Dating to a period between
1877 and 1879, this chromolithograph was produced by White & Bradley,
Lith., Buffalo and Chicago,
for Gammon, Deering & Stewart Mfg. Co., Chicago.
In 1858, brothers
mowed and elevated cut grain by moving belts to a platform where two men
hand-tied bundles of grain. They then joined with George Stewart and began
manufacturing their machine in Plano, Ill.; in 1873 they sold out the Plano
business and moved their harvesting machine company to Sycamore, Ill., organizing a stock
company under the name Sycamore Marsh Harvester Mfg. Co.
By 1876, the Marshes changed
their company’s name to Marsh Harvester Co. In a separate transaction, Elijah
H. Gammon (formerly a Methodist minister) and J.D. Easter founded a partnership
in 1869. Operating out of the former Marsh & Stewart factory in Plano, they manufactured
and sold Marsh harvesters. In 1873, William Deering became involved in the
business; in 1874 they formed a partnership known as Gammon & Deering.
In 1876, E.H. Gammon and
William Deering purchased Marsh, Stewart & Co. and operated the company as
Gammon, Deering & Stewart, relocating to Chicago between 1877 and 1879. Gammon sold
his interest to William Deering in 1879. Deering had acquired the rights to
John F. Appleby’s twine-tie apparatus in 1878; the manufacture of twine-tie
grain binders revolutionized the grain harvesting industry. In 1883, the
company was incorporated as William Deering & Co. The company name was
changed to Deering Harvester Co. in 1894 and became part of International
Harvester Co. in 1903. FC
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.
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.