Stock and equipment of a Canadian company, believed to be the
last active threshing manufacturer, is being liquidated and we are
asking readers for information to help round out its story.
The brand name of the thresher was ‘Lion,’ but it was
more commonly known later as the ‘Mildmay.’
John E. Schmidt, president of Lobsinger Brothers, Ltd., Mildmay,
Ontario, told us the story in response to our inquiry. The firm ran
a classified ad telling of the sale of the 100-year-old building
and items in it.
The origins of the ‘Lion’ or ‘Mildmay’ are
unknown, Schmidt said. He regrets that he started to investigate
the history after all the old timers were gone. Municipal records
for the early years seem to have disappeared.
Schmidt’s letter is so interesting we quote from it in
full:
‘Records indicate that in 1881 the partnership of Spitzig
and Herggott were engaged in manufacturing and a few years later
the Herrgott Bros. Company was formed, which manufactured threshers
and cider mill equipment, and also repaired steam engines. I
understand the Herrgotts were in business for about 75 years and
made only a few machines a year, with 10 machines being their top
production for a year.
The Herrgott Company was bought out in 1939 by Philip and
Charles Lobsinger under the name of Lobsinger Brothers, who after
several poor depression years and despite the shortages of WWII,
started increasing production each year until in 1951 they
manufactured a total of 90 threshers in their small factory. Sales
were good for the next year despite the decreasing demand for the
threshing machine. When other larger thresher manufacturers were
going out of business, this company continued, due to its ability
to operate on a smaller scale. But time finally ran out on the
threshing machine, and after the last threshers were manufactured
in 1967, the company continued as a repair business for threshers
until the present.
However, it’s time to close the doors for the last time, and
dispose of the large stock of thresher parts on hand which are now
obsolete.
The Ontario Agricultural Museum at Milton, Ontario, has acquired
our demonstrator model of the Mildmay thresher which has a clear
plastic side, as well as an old handfed thresher. They also took
our old cider press and apple butter cookers, which they hope to
set up in the future.
It is likely the old factory will be sold shortly and torn down,
to end the era of the threshing machine.’
