Wrenching Tales by Cindy Ladage 

 

(This is complementary to last week’s column about Avery Co. history in central Illinois.)

The Avery family thrived with their agricultural products, first in Galesburg, Ill., and then in Peoria. After Robert Avery’s death, Cyrus Avery became president of the Avery Planter Co. In 1891 Avery added steam traction engines and grain threshers to its product line.

It was famous for its single-cylinder, straight flue steam traction engine. Avery boilers were reinforced for carrying high pressures, and the machines are highly recognizable with their distinctive bulldog design on the smoke box door. Like many agricultural companies of the time, Avery bought other companies. In 1902 it purchased the Hannah Wagon Co.

Cyrus retired and built a new home in Galesburg in 1903, at 640 N. Prairie. The home 45 years later became the residence of the president of Knox College. Three years later in September 1905, Cyrus M. Avery died and J.B. Bartholomew became president of the Avery Co.

Bartholomew was a logical choice because he had started working for the Averys at age 15 and knew all the ins and outs of the company and products. He is credited with the invention of the undermounted steam engine.

One of the neatest machines the Avery Co. ever made was the Farm and City Tractor, built in 1909. This innovative machine looked like a truck and was designed to work in the fields and around the farm. The truck/tractor had round wooden plugs in the wheels.

One of these beauties is on display at the Iowa 80 Trucking Museum located in Walcott, Iowa. The 1910 model was advertised “to do the work of 6-8 horses at a top speed of 15 mph. This truck is so versatile; it could haul up to 100 bushels of wheat, pull a three-bottom plow, or even run a threshing machine through an additional belt pulley.” The Farm and City Tractor sold for $2,500.

Besides the new machine, there were other changes in Peoria. This is when Holt Manufacturing, which later became Caterpillar, arrived on the scene. Holt built steam-powered harvesters and traction engines and crawler tractors.

1909 was a big year. Avery began manufacturing gasoline tractors and by 1911, it was making its own plows – and developed a new gang plow, the “Self-Lift.” In 1912, the company was at the height of its success with a plant that covered more than 27 acres and was advertised as “The Largest Tractor Company in the World.”

Avery bought other land and continued building tractors. By 1920 the company boasted 2,600 employees and produced eight different models of tractors, even bringing the automobile company under its wing that manufactured the Glide.

Prior to 1920 Avery had expanded both in the United States and globally; however, the downturn in the economy hit farm folks hard, as well as the company. With an attempt to reorganize in 1925 as the Avery Power Machine Co., the company turned its manufacturing prowess to threshers and combines, but with the advent of the Great Depression, it went out of business in 1932.

But like a phoenix, the company was restarted in 1936 as the Avery Farm Machinery Co., and again made combines, separators and guaranteed cylinder teeth until 1938, with its last tractor, the Avery Ro-Trak. When World War II interrupted production again, the company closed its doors for good.

Rex Cherrington, an historian and expert on the Avery family, wrapped up the history of the Avery Co.: “Caterpillar took off about the time of World War I, and that is when Avery was declining. Back about 1900 Avery was the largest employer in Peoria, before that the distilleries were the big employers in Peoria.”

The area where Avery was located is known as Averyville. The former corporate building still has the word “Avery” chiseled in the upper pediment across its top.  Rex added, “I suspect it (the letters) was more prominent in its day, but was likely mortared and troweled during the LeTourneau, Westinghouse, WABCO regimes that followed.”

Robert and Cyril Avery changed the faces of Galesburg, Peoria and agriculture. They left a rich legacy that continues to be built on today.

Readers with questions or comments for Cindy Ladage may write to her in care of this publication.