A Short Chronological History of the Geiser Manufacturing Co.
(Page 4 of 6)
January/February 1970
W. J. Eshleman
I assume the separator may have been much like a goundhog
thresher to use with a farmer's windmill to clean the
wheat.
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1866- The Civil War over, Peter Geiser was still moving on to
success even though despair had left its mark, but also some useful
experience. He now organized the firm of Geiser, Pierce &
Oiler. This firm purchased the 2 acres which belonged to George
Frick, which included the Frick shop on the west side of Broad
Street in Waynesboro. George Frick moved to the opposite side of
Broad Street and built a new shop. From there he moved to the north
side of town where the present Frick Company stands.
1867 - The new Geiser Company now concentrated on
threshers being built in their own shop in Waynesboro, turning out
250 machines.
1868 - Success seemed assured, 300 threshers turned
out.
1869 - The Geiser Manufacturing Company was incorporated
and turned out 400 threshers.
1876 - The United States celebrates its 100th birthday with a
Centennial in Philadelphia. All the manufacturers, large and small,
either attended or had a display there. We are told that the Geiser
thresher was there and also a steam engine made in Lancaster, Pa.,
known as the Best Engine was on display. Peter Geiser struck up a
friendship with Frank and Abe Landis who worked for the Best
Foundry in Lancaster and were the brains of the Best steam engine;
they were excellent machanics. Peter Geiser told them of his
thresher, and related how when a farmer wished to buy a portable
threshing rig it was necessary to sell a Frick steam engine with a
Geiser thresher. He formulated the idea of having a Geiser steam
engine of his own. And why not? His company was now solvent. The
friendship grew into a business proposal, asking the two
Landis', Frank and Abe, to leave Best in Lancaster and come to
Waynesboro to develop a Geiser steam engine. They accepted. 1881 -
Frank Landis, not bothering too much about patents, took the Best
engine and assimilated it into the Geiser which was named Peerless
in order to compete with the Frick Eclipse. Frank Landis was under
contract to Geiser and received $200.00 per horse power per engine
plus $1.50 per $100.00 of the selling price. A Geiser thresher
selling at $600.00 netted Mr. Landis $9.00.
In Lancaster County, Howard Eshleman still owns the brass name
plate of his father's Best engine, which with an Andes thresher
made up his portable rig. The Best engine, which had wooden wheels,
burned up in 1906. As the Peerless engine was developed the Best
engine went into oblivion.
1882- The Geiser Mfg. Co. now employed between 400 and 500
persons. But again disaster was to strike, when the factory burned
to the ground. However, a large, new and magnificent factory was
erected the same year. 1892- Frank Landis resigned from the Geiser
Mfg. Co. and in 1894 joined Frick Co. as a thresher designer
followed by Andrew Hess, also a thresher engineer, formerly from
Lancaster, Pa. They had patented the 'lateral moving rolls'
into the Geiser thresher, and when they both went to Frick Company
they incorporated the same idea into the Frick thresher 1897- The
Geiser Mfg. Company sued the Frick Company, and no one had any
threshers for a year. Frick, however, won the suit. Sometime later
Andrew Hess left Frick and returned to the Geiser Mfg. Company and
was sent abroad for the company for four years. However, he later
returned to Frick Co. where he ended his carreer 1958.
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