The Early Beginnings of the Oliver Chilled Plow

James and his wife Susan soon needed additional room in the new home they had purchased in Mishawaka.  A daughter, Josephine, had been born April 6, 1846, and a son, Joseph Doty, called “J.D.,” had arrived August 2, 1850.  They resided in this home until 1858 when they moved to South Bend.
 
After William Gillen’s furnace failed financially in 1847, James went to work for the St. Joseph Iron Company that made plows as well as castings.  Here James seized an opportunity to better himself financially.  Among castings produced were 22-pound flanged plates used beneath railroad joints for strength.  The company was unable to meet production schedules because of the inability of molders to cast the plates according to specifications.  James contracted with the company to produce 100 tons of the plates for $5 “and five shillings” a ton.  He completed the contract and produced 35 tons more in four months.  He made $675.  James later admitted he almost killed himself doing it, but this contract and the earlier purchase of a lot in Mishawaka for $75 where he built a house and rented it to a merchant were two events which gave him his start.

The St. Joseph Iron Company also manufactured cast iron plows, as did almost every foundry and blacksmith in the country.  For James, plow production provided a link between the foundry, which he loved, and the land, for which he harbored an attachment stemming from boyhood in Scotland.  However, James became apprehensive about his future when St. Joseph Iron Company changed hands and he decided to investigate the possibility of buying into a small business.  While waiting for a late train in Goshen, a major plow manufacturing center, he inadvertently heard that a small foundry on the west race in South Bend, owned by Ira Fox and Emsley Lamb, might be for sale.

By May 5, 1855, James Oliver and a molder co-worker, Harvey Little, each purchased one-fourth interest in this building.  Cast iron plows were one item this little foundry produced.  James was 32 years old, South Bend’s population was less than 2,000, but the company, the town and James were destined to grow together despite considerable adversity. 

Six weeks after the purchase of the foundry, it was devastated by rampaging waters of the St. Joseph River.  James referred to this in later life as his “first great discouragement.”  Oliver and Little managed to survive and the plant went back into operation in November of 1855.  Oliver and Little then purchased Lamb’s half interest and renamed it South Bend Iron Company.  That name appeared on the title page of their first book of accounts.

February 6, 1857 high water again damaged the plant, but Oliver and Little were undaunted and the plant soon was back in production.  They bought scrap iron for one and a quarter cents a pound and converted it to almost anything that could be made of cast iron at a charge of five cents a pound.  They made iron window weights, caps and sills for windows, kettles, spiders (frying pans with legs and long handles), pulleys, stove castings and grates.  They also produced bob shoes (metal strips that fit on sled runners) for the fledging Studebaker Brothers Company.

James, molder, designer, salesman and bookkeeper for the company, also continued experimenting with ways to produce a better plow.  All plows of that era were “walking plows.”  Pulled by two horses, the plowman walked behind and guided it through the soil with two handles.  Cast iron and steel plows both wore out rapidly.  Dirt stuck to the moldboard and made it difficult for horses to pull.  This forced the plow from the ground with a jerk, endangering the plowman.  The dirt had to be scraped from the moldboard with a paddle every few minutes.

June 30, 1857, James obtained his first patent from the U.S. government, entitled “Improvement in Chilling Plow Shares.”  It covered a new way to process a plow point, or share, to an extremely hard surface.  This was his first improvement in the plow.  Many were to follow and the Oliver Plow became the most popular plow in the world.

To get nearer to the plant, the Oliver family moved in 1858 from Mishawaka to an old brown frame house purchased for $600, on unpaved Main Street near downtown South Bend.  In 1868 the house was moved to the back of the lot and a larger structure of brick was erected.

So successful were Oliver and Little that they were able to advertise a reward of $500 to anyone who could “chill or harden plowshares with equal success without infringing on their patent.”  The firm was renamed “Oliver, Little & Co.” in 1860 when Thelus Bussell, a machinist, was taken into the partnership.  Each now owned a third interest in the firm.  But on Christmas Eve, 1860, disaster struck again.  Fire destroyed their plant on the West Race with an estimated loss of $4,000, a fortune in that era.  They carried no insurance.  James Oliver later branded this event his “second great discouragement.”

By March 1861, Oliver, Little & Co., had succeeded in erecting a building on the West Race where operations were resumed.  That year they produced, in addition to plows, six “fluted columns” weighing 4,902 pounds for Saint Mary’s college, two “iron columns” for Schuyler Colfax, “brackets and vestibule cornice” for the city jail and “sewer crates,” also for the city.  Window weights, more than four tons of columns, cornices and stairs were produced for a contractor.  The plows sold for $6.50 each.  Business was improving and additional buildings were acquired on both sides of the race.

In 1863 Harvey Little retired from the firm.  Thelus Martin Bussell acquired half interest in the company, now renamed “Oliver and Bussell,” and James Oliver acquired the rest.  That summer approximately 20 men were on the payroll, and demand for the plows was such that the price was increased to $7.50 and the business continued to expand.

Oliver and Bussell realized they needed more capital.  George Milburn, a wealthy wagon manufacturer in Mishawaka, purchased a third interest in the company, with Oliver and Bussell retaining one third each.  The company was, once again, renamed “Oliver, Bussell & Co.” and the work force increased to 25.  Wages ranged from $1 to $3.50 per day.

Approximately 1,000 plows were produced and sold in 1864.  Of these 100 were the patented steel share plows that sold for $17.50 each.  They also made hundreds of “double shovels” and some 25-road scrapers for which they received $8 each.  Castings were sold for 10 cents a pound.  The Civil War was in progress and prices continued to rise as demands for production increased.  The company that year made 70 iron columns for the Main Building at Notre Dame, after a disastrous fire consumed the old one.  Some of these columns may be seen today.

From this period of the Oliver company history the expansion was phenomenal.  By mid-1865 the staff again had been increased to plant capacity and all on the payroll were working overtime.  Meanwhile, Joseph (J.D.) Oliver, James’ son, was getting in on the company’s ground floor.

The New Oliver Chilled Plow Works 

The Olivers purchased 32 acres of the "Perkins Farm," located on the southwest edge of South Bend, for $30,000 and construction of a new South Bend Iron Works plant on that site started almost immediately. Full production continued at the "Lower Works," as the old factory on the West Race (the area where Century Center now stands) was known, while warehouses were built, railroad tracks laid, and water and sewer lines extended to the new "Upper Works." The new complex had five buildings with a total area of 200,000 sq. ft. Plans called for employment of 400 men who would cast 50 tons of metal into 300 plows daily. A new 600-horsepower Harris Steam Engine powered the machinery. On January 17, 1876, the engine was started and the plant went into operation.

Plow sales in 1878 reached 62,779. A total of 30 to 40 railroad cars loaded with 5,000 to 7,000 plows left the new "Upper Works" at a time, for shipment from coast to coast. In November 1878, Brownfield, who had been president for almost nine years after the resignation of George Milburn, tendered his resignation, and in January 1879, James Oliver was elected president. Prior to that, James had held the title of superintendent.

Meanwhile, "branch houses" were being established across the land to handle distribution of the plows. The size of the Oliver company simply overwhelmed its opponents, including the South Bend Chilled Plow Company, which had been organized by Bissell and allegedly used Oliver patents in an attempt to capitalize on the reputation of the Oliver firm, still known as the South Bend Iron Works. The year 1880 was one of great expansion. A record was set in production and sales of plows, new buildings were erected, riding plows were being produced on a large scale, the manufacture of malleable castings was started, and additional rail tracks were laid to the Oliver property.

On May 4, 1881, James purchased the Chess and Vincent properties in the 300 block of West Washington Street. The Chess mansion was an imposing structure. Though it was only 19 years old, James sold the interior woodwork and hired a New York architect who had designed Canada’s parliament buildings to enlarge and re-design the house. To increase the grounds, James sold and moved the Vincent house next door and hired an army of workmen to lay stone. The new 60' x 102' house (not to be confused with Copshaholm, which was built in 1896 by J.D.) had three stories, a slate roof, 10 bedrooms with dressing rooms, bathrooms and closets attached, and a billiard room.
James and his family moved into the new home at 325 W. Washington Street on December 10, 1882, and on January 17, 1883, held a reception for 500 guests who danced in the third floor ballroom and dined on food prepared by a Chicago caterer.

James had come a long way from the simple life of a shepherd in Scotland, but in spite of affluence, he remained a simple man with simple tastes, who preferred the heat of his foundry and the dirt of a farm to the elegant surroundings of his new home. This was to be his last residence. James’ wife died in the home in 1902, and he died there on March 2, 1908. The house stood vacant until 1911, when South Bend School City (now South Bend Community School Corporation) purchased and razed it. Central High School was erected on the site.

Oliver Building Projects

In the late 1880s, Oliver plows were being shipped to an impressive list of places, including the British Isles, Japan, France, Germany, Mexico, Sweden, Greece and South American countries, prompting a nearly endless line of business visitors to South Bend from around the globe. To provide suitable accommodations for these guests, James and J.D. decided to build a grand hotel. Difficulties in obtaining a site delayed construction until July 1898, when the first stone for the foundation was laid at Washington and Main Streets, now the site of the downtown Holiday Inn.

A gala grand opening was held December 20, 1899. The South Bend Tribune called it "the most magnificent hotel in Indiana, one of the finest in the United States." The lobby and rotunda were described as Italian Renaissance, embellished in gold. The images of 16 females representing the seasons, the arts, earth, water, fire, and air were painted at the top of the rotunda, and this lavish décor extended to all other areas of the hotel. One of the many innovations was an independent electric plant consisting of three dynamos driven by three engines to provide current for 1,700 lights in the hotel. Later, electrical current was provided by the Oliver Electric Plant, which had been built by the Olivers on the West Race of the St. Joseph River. (The foundations and part of the control gates of this plant were incorporated into the Century Center complex years later.) Most of the hotel construction was completed under the watchful eye of James Oliver, then in his 70s. J.D., exhausted by an extraordinary workload with the company and other matters, had been ordered to take an ocean voyage to recuperate.

Two year earlier, In 1897, James had agreed to pay one-third the cost of the proposed new Presbyterian Church, located at the southwest corner of Lafayette and Washington Streets. James was not an active member of the congregation, but others in the family were.

On May 30, 1900, on the occasion of the 56^th wedding anniversary of James and his wife, Susan, the citizens of South Bend expressed their gratitude to the couple for their many public gifts by presenting them with an 18-carat gold loving cup. The 14-inch cup, purchased from Tiffany and Company in New York, was engraved with portraits of the Olivers, the new Oliver Hotel, the original factory on the West Race, and the new factory that had been erected on the southwest edge of the city. That same day, J.D. and his wife, Anna Gertrude, announced their new home at 808 West Washington Street would be named Copshaholm, in honor of James’ birthplace in Scotland.

South Bend had been attempting to find a way to finance a city hall for many years. On July 21, 1900, James offered to build the city hall and lease it to the city. To accomplish this, he sold the city the property at 224 N. Main Street in 1890, just south of today’s South Bend Water Works. The building and ice skating rink on the lot were razed, and the city hall was erected on this site.

J.D. Oliver Takes Over

At the time of his father’s death, J.D. was 58 years of age and had begun working in the foundry full time at the age of 16.  He had been a director of the factory since he was 20 years old, so the transition from father to son was easily accomplished.  Joseph was a financial genius and it is doubtful James would have done so well without J.D.’s financial guidance.  While James was frugal, J.D. realized money often was earned by spending some of it.  Because of J.D.’s modesty, it was not generally known that James almost always left details of financial management to his son.

At a meeting after the death of his father, J.D. was elected president, treasurer and general manager; James Oliver II (J.D.’s son) was named vice president and Joseph Ford (J.D.’s brother-in-law) was named secretary.  These three also were the directors.  Thus J.D. was responsible for almost the entire issue of Oliver company stock; he had been named executor of his father’s will; he was responsible for the plant and more than 2,000 employees, and he became plant manager.

Annual production at the time was very high.  In 1909, J.D. launched plant expansion to double it and developed plans to expand sales into Russia and construct a factory in Canada.  The Oliver Opera House block was remodeled and the Oliver Hotel Annex, now seven stories tall, was opened a few months later.

In 1911, plant operations started in the new plant the Olivers had built in Hamilton, Ontario.  J.D. correctly perceived vast amounts of Canada’s Northwest wilderness would be opened to agriculture, and the plant was part of a plan to get part of that business.  On May 1, the first carload of plows was shipped from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and by summer’s end, 30,000 plows had been shipped.  Among buildings constructed in Hamilton that year were two large docks to provide for two lake carriers to be used for shipping Oliver products.  J.D. had contracted with International Harvester Company to handle distribution and sales for the Oliver Canadian plant.  This satisfactory arrangement for both companies continued until 1919 when the Olivers sold the Hamilton plant to International Harvester.

Farming in the United States was steadily becoming mechanized, and the Olivers greeted it fully.  A new era had been opened in 1905 when a gasoline engine was mounted on a traction truck to pull several plows.  Gasoline farm tractors and gang plows (a large plank that carries several plows) developed rapidly, and on September 30, 1911 a world’s record was set when an Oliver 50-bottom (50 blades) gang plow, pulled by three LaPorte, Indiana built Rumley Oil-Pull tractors, turned 50 14-inch furrows at one time, a width of almost 60 feet!  That same year three International Harvester tractors pulling a 55-bottom Oliver gang plow set another record by plowing an acre in less than four minutes, a far cry from the days when a farmer walked eight and one-fourth miles behind a team of horses and plow to turn an acre.

When World War I broke out in 1914, J.D. prepared for troubled times.  “We shall not attempt to profit by present conditions,” he wrote.  After the U.S. entered the war in 1917, J.D. was called to Washington to confer with the nation’s food administrator, Herbert Hoover.  But the war not only had to be supplied with arms and food.  It also had to be financed.  J.E. and Frank Hering, an Oliver vice-director, criss-crossed Indiana setting up fund-raising and bond-selling committees in every community.  J.D. organized 22,000 schoolteachers to sell thrift stamps for bond purchases through school children to their parents.  He often brought down the house when he spoke of “the fires of hell licking their lips in joyful anticipation of the advent of Kaiser Wilhelm” (the German war leader).  In addition, to ease the food shortage for employees in South Bend, J.D. established a community garden. Fifty acres near the plant were divided into 50 by 100 foot patches. The families of 301 workers participated in the project.  J.D. awarded $50 in gold for the best crop return.

After World War I, demand for tractor-pulled farm implements increased rapidly. It was estimated that 250,000 tractors would be built in 1919.  Oliver Chilled Plow Works expected to put 750,000 plows behind the 100,000 tractors International Harvester and Henry Ford and Son would build.  To this end the Olivers launched an extensive expansion program, and in the next four years conducted the biggest building and real estate activity, exclusive of the Hamilton plant construction, in the company’s history.  More than $3 million went to acquire branch house properties, $160,000 for new buildings at the South Bend plant, and $1 million to erect 160 greatly needed workmen houses.

An innovation at the time was the company’s voluntary introduction of a pension plan, providing for a pension and automatic retirement for an employee who had reached the age of 70 and had been with the company 20 years.  No pension was to be more than $100 per month or less than $12.

In a realignment of company responsibility to ease some of his burdens after World War I, J.D. had relinquished some of his duties, including that of plant manager.  An operating committee for general management was set to be directly responsible to J.D., who retained the presidency.  This committee included James Oliver II, vice-president; Joseph D. Oliver Jr., treasurer; H. Gail Davis, assistant treasurer; and C. Frederick Cunningham, secretary, a post that had been left vacant by the death of J.D.’s brother-in-law George Ford in 1917.  Gertrude Oliver Cunningham and Susan Catherine Oliver, daughters of J.D., were elected to the board of directors.

When the 1920s arrived, business indicators looked good, but disaster was ahead.  Farm prices began to drop.  Farmers were unable to pay debts and stopped buying agricultural implements.  The company held the largest stock of manufactured goods and the largest stock of raw materials in its history, all purchased at high wartime prices.  Because of its strong financial condition, Oliver Chilled Plow Works weathered the crisis.  J.D., however, had not fared so well in spite of the appointment of the operating committee.  In October 1923, he fell victim to a four-month illness, described as “tired break-down,” from which he never fully recovered.  He resigned many of the outside directorships he held and gave up the presidency of the Purdue University Board of Trustees, on which he had served for 18 years.  He returned to his Oliver Chilled Plow Works office February 11, 1924, where he remained active until the business was sold.  

The Downfall of the Oliver Chilled Plow Works

In 1933, increased competition from other full-line farm implement companies forced the Oliver Chilled Plow Works to choose between an enormous expansion with a program to include more implements, such as, tractors or joining together with manufacturers of different types of farm tools and establishing its own full-line company.

J.D. Oliver elected to join other manufacturers. At a special meeting of stockholders on February 1, 1929, he was authorized to organize a new company, to be known as the Oliver Farm Equipment Company, and take over the Oliver Chilled Plow Works and the Hart-Parr Company of Charles City, Iowa, a company which manufactured tractors. J.D. also purchased the Nichols and Shepard Company of Battle Creek, Michigan, which made threshing machines, corn pickers and combines. Soon after this merger, American Seeding Machine Company of Springfield, Ohio and the McKenzie Potato Machinery Company of LaCrosse, Wisconsin, were acquired. The Oliver Chilled Plow Works, as such, ceased to exist on March 30, 1929. The executive office posts of the new Oliver Farm Equipment Company were divided among three of the merging companies, with J.D. as chairman of the board, a post he held until resigning on December 13, 1932.

J.D. Oliver died on August 6, 1933, in Copshaholm, the home that he had move into with his wife, Anna Gertrude, and their young family in 1897. He was 83 years old.

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Part 2...The Oliver Farm Equipment Company