The Threshing Machine King

By Paul F. Long
Published on March 1, 2000
1 / 4
Case 20x36 12-bar cylinder steel threshing machine, about 1919, roughly 75 years after the invention of J.I. Case's first thresher.
Case 20x36 12-bar cylinder steel threshing machine, about 1919, roughly 75 years after the invention of J.I. Case's first thresher.
2 / 4
A front view of the Case thresher, about 1919.
A front view of the Case thresher, about 1919.
3 / 4
The interior of a Case thresher, about 1919.
The interior of a Case thresher, about 1919.
4 / 4
This 1/2-plus scale model of a 65 hp Cas was built by Glen and Rick Ritchie, Linville, Va. Steam traction engines like the one this one copies revolutionized harvest operations early in the last century.
This 1/2-plus scale model of a 65 hp Cas was built by Glen and Rick Ritchie, Linville, Va. Steam traction engines like the one this one copies revolutionized harvest operations early in the last century.

From the earliest eons of time, man has been a farmer.

The transition from nomadic hunter to agriculturist is hard to pinpoint. Thousands of years ago, a primitive farmer began plowing with a crooked stick and some type of power source, perhaps a combination of humans and draft animals. As recently as the middle of the 19th century, farm implements were little advanced from those used in Biblical times.

Only in the past several centuries has there been a breakthrough in the development of power sources other than beasts or humans. Building upon the groundwork done by James Watt in 1785, tremendous advancement was made in the 1850s. One of the individuals in the forefront of the development of a new power source was Jerome Increase Case, a man who came to be designated the “Threshing Machine King.”

Recognizing a need

Threshing machines obviously needed a source of power. Finding that a horse-power sweep or a horse treadmill would not furnish the power needed to operate his threshers properly, Case began manufacturing stationary steam engines early on and, ultimately, great steam traction engines.

J.I. Case came naturally to the love and manufacturing of farm implements. His father, Caleb Case, was a dealer for a rather primitive piece of threshing machinery called the “Ground Hog,” which was manufactured in England. After spending six seasons custom threshing with the Ground Hog in Oswego County, N.Y., Jerome moved to Wisconsin, where more grain was grown. He took along six Ground Hogs bought on credit. Perhaps Case was in part inspired to go west by the eloquent, romantic cry of newspaper editor Horace Greeley: “Fly, fly, scatter through the country, to the great West. It is your destination.”

Online Store Logo
Need Help? Call 1-866-624-9388