The Belleville Thresher: Our Annual Catalogue 1891; Harrison
Machine Works, Manufacturers of “Jumbo” Engines, “Belleville” Threshers,
Swinging Straw-Stackers, and Dingee-Woodbury Horse-Powers. Originally published
by Harrison Machine Works, Belleville, Illinois, 1891. Reprinted in 1990s by Engineers & Engines
magazine, Joliet, Ill. 9½ x 6½ (landscape) paperback, 20 pages.
Please note that this is a printed reproduction of the
original, NOT a photocopy. The accompanying images were scanned from a reprint,
not the original.
The origins of Harrison Machine Works have been traced to
1848, when John Cox and Cyrus Roberts combined their resources and talents to
build vibrating threshing machines in the central Illinois town of Belleville,
Illinois, about ten miles southeast of St. Louis. The venture enjoyed rapid
success, as Cox and Roberts had designed developed a thresher that was able to
keep the grain and the waste straw clear of the working machinery. Other
threshers had to be regularly stopped and cleaned to keep functioning. A patent
for the
In 1855, Cox and Roberts sold their enterprise to Theophilus
Harrison, William C. Buchanan, and Frank Middlecoff, who organized the business
as Harrison and Company. In 1874, Hugh Harrison and Cyrus Thompson both joined
the business, and the name was changed to the Harrison Machine Works. Hugh
Harrison and Cyrus Thompson remained leaders of the company until its end in
1927.
At the time Hugh Harrison and Cyrus Thompson joined the
business, the country was emerging from the economic depression of 1873. With
business prospects improving, Harrison and Thompson designed a new steam
traction engine, the first of which was built by March 1874, when it was showed
off to the town in a parade, followed by all 200 Harrison Machine Works
employees.
The company did well until 1926, when the declining national
farm economy severely depressed sales of farm machinery. The stock market, of
course, would follow and collapse three years later. Completely misreading the
future, the officers of Harrison Machine Works ignored the development of gas
engine tractors, and in September, 1927, purchased four acres of property on