Avery Company

Robert Hanneman Avery (16 January 1840, Galesburg, Illinois - 13 September 1892, Peoria, Illinois) was heavily influenced during his childhood by his great-uncle Riley Root, who invented a rotary fan blower to clear railroad tracks of snow. Robert attended Knox College and after graduation, worked part-time at the Brown Manufacturing Company, which built a line of corn planters.

Robert taught school before enlisting in 1862 as a Union Soldier in the American Civil War, in Company A, 77th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He was captured in 1864 and spent a number of months in various prisoner-of-war camps, before being sent to the now infamous Confederate Andersonville Prison for about eight months. There he passed the time devising an improved seed drill by sketching a design in the sand.

After the war he worked on a 160-acre (0.65 km2) farm his brother John had bought for the two of them. Robert continued to work on several inventions, and, during the winters when the farm was idle, he worked in a Galesburg, Illinois, machine shop. He used that money and the experience to design and develop patterns and castings for a riding cultivator.

Company founded by brothers

Robert's brother Cyrus Avery thought the invention had huge potential. To fund their company, Cyrus invested some capital, and Robert sold his share of the farm to his brother John and borrowed additional money. They began business as R.H. & C.M. Avery Company. Sales did not take off and the brothers' company teetered on bankruptcy. Robert moved his family to Kansas and took advantage of the Homestead Act of 1862 to obtain more farm land. He invented a new spiral corn stalk cutter and this time sales increased quickly. In 1872, Robert moved back to Galesburg and with his brother Cyrus' help, restarted the Avery Company. By 1874 he had a full size working model of his corn planter built. The original planter is now in the Edison Institute Museum at Ford's Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan.

One of their inventions was the Avery Thresher, a popular threshing machine in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The thresher was driven from the flywheel of a steam traction engine. A belt from the flywheel drove a wheel found on the thresher, separating the wheat kernels from the wheat stalks.

Robert was the inventor while Cyrus managed the business aspects. They operated out of Galesburg, Illinois, until 1882, when they needed better access to railroad transportation and wider markets. They bought into the oldest foundry in Peoria, owned by Joseph Frost. They then purchased 18 acres (73,000 m2) in Peoria, Illinois, and moved the business there to North Adams and North Jefferson Streets adjacent to a railroad spur. They built a three-story manufacturing facility, producing check rowers, stalk cutters, corn planters, cultivators and hand tools. In 1883 the company was capitalized at US$200.000 and renamed the Avery Planter Company.

When they began manufacturing powered tractors, they hired Albert Espe, one of the premier tractor designers in the country. In 1899, the company was reincorporated, the capital stock increased to US$600,000, and it was renamed the Avery Manufacturing Company. In 1891, they enlarged their product line to include steam traction engines and grain threshers, which would become up the majority of their business for the next 30 years. Their tractors used the best steam engines of the day, and the boilers were reinforced to withstand extra pressure. The line included unique tractors with top-mounted steam engines resembling locomotives more than typical farm tractors of the day. One of their yellow wood threshers were nicknamed the Yellow Fellow and remained a large part of the company's business for the next thirty years. Avery made a variety steam engines, including 18 horsepower (13 kW) 30 horsepower (22 kW), 40 horsepower (30 kW), 50 horsepower (37 kW) and 65 horsepower (48 kW) hp models. They also made Corn King and Corn Queen cultivators, separators, wagons, horse stalk cutters and a steel-mounted water tank.

In 1892, Robert died and Cyrus became president. John B. Bartholomew, who started with the company on December 8, 1879, driving a team to haul lumber for a US$1.10 per day, was made vice-president. He was also the brother of Cyrus' wife, Minnie.

In 1912, the entire Avery Company plant covered more than twenty-seven acres. The company, progressive for its time, established a dispensary on site that was staffed five hours each day by two doctors. It also started its own insurance company about the same time. The main factory building and the associated warehouses covered another six and a half acres. The sections of the plant were joined by a company-designed trolley system used to transport parts. At the time, it manufactured steam and gasoline traction engines, mounted steel water tanks, self-lift plows, farm wagons, corn planters, traction hauling wagons, traction steam shovels, threshing machinery and all required attachments, riding and walking cultivators, single and double row stalk cutters and gasoline tractors. At its height, it called itself "The Largest Tractor Company in the World" and employed 2,600 men, manufacturing eight different tractors along with motor cultivators and trucks. The company offered a broad line of tractors and engines, ranging from one–row cultivator to a huge 80 horsepower (60 kW) tractor.

Truck manufacturing

Avery started building agricultural trucks in 1910. Early truck manufacturers were uncertain how to market their product and whether they should just be used to haul goods or should also be useful in the field. Avery described its truck as a 'gasoline farm wagon' and 'general farm power machine' for city, town, and country hauling. Their advertising suggested the farmer could use it to haul livestock, grain, hay, and other loads, as to pull plows, road graders, harrows, discs, binders, and other farm machinery, as well as loaded wagons. The truck weighed 1 short ton (0.91 t) and featured a four-cylinder engine, open cab and chain drive. Its wheels had wooden spokes and rims, while the steel tires were 1.5 inches (38 mm)x5 inches (130 mm) wide. Avery figured farmers could get the most use out of the machines during the harvest season. Their tractor trucks included a large belt pulley that could be attached to the front crank shaft, useful for powering grain separators and other belt-driven machines. Early models had cast steel wheels with holes. Wooden plugs were driven into the holes to provide added traction. When the wooden plugs wore down, the owner simply replaced them with new wooden plugs.

Avery shipped products to most of the United States and some foreign countries. They opened branch offices in Omaha, Nebraska; Des Moines, Iowa; Kansas City, Missouri; Minneapolis, Minnesota; St. Louis, Missouri, Indianapolis, Indiana; Grand Forks, North Dakota; Fargo, North Dakota, Aberdeen, South Dakota; and Winnipeg, Canada. They had customers in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Russia, what was then Austria-Hungary, the Philippines, Portugal, China, Sweden, Cuba and Egypt.

In 1912, Avery added 2 short tons (1.8 t) and 3 short tons (2.7 t) trucks with solid rubber tires. Closed cabs were added a year later, and in 1917 they introduced a cab-over-engine design featuring an enclosed chain drive. The style of Avery trucks became more conventional, but the new six-cylinder model introduced in 1921 didn't last long because within five years the company was bankrupt.