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.