Burgessville, Ontario Canada
One thhing much different from other big tractor is that it has
four exhaust pipes, one for each cylinder. This giant weighs eleven
tons and was built in 1912 by Valentine Brothers Manufacturing
Company of Minneapolis, Minnestoa. The proud owner of this tractor
is John Messner of Sanborn, North Dakota. It was bought new by
John’s father with a 36 x 58 Red River Special thresher. It was
never used for field work except for threshing only. It always has
been kept in a shed and kept in good mechanical shape by its owner.
The last few years it has been a real big attraction at Central
North Dakota Steam Threshers in New Rockford, North Dakota. It can
be seen in action each fall with its owner doing some threshing
daily. No restoring was needed for the fine running tractor.
Courtesy of Verle A. Marsaa, New Rockford, North Dakota, 58356
We thank Mrs. M. B. Harrison, President of Whitelaw Machinery
Company Limited for permission to publish the Whitelaw History.
The Whitelaw Co. was one of the pioneer companies of the
Woodstock area. Some readers may ask, where is this city of
Woodstock located? I will give a short history of the city and
county where it is situated.
Woodstock is the county seat of Oxford County. It is located
about midway between London and Hamilton. The first white settler
on this site was in 1798. This area was rather slow to attract
settlers because of the density of the forest. This area was all
very heavily wooded and before any grain or hay could be grown they
had to clear the land, and this must have been a real problem.
There were millions of feet of the very best lumber that was burnt,
and then the stumps had to be pulled out. Acre by acre the land was
eventually cleared.
The early settlers soon realized that soil that would grow a
dense forest was very fertile and it would grow good crops of corn,
grain, potatoes etc. It was this type of soil that Oxford County
was composed of, and today it is a very rich and productive
County.
By 1800 the settlement of Woodstock was still little more than a
clearing, having one store and one tavern. In 1830 settlers began
to arrive from Scotland and England. In 1839 it became the County
seat of Oxford and in 1851 Woodstock was proclaimed a Town and
fifty years later – 1901 it was incorporated as a City and named
the Industrial City.
In 1852 the present City Hall was built in design similar to the
Town Hall in Woodstock, England. This building over 100 years old
was designated an Historical Site in May, 1956 by the Historic
Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. This building is now a museum
and in it are valuable and interesting historical records, pioneer
implements and utensils. The natural history and science section
includes many studies of nature which are not found in museums of
comparable size, a rare and valuable collection.
Now to get back to where I started. The Whitelaw Company -Robert
Whitelaw was born in Roxboroughshire, Scotland in 1827. The first
foundry of the Company was established west of Woodstock in 1856.
Eighteen years later he located in Woodstock proper. Business was
good and the Company prospered. Mr. Whitelaw began to seek means of
expanding his business.
Mr. Whitelaw must have been a very busy man during these years
when he was building and managing his Company, as he had the time,
talent and energy to be very active in the municipal affairs of the
town of Woodstock. He served on the town council and also on the
water and light committee.
In 1874 when the plant was considering an expansion program, the
town of Woodstock was in complete agreement with the Company. The
town council must have had confidence and high respect for Robert
Whitelaw and his Company as they offered Mr. Whitelaw a grant of
$8,000.00 which would not have to be repaid, if his factory
continued to reproduce equipment in Woodstock for eight years. The
same Company in the same building is still in business today, 100
years later.
As I mentioned earlier, the soil in this area was rich
agricultural land and this statement is proven to be correct
because the grant agreement between the town of Woodstock and Mr.
Whitelaw specified that his factory make certain agricultural
machinery such as steam engines, portable and stationary,
separators, turbines, sawing machines, cheese making equipment, and
castings.
The original depicts very fine workmanship, as it is complete in
every detail. We believe this picture was produced in 1875,
just after the completion of their new building in 1874.
Just a few years ago, the company was remodeling the office and
they found some of these pictures in a partition that6 they were
removing. How they got there – nobody knows, but it was a good
storage space for them. When they unrolled them, they were
just as fresh looking as they were when new. Courtesy of Russell
Orth, Burgessville, Ontario, Canada
In 1874 when the Company was rebuilt and the machinery shop and
foundry were consolidated in the town of Woodstock, it was known as
The Oxford Machine and Foundry, R. Whitelaw. The Whitelaw
stationary boiler was very popular in this area. Machine shops,
hospitals, commercial buildings, saw and grist mills etc. obtained
their heat and power from these boilers. A few years ago I attended
an auction sale and back behind the farm buildings was the remains
of an old saw and grist mill. The wooden building was completely
deteriorated and there were remains of some of the line shafting
and you could tell where the saw was located and also the cement
base where the grain grinder was fastened to and at the other end
of the building was the remains of the boiler. There were huge
holes rusted through the boiler but the castings ‘at the back
of the boiler and the cast fire doors were still intact, and
wouldn’t you know it; on this casting the words ‘Whitelaw,
Woodstock’ were as plain to read as it was when it was new.
I was unable to find out when the Company stopped building steam
engines but it must have been a good many years ago, because
strange as it may seem, I do not know of a restored portable
Whitelaw engine in this area. There is one on exhibit at the
Agricultural Museum in Saskatoon, Sask. On the brochure attached to
this engine it states this is a very rare Whitelaw engine, built in
1883. If anyone reading this article knows where there is a
Whitelaw portable, I would be very pleased to know about it.
In September, 1970 I had the chance to buy a Whitelaw stationary
steam engine, so on a Saturday a friend of mine went with me to get
it. When we reached the place where the engine was supposed to be
we found out that only part of it was there. The owner had
dismantled the engine in preparation for restoration, so we loaded
up what parts were there and had to drive another 15 miles or so
and there we got the base and some more parts. The remainder of the
engine was at his father-in-laws, another 15 miles or so. Finally
we got all the parts in the back of the half-ton truck and started
for home. The following winter I started to clean it up. The
original owner must have thought paint was a good preservative, as
I have never seen so much paint on an engine. It must have been an
eighth of an inch thick, it had been painted black, green, yellow,
and red. One colour just painted on top of the former colour. When
I finished scraping, soaking and digging I must of had a half a
bushel of paint that had protected the engine down through the
years. Come spring and I had the engine freshly painted; green and
red and finally got it assembled. Since then we have had it to
several shows in Ontario. Sometimes we belt it up to a shingle
mill; this makes an interesting exhibit. This engine would be about
10 or 12 H.P., like the ones that operated the machinery in a
cheese factory or creamery. There is no identification on this
engine regarding age but we think it would have been built in the
1800’s.
The Company has had several changes in management down through
the years. Robert Whitelaw died in 1920 and his son Oscar took over
the business which was later managed by the company’s Secretary
– Treasurer, Joseph Schaeffer, and was finally sold in 1944 to a
former employee, S. J. Harrison, whose wife continues as President
of what is now known as Whitelaw Machinery Co. Ltd.
Mr. Harrison was not the only Whitelaw employee to move into his
own business. Alex Weiler founded the Weiler Machine Co. Ltd. after
leaving Whitelaw Machinery, and Gordon Crawford left to start the
Crawford Machine and Foundry Ltd. These two companies are operating
in Woodstock at the present time.
The Whitelaw Machinery Co. Ltd. is at present a very active
place of business in Woodstock and we hope they have many years of
activity in the future.
