A Short History of the A.B. Farquhar Company
March/April 2002
Jack C. Norbeck
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A 1924 Farquhar Model K 15/45 HP, owned by Todd L. and Lavere Miller, Glen Rock, Pa. Photographed by Jack C. Norbeck.
Jack C. Norbeck
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In 1856 a young Arthur Briggs Farquhar went to work for the W.W.
Dingee & Co., a small manufacturer of agricultural implements
in York, Pa. Born Sept. 28, 1838, Farquhar was not quite 18 years
old at the time. In spite of his young age Farquhar took to the
business rapidly, and a brief 18 months after joining the W.W.
Dingee & Co. Farquhar informed his employers of his intention
to start his own business. 'The firm,' Farquhar wrote in
his autobiography, 'laughed at my notion that I might start in
business, but asked me not to leave for a month. At the end of that
month, as I was getting ready to leave, they offered me a
partnership.' Farquhar's skills, it would appear, were
needed for the company to stay in business.
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After a disastrous fire burned down the factory during the
period of the Civil War (the exact date is not known), Farquhar
took over all liabilities and assets of the W.W. Dingee & Co.,
and it was evidently around this time that the company became known
as the Pennsylvania Agricultural Works. Interestingly, it was not
until 1899 that the company was formally incorporated as the A.B.
Farquhar Co., Limited, and evidently only because Farquhar wanted
to facilitate the distribution of his estate when the time
came.
A 1922 Farquhar portable, now owned by the Industrial &
Agricultural Museum of York, Pa. Once used to run a saw mill, this
100 HP portable was donated to the museum by Fred Rosemiller.
Standing with the engine is Pete Adomis, who handles restorations
for the museum.
From his boyhood days, Farquhar had been interested with the
manufacture of agricultural machinery and implements. He was
intimately acquainted with the real needs of farmers and planters,
and being a practical mechanic and inventor, as well as a man of
rare business capacity, he was peculiarly successful in the
production of' machines and implements. His particular
abilities enabled him to produce standard agricultural implements
and steam traction engines and other special machinery in large
quantities and at minimum cost.
The Pennsylvania Agricultural Works covered a number of acres,
and embraced machine, engine and boiler shops, a bolt and nut
factory, planting and saw mills, foundries for brass and iron
forging, shearing and polishing rooms, not to mention warehouses
and lumber yards to supply his various enterprises. Items
manufactured included steam engines, saw mills, threshing machines,
plows, agricultural steels, cultivators, grain drills, corn
planters, horse powers, and other equipment in almost endless
variety.
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