Steam In Transition: A History of the Nichols and Shepard Company and the Port Huron Engine and Thresher Company
(Page 8 of 9)
May/June 2001
Charles O. Olsen,
The tractor industry grew phenomenally prior to World War I. In
1912, about 47 manufacturers produced almost 11,500 machines. By
1916, 107 companies sold nearly 30,000 units. This explosion in
tractor sales was due to high prices for agricultural commodities,
particularly in foreign markets. These profits and the idea that
tractors were changing American agriculture stimulated the
mechanization craze. Larger companies provided easy terms of
payment.
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By 1925 approximately 165,000 units were constructed by 54
manufacturers.30
The turbulent boom and bust cycles of the 1920s effectively
weeded out unstable companies while stronger companies matured
financially because they correctly interpreted the market and
strove to improve the quality of their machines. The era of steam
passed into the twilight and within a few short years that faint
resiliency would be gone forever.
20 HP Keck-Gonnerman popping off steam while plowing at La
Grante, Indiana, August 12, 2000. Owned and operated by Herb
Swarm.
Endnotes
1. Knowles, Donald, Engineers and Engines February-March
1986, page 3.
2. Battle Creek Examiner, February 27, 1962.
3. IBID, Feb. 27, 1962.
4. IBID February 27, 1962.
5. IBID February 27, 1962.
6. Lowe, Bernice, 'A Persona! Diary of Battle Creek',
Willard Public Library, Battle Creek, Michigan.
7. Best sources are company catalog reprints in 1912 and
1922.
8. IBID, 1912, 1922.
9. Knowles, Donald, Engineers and Engines, February-March
1986 page 3. Reprinted company catalogs illustrate models.
10. Battle Creek Examiner, March 17, 1963.
11. Wendel C. H., 150 Years of International Harvester,
Crestline Publishing Company, Sarasota, Florida (1981) pages
258-260.
12. Moak, Eugene A., History of the Port Huron Steam Engine
and Thresher Company (1982) page 53.
13. IBID page 54.
14. Reprint from Factory Land Company (1986) page 3, courtesy of
Sara Larson and Eugene A. Moak.
15. Moak, Eugene A., History of the Port Huron Steam Engine
and Thresher Company (1982) page 54.
16. Port Huron Times Herald, July 5, 1900; also Moak, Eugene A.,
History of the Port Huron Steam Engine and Thresher Company (1982),
page 57.
17. Moak, Eugene A. History of the Port Huron Steam Engine and
Thresher Co., (1982) page 55.
18. IBID pages 58-59.
19. Wendel, C. A., Nebraska Tractor Tests (1985) page 34.
Tractor tested by University of Nebraska October 20-27, 1920, see
also Moak, Eugene A., History of the Port Huron Steam Engine and
Thresher Co., (1982) page 61.
20. Moak, Eugene A., History of the Port Huron Steam Engine and
Thresher Co. (1982) pages 60-61.
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