Prison-Made Steam Engines: The Northwest Thresher Company Began with Minnesota Prison Labor

Enlarge Image Image Gallery A highly unusual photograph showing workers horsing around in front of a Northwest-manufactured steam traction engine. Circumstances of the pose are unknown. Courtesy of Bill Vossler; colorized by Farm Collector

The Giant and New Giant steam traction engines – among the most noteworthy steam engines built in Minnesota – pack a few surprises.

Early entrants to the industry, the steam engines were built almost as a sideline by an established manufacturer of threshing equipment. And then there’s the way they were built. Visitors to a Stillwater, Minn., “manufactory” where steam engines and threshers were built during the 1880s had to be surprised, if not shocked, by what they saw.

“Here are horse thieves,” reported a writer in the Independent Farmer and Fireside Companion, “petty thieves, forgers, defaulters and murderers, some of whom were once lawyers, doctors, merchants, farmers and mechanics, all filing, fitting, cutting and hammering at the various parts that go to make up the perfect machine. As you go through one room, blue-eyed Bob Younger looks up from his work, and Cole gives you a look like a startled wolf, while Jim hangs his head sullenly. They are busily engaged, doing excellent work,” for what would become Northwest Thresher Co.

Back to the beginning: Seymour, Sabin & Co.

The earliest forerunner of Northwest Thresher Co. was Seymour, Sabin & Co., manufacturer of agricultural implements, which first contracted for prison labor in 1866 through the influence of U.S. Senator Dwight M. Sabin. An 1879 article in the Independent Farmer noted the need for solid technology: Farmers’ profits depended on getting every kernel of grain. “A thresher must be built that would do all this. But it takes capital to build such machines; capital composed of brains and energy as well as money to carry out and manufacture that invention produced; and this is why the Minnesota Chief (thresher) became a success as a specialty of Seymour, Sabin & Co.”

At about the same time, the company’s name was changed to Northwestern Mfg. & Car Co., possibly to launch a fresh start, as in the previous year the company recorded sale of only “one engine, zero separators and one horse power.” A product line expanded to include railroad cars may have been a last-ditch effort to stay afloat.

If so, the gamble worked. In 1884, manufacturing output jumped to 170 machinery items sold, including Minnesota Chief threshers and Minnesota Giant “straw-burning engines.” Things seemed to be looking up.

Still, the company struggled. Later that year, stockholders were informed of reorganization plans. Going forward, Minnesota Thresher Mfg. Co. would produce steam traction engines, horse powers and separators. Railroad boxcars were omitted from the plan (although two years later, in 1886, the company still advertised passenger, caboose and freight cars for sale). Most early investors reinvested in the new firm.