LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Enlarge Image Image Gallery David L. DickinsonThe old mowing machine

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Recently, I received a telephone call from a gentleman in southern England. He was keenly interested in the U.S.-founded Walter A. Wood Company of Hoosick Falls, NY. Walter A. Wood Company manufactured a line of mowers and other harvesting equipment for field and grain crops. The company had an early controversy with the McCormick-Deering Company, which challenged Walter A. Wood's patents. Wood hired a rather unlikely lawyer named Abraham Lincoln to thwart the onslaught of McCormick-Deering's legal counsel.

Walter A. Wood Company also established itself in England and in other countries in the British Commonwealth. Mr. Wheeler, living near London, has retained his interest in the Walter A. Wood Company where he was apprenticed in 1942 and for whom he worked many years. During World War II, he was assigned air raid duty to guard the roof of Wood's London factory from fires set by German incendiary bombs. More than once, the factory was strafed by German ME 109's. Recently, Mr. Wheeler traveled to nearby Wales to acquire a genuine Walter A. Wood mowing machine made, he presumed, in England. Much to his surprise, the old horse-drawn mowing machine was made in Hoosick Falls, NY. The old mowing machine now sits in Mr. Wheeler's yard as a monument to his employer's genius.

Mr. Wheeler has enlisted my help in compiling an informal history of the old American company. I would ask that anyone with old photographs of Walter A. Wood factories or machinery, or samples of Walter A. Wood sales literature, please contact me. Photocopies of such materials or any other information about Walter A. Wood Company of Hoosick Falls, NY would be most appreciated.

David L. Dickinson, 6190 Keller Avenue, Newfane, NY 14108; email: friendengine@juno.com

AH, FOR THE ONES THAT GOT AWAY...

I may be wrong, but I believe that the picture on the cover of your June '99 issue was a side-view of a John Deere grain binder, not a corn binder, as stated. However, I could be mistaken, but I do not feel as such.

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