground, or to be burned.

Notes

You can access a longer narrative of the Sawyer & Massey Company's history, compiled by Roy Botterill, on a Smokstak thread here.

c. 1912-1924 Emerson-Brantingham Threshing Machine with Farmer's Friend Stacker

This threshing machine – sometimes called a thrashing machine, thresher, or separator – was made by the Emerson-Brantingham Company at its Geiser Works factory in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. Emerson-Brantingham, based in Rockford, Illinois, acquired the Geiser Manufacturing Company in 1912, the maker of the Peerless Thresher. In that same year, the company also acquired Reeves & Company, a firm that made the Farmer's Friend stacker.

Like the Sawyer-Massey and J. I. Case threshers here in Stuhr Museum's exhibit, this Emerson-Brantingham model was used to separate the edible part of grain from the rest of the plant. Before the development of the threshing machine, farmers and their families or hired hands usually crushed the grain plants (hay, chaff, and kernels) on the floor of their barns or on a specially created indoor or outdoor threshing floor.
The farmers, family members, and hired hands would stomp on the grain themselves, walk animals on top of the grain, or beat the grain with a flail to loosen the chaff from the kernels. Taking advantage of the breeze to separate the straw from the rest of the grain, they swept up the remaining grain to be further processed in a fanning mill or through winnowing which separated the chaff from the kernels. This was time-consuming and tiring work.
With the development of threshing machines, the time spent separating the kernels from the rest of the grain plant was significantly shortened. Instead of hauling the cut and bundled grain to the barn to be separated, the thresher could be hauled out into the field along with a steam engine or tractor. As the whole grain plants were carried to the thresher in wagons, the farmers or hired hands pitched the grain plants onto a conveyor at one end of the machine. Powered by the steam engine or tractor, the thresher's conveyor carried the grain plants into the thresher body where it first separated the straw from the chaff and kernels. The thresher then loosened and separated the kernels from the chaff, emptying the kernels into a wagon to be taken to market, and emptying the rest of the plant into a pile to be used as fodder, to be composted into the ground, or to be burned.

Notes

Information on the 1912 purchase of the Geiser Manufacturing Company and Reeves & Company can be found in The Implement Age, vol. XV, no. 5 (August 3, 1912), p. 20.
Information on the New Peerless thresher is from C. H. Wendel, Encyclopedia of American Farm Implements & Antiques, 2nd ed. (Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2004), p. 412.
In addition, Emerson-Brantingham also purchased the Gas Traction Engine Company, the maker of the Big Four tractor. There is a Big Four tractor made by Emerson-Brantingham here in Stuhr Museum's exhibit.

Late 19th Century "Flop Over" Hay Rake

Becoming popular by the mid-1800s, the "flop over" hay rake enabled farmers to gather and more easily dump hay and other grasses being gathering during the harvest. After cutting hay or another grass with a mower like the nearby Milwaukee No. 5, a farmer would gather the cut hay by using a rake like this one, probably pulled by two horses.
As the rake moved forward, the cut hay would gather on the front of the tines. When enough hay had accumulated, the farmer, who walked behind the rake, simply pulled up on the handle. When the farmer pulled up on the handle, that action caused the front of the tines to dig into the ground, which in turn caused the tines to upset so that the back of the tines flopped over and became the front. This upsetting motion dumped the gathered hay onto the ground and left the tines empty to acquire more hay.

As you walk around Stuhr Museum's farm machinery exhibit, you will see a variety of tools used to plant and harvest hay and other grasses. The basic process involved sorting the grass seeds to be planted with a fanning mill like the Johnston & Linihan Gem Grain Grader found near the center of the exhibit building. Once the best seeds were sorted out, or graded, they were loaded into a planter like the wheelbarrow grass seeder located near this "flop over" hay rake. The nearby harrow might be used to help cover the seeds with soil.
After the grass had grown tall enough to be harvested, a mower like the Milwaukee No. 5 was used to cut the grass. After the grass was cut, a hay tedder like the Osborne example in this exhibit, might be used to toss the hay, aiding with the drying and curing process. Then a rake like this "flop over" hay rake or the nearby "self-dumping" hay rake was used to gather the grass into piles or windrows. The gathered grass was then often rolled up or baled for storage or for market.

Late 19th to Early 20th Century Osborne Hay Tedder

The Osborne hay tedder was developed by the D. M. Osborne Company of Auburn, New York, in the 1890s. Between 1904 and 1917, it was manufactured by International Harvester Company.
Developed during the late-1800s, the hay tedder was made to imitate the motion of a person tossing hay into the air with a pitchfork. After cutting hay with a mower like the Milwaukee No. 5 nearby in this exhibit, a farmer might try to speed up the hay's drying and curing process by going over it with a tedder. Pulled by horses, this tedder's arms, connected by gears to the wheel axle, moved up and down. The tines at the end of the arms moved underneath the cut hay, lifting the hay off the ground and tossing it into the air. This action "fluffed" the hay, allowing air to move under and around the hay and not just over it.
Tedding hay was especially important to farmers who wished to dry their hay before future rain made drying more difficult, or after a rain in order to redistribute the accumulated moisture to speed up drying. Once the hay was sufficiently dried, a farmer could use a hay rake like the one nearby in this exhibit to gather the hay into windrows for baling.
You can view Charles S. Sharp's patent for the Osborne Tedder, patent 589796, published on September 7, 1897, as a pdf here. You can see a 25 second video of a horse pulling a similar International Harvester Company hay tedder here. For a video of a newer design of hay tedder in use, click or touch here.

Notes

You can access Wikipedia's article on hay tedders, which is very informative, here.

Late 19th to Early 20th Century Hoover Potato Digger

Before the development of the mechanized potato digger, farmers typically dug up their potatoes by hand, with a tool like a hoe, or with a plow. By the mid-1800s, some farmers and blacksmiths began creating new tools to help with the digging process. It was not until 1885, however, that a farmer in Ohio named Isaac Hoover came up with the basis for one of the most effective potato diggers ever made.¹ His potato digger would initially help him and his neighbors save time, energy, and the pain that accompanies hard physical labor. By the 1910s, the Hoover Potato Digger was aiding thousands of potato farmers around the world.

The potato digger at Stuhr Museum is set up to be pulled by horses, although it could be set up to be pulled by engines and tractors. As the horses (perhaps a team of four or six) pulled the digger, the blade in front would dig just deep enough into the ground to grab the potatoes, along with dirt, rocks, and vines. As the digger continued forward, the potatoes and debris would be forced up to the metal conveyor belt which allowed the finer dirt and smaller rocks to fall to the ground. At the top, an attachment with thin metal poles separated the potatoes from the rest of the debris, depositing the potatoes on top of the ground behind the digger. The farmer would sit in the seat to guide the digger and make sure the process was running smoothly while a couple of boys or hired hands would walk behind picking up the potatoes. By using this digger, a farmer could save weeks harvesting his potato crop. Unfortunately, Stuhr Museum’s digger lacks the top attachment with metal poles that separated the potatoes from vines and other debris that did not fall through the conveyor belt. The farmer who used this digger may have simply done without it. If you would like to see a short video of a Hoover potato digger in action, giving you an impression of how it worked and what it might have sounded like, click or touch here.

An advertisement from The Implement Age, vol. XL, no. 2
(July 13, 1912), page 6, showing the potato digger with
additional separator attachment at the rear and the
assembled tongue attachment with wheels for a team
of horses at the front.

Born near Sand Hill, Ohio in 1845, Isaac W. Hoover settled on his own 74-acre farm in Milan Township, Ohio at about the age of thirty.² Growing potatoes on his farm, Hoover began experimenting with new machines for digging the potatoes out of the ground. By 1885, he patented his first potato digger, making one digger that year, ten the second year, and fifty the third. Hoover partnered with his brother-in-law, Albert Prout, to make and sell his machine and, over the next few years, as word spread about his machine, more people sought him and his digger out. During the 1890s, Hoover & Prout of Avery, Ohio expanded their business significantly; and, around 1902, they incorporated their company.³ Despite their success, Prout left in 1910, and the company was reorganized as the Hoover Manufacturing Company.⁴ By 1916, the company made about 5,000 potato diggers each year, selling them around the world. Hoover’s plant in Avery at that time covered four acres near the Nickel Plate Railroad and employed 75 to 100 workers. Over the decades, Isaac and his son, Arthur L. Hoover, made several adjustments and additions to Isaac’s designs, obtaining several patents between the two of them. The company also made potato sorters, potato sprouters, and harrows. If you would like to read a 1903 sales brochure for the Hoover Potato Digger, the Library of Congress has kindly digitized one which you can access here.

Notes

¹ Hoover’s first patent was Patent 318,254, dated May 19, 1885. You can find the patent here.

² For a description of Hoover and his potato digger, see Hewson L. Peeke, “Isaac W. Hoover,” in A Standard History of Erie County, Ohio: An Authentic Narrative of the Past, with Particular Attention the Modern Era in the Commercial, Industrial, Civic and Social Development. A Chronicle of the People, with Family Lineage and Memoirs, Vol. II (Chicago and New York: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1916), pp. 1037-1039. For additional information on potato growing during the early twentieth century, including brief remarks on the Hoover digger, see T. B. Terry and A. I. Root, The A B C of Potato Culture: How to Grow Them in the Largest Quantity, and of the Finest Quality with the Least Expenditure of Time and Labor; Carefully Considering All the Latest Improvements in This Branch of Agriculture up to the Present Date. Fully Illustrated (Medina, OH: The A. I. Root Co., 1911).

³ The company's plans for incorporation is mentioned in Hardware, vol. XXIV, no. 6 (December 25, 1901).

⁴ Some of the information here can be found in a Farm Collector article which you can see here. In 1926, John Deere, a major distributor of the Hoover potato digger, purchased the company and continued to make the digger.

Late 19th to Early 20th Century Adams Corn Sheller

Patented in 1890 and built by the Sandwich Manufacturing Company, this large corn sheller was used to remove the corn kernels from the cobs after the corn was harvested from the fields. A steam engine, stationary engine, tractor, or horse power might have been used to power this corn sheller. The person running the sheller attached a belt to the belt wheel on the sheller and to a belt wheel on the engine, tractor, or treadmill. As the belt wheel on the powering device turned, the belt turned, and the belt wheel on the sheller turned. The sheller's belt wheel, connected to a shaft and to several gears, chains, and smaller belts inside and outside of the machine, moved a wide variety of parts which carried the corn into and through the machine.

A close-up of the belt wheel (at the far left of the photo) and
some of the gears, chains, and smaller belts on the sheller.

If you look closely, you will notice several gears connecting the sheller with the long conveyor belt running perpendicular to the machine. As the belt wheel turned, these gears turned as well, and the long conveyor belt moved. The farmer or a helper shoveled the unshelled corn onto the long conveyor belt which carried the corn up to the shorter conveyor belt on the south end of the machine. That shorter conveyor carried the unshelled corn up to the spout where it entered the sheller to be stripped of its corn kernels. The kernels, having been shorn from the cob, were then spit out of the machine through the upright section along the east side of the machine into a bin or wagon. The bare cobs were spit out onto the conveyor at the north end of the machine to be carried up and dropped onto the ground or into another bin or wagon. If you wish to see a similar corn sheller in action, click or touch here.

The long conveyor running perpendicular to
the corn sheller.

The short conveyor that carried the unshelled corn into the
corn sheller. The spout at the top of the conveyor is the
device that was patented in 1890. It could be adjusted for
variations in the size of the corn going into the machine.

The corn kernels, having been removed from
the cob, were spit out here into a bin or wagon.

The shelled cobs left the sheller and were carried up this tall
conveyor to be dropped on the ground or into a wagon or bin.

The manufacturer of this corn sheller, the Sandwich Manufacturing Company of Sandwich, Illinois, was incorporated and named in 1867, about a decade after being created by Augustus Adams. Augustus established his first foundry and machine shop in Pine Valley, New York in 1829.¹ Being drawn to the opportunities presented by the frontiers of the West, Augustus made the trek to Illinois in 1838, first settling in the town of Elgin. His family, including sons, John P. and Henry A. Adams, followed him in 1840. Along with a partner, James T. Gifford, Augustus built a new foundry and machine shop in Elgin in 1841, the “first [foundry and machine shop] west of Lake Michigan,” according to Jeriah Bonham.

In 1857, drawn by economic support from people in Sandwich, Illinois, Augustus left Elgin and started a new company. After a fire destroyed this new company in 1861, Augustus rebuilt, naming the new venture “A. Adams & Sons.”² By 1867, he had enlarged the company and reorganized it under state law, renaming it the Sandwich Manufacturing Company. His son, John, became the office manager for the company in 1861, and the secretary and treasurer in 1867. John was a significant asset for the company thanks to his eye for product value, his knowledge of patent law, and his understanding of the differences between invention and innovation.³ Augustus’ son, Henry, became the superintendent of the factory in 1867, taking over the manufacturing side of the business and gaining knowledge of the sales side. Over the years, Henry learned the ins-and-outs of the factory, developing and patenting numerous improvements to the company’s products.⁴

Henry and John’s knowledge and talents helped carry the company through the last few decades of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century, especially after their father left to found and preside over the Marseilles Manufacturing Company in Marseilles, Illinois in 1870. By 1907, the company employed about 300 workers and 30 traveling salesmen, selling its products throughout the United States.⁵ Over the decades, the Sandwich Company became known for the Adams Patent Self-Feeding Corn Sheller, and the Low, Adams and French Harvester; it also made castings for other companies, as well as baling presses, horse powers, feed grinders, hay loaders, side delivery rakes, portable grain elevators, and gas engines.⁶ The company may have manufactured Stuhr Museum’s corn sheller sometime in the 1890s, not long after Henry obtained the two 1890 patents referred to on the side of the machine.⁷ John was the secretary and treasurer for the company until his death in 1904. Henry was the superintendent until he retired in 1910.

A 1913 ad from Farm Implements. You
might notice the corn slicer in the bottom
left of this ad looks like the one next to
the sheller in this exhibit. It probably is
the same model of slicer. In 1913,
Sandwich Manufacturing Co. purchased
Enterprise Wind Mill Co., the maker
of the Dean corn slicer. Although we
cannot date the corn sheller and corn
slicer accurately, it is possible that they
were both made at about the same time.

Notes

¹ For a description of Augustus Adams and the businesses he established, see Jeriah Bonham, Fifty Years’ Recollections with Observations and Reflections on Historical Events Giving Sketches of Eminent Citizens, Their Lives and Public Services (Peoria, IL: J. W. Franks & Sons, 1883), pp. 315-319.

² Lewis M. Gross, Past and Present of De Kalb County, Illinois, vol. II (Chicago: The Pioneer Publishing Company, 1907), p. 217.

³ For a description of John Phelps Adams and the Sandwich Company, see Gross, Past and Present, pp. 369-370.

⁴ For a description of Henry A. Adams and the Sandwich Company not long after Henry’s death, see Farm Implements, vol. XXXI, No. 3 (March 31, 1917), p. 86.

⁵ Gross, Past and Present, p. 271.

⁶ Castings for other companies, along with the “Adams Corn Sheller” and “Adams and French Harvester,” mentioned in The Voters and Tax-Payers of De Kalb County, Illinois Containing Also a Biographical Directory of Its Tax-Payers and Voters; A History of the County and State; Map of the County; a Business Directory; an Abstract of Every-day Laws; Offices of Societies, Lodges, Etc., Etc. (Chicago: H. F. Kett & Co., 1876), p. 121; the list of other implements can be found in the 1917 Farm Implements, p. 86.

⁷ The March 17, 1890 patent date painted on the side of the corn sheller seems to refer to Patent 426,748, which was filed on March 17 but not obtained until April 29, 1890. The April 29, 1890 date can be found cast into a piece along the top of the spout on the corn sheller through which the unshelled corn is fed into the machine, this spout being discussed in the patent. A digitized version of the original patent (in pdf format) can be found here.

Late 19th to Early 20th Century Dean Ear Corn Cutter

First patented by George B. Dean in 1884, and reissued in 1887, this corn slicer was made to cut corn cobs into pieces small enough for cattle to eat.¹ In order to use this slicer, a farmer (or helper) dumped cobs of corn onto the chute where the cobs would slide down to the openings in the machine. As the farmer turned a crank on the side of the slicer, the corn cobs shook down into the openings and were stopped by a metal plate inside which kept them from falling into the machine. The plate, which could be adjusted, held the cob in place allowing a blade, which was connected by gears to the crank, to swing around and cut through the cob. The metal plate could be moved to allow the blade to cut pieces measuring anywhere from a half-inch to two inches in thickness. The cut pieces fell down to the bottom of the slicer – part of the bottom chute is visible – where the farmer or helper collected them for cattle feed. The photograph of the inside of this slicer below might give you a better idea of how this device worked.

The corn slicer you see here was made in Sandwich, Illinois, sometime in the late 1800s or early 1900s. Even though we know where it was made, without clear identification of this exact slicer, we cannot determine which name the company had when this slicer was manufactured. Between 1884 – the patent date for the slicer – and 1900, the company that made this device was called the Sandwich Enterprise Company. Between 1900 and 1913, the company was called the Enterprise Wind Mill Company. In 1913, the portion of the company which produced this slicer was purchased by and incorporated into the Sandwich Manufacturing Company. Unfortunately for us, much of the painted decorations and words which may have helped us to better identify this slicer have been worn away. All that remains, if you look closely enough, are the words “EAR CORN SLICER” still faintly visible along the bottom of the slicer’s side panels.

The first manifestation of the company which made The Dean Ear Corn Slicer, the Sandwich Enterprise Company, was founded by two brothers with the last name of Kennedy during the winter of 1868-69. In 1872, the company had a new building constructed, and it began manufacturing its famous Enterprise Wind Mill alongside castings and woodwork for the windmill company in nearby Somonauk, Illinois.² The company, located across the street from the Sandwich Manufacturing Company, also made feed mills, cultivators, pumps, and hedge trimmers at this time.³ After acquiring the rights to Dean’s patent, the company began making corn slicers like the one here probably by the late-1880s. By 1900, despite showing several items including the Dean Ear Corn Slicer at the 1898 World’s Fair in Chicago, the company was in default. On April 16, 1900, the company was sold and reorganized as the Enterprise Wind Mill Company, making not only its namesake windmill but also the Sandwich-Perkins, Climax, and Winner Windmills, as well as corn slicers and many other items.⁴ In 1907, the company employed about twenty-five workers and was beginning to expand its windmill market into Brazil.⁵ In 1913, the company was sold again, this time split up between two acquiring businesses. One of those businesses, the Sandwich Manufacturing Company obtained the Enterprise plant as well as the department which made the windmills, towers, tanks, and corn slicers.⁶ It is possible that the Sandwich Manufacturing Company made this corn slicer and the large corn sheller next to it here in Stuhr Museum’s display at about the same time.

A 1913 ad showing the Adams Corn
Sheller and the Dean Corn Slicer.

Notes

¹ Dean’s initial patent for this slicer was Patent 309773, issued on December 23, 1884. You can view and download this patent here.

² The Voters and Tax-Payers of De Kalb County, Illinois Containing Also a Biographical Directory of Its Tax-Payers and Voters; A History of the County and State; Map of the County; a Business Directory; an Abstract of Every-day Laws; Offices of Societies, Lodges, Etc., Etc. (Chicago: H. F. Kett & Co., 1876), p. 121.

³ The Voters and Tax-Payers of De Kalb County, p. 213.

⁴ T. Lindsay Baker, A Field Guide to American Windmills (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985), p. 294. Baker has some slightly different dates for some events found in the present narrative.

⁵ Past and Present of De Kalb County, Illinois, vol. I (Chicago: The Pioneer Publishing Company, 1907), pp. 312-313.

⁶ The Iron Age, vol. 92, no. 1 (July 3, 1913), p. 58.