C. Aultman & Co., Canton, Ohio, commissioned the Gies Litho. Co., Buffalo, N.Y., to produce this large (20-by-25-inch) chromolithograph advertising poster of its line of steam threshing machinery in the mid-1870s. The image depicts the Canton Monitor portable steam engine and Miller’s vibrating thresher. The upper scene shows the horse-drawn Monitor road engine with water tank and Sweep Stakes thresher. Note the interesting graphics on the sides of this early wood-sided threshing machine.
Cornelius Aultman began manufacturing farm machinery in 1851 in Akron, Ohio, and started a business known as Ball, Aultman & Co. In 1859, Aultman founded C. Aultman & Co. in Canton. He was one of the first to manufacture vertical boiler portable steam engines. His partner, Lewis Miller (who invented the Buckeye mower in 1856), was also involved in the manufacture of “Miller’s New Model Vibrating Thresher” and the “Sweep Stakes” threshing machine. By 1865, the Akron plant was incorporated as Aultman, Miller & Co. and the company manufactured Buckeye mowers and reapers. In 1867, Aultman and Henry H. Taylor founded the Aultman, Taylor & Co. of Mansfield, Ohio. These companies with the Aultman name were entirely separate and distinct entities and never became one company.
Aultman sold his interest in C. Aultman & Co. in 1875 and died in 1884. C. Aultman & Co. failed in 1883 and went into receivership. For further information on the interesting history of Cornelius Aultman, see the July-August 2004 issue of Steam Traction or the March 2002 issue of Farm Collector.
Grateful acknowledgement is given to David Schnakenberg, who contributed this image from his collection of pre-1910 chromolithographs of farm machinery advertising. For more information, contact him at 10108 Tamarack Dr., Vienna, VA 22182; (703) 938-8606; dschnakenberg@verizon.net; view the Schnakenberg Collection at http://stores.ebay.com/Farm-Machinery-Advertising-Art.
To submit a vintage advertisement for publication, send it to: Iron Age Ads, Farm Collector, 1503 S.W. 42nd St., Topeka, KS 66609; or submit high-quality digital images by email: editor@farmcollector.com.
