- - :. FIFTY YEARS ON TRACKS Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://archive.org/details/fiftyyearsontracOOcate FIFTY YEARS ON TRACKS Copyright 1954 by Caterpillar Tractor Co. CAT lH *•>'» * > *\\ BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION . ^1 2 IN 1925, the C. L. Best Tractor Co. and The Holt Manufac- turing Company merged to form Caterpillar Tractor Co.; leading track-type tractor builders of that time, the two firms had chosen an old and familiar Holt trademark for use in their new corporate name. This anniversary book tells the story of Caterpillar— and its important predecessors— from a begin- ning rooted in Nineteenth Century soil. From the vantage point of a reporter, it presents a cross-section view of the Company today— its people, plants, business friends, products, markets. It sketches the colorful industry of which Caterpillar is a prominent part. "Fifty Years on Tracks" is a tribute to the men who build roads and dams and levees and airports . who till and terrace farmland and harvest its abun- dance . stretch pipelines across plains and up over mountains . cut down hills and erect buildings and bridges in their place . fell and snake logs from the woods . clear roads and streets and save lives when winter comes. To the people who build today's pyramids in months instead of decades— with machines and free men instead of slaves by the thousands. To the workmen who keep hammering down the cost of moving a yard of earth . who have more than doubled farm output per man-hour in the last 50 years . who have harnessed fuel and steel to dig more dirt, turn more wheels, pump more water, gin more cotton, crush more stone, dig deeper wells, turn bigger propellers, saw more wood. Now, at the beginning of our fifty-first year of crawler tractor manufacture, we honor these people . because they are our customers, yes . but more properly, for the great things they have accomplished. CATERPILLAR TRACTOR CO., PEORIA, ILLINOIS, U. S. A. COMBINED HARVESTER S^P**^ . bred in the West under the c competitive leadership of two Caterpillar forerunners ii? The Best and Holt firms began building combined har- inland West Coast location. His mechanically gifted vesters in 1885 and 1886 respectively. Benjamin Holt brother, Benjamin, came west in 1883 to superintend did not invent the combine . but he was chiefly the new Stockton, California, works. responsible for its early development. "So firmly es- Success did not come as quickly to Daniel Best. In tablished has the Holt Combined Harvester become," 1859, age 21, he tramped west over the Oregon Trail. said the November 28, 1914, Economist, "that it is safe Bad luck hounded him for a decade as he tried gold ( to say that 90 { of the grain harvested in California, mining, hunting and sawmilling all over the North- and three-quarters of all grown on the Pacific coast, west. In 1869, he took charge of his brother's ranch pass through its capacious maw." By 1916, 6,000 Holt near Marysville, California. At the time, grain was machines were hard at work. hauled from the Best fields to town for cleaning . Twenty-year-old Charles Holt left his New Hamp- the charge being three dollars per ton. Best wondered: shire home in 1863— bound via the Isthmus of Panama "Why not bring the cleaner to the grain instead?" In for San Francisco. There, he took on a variety of odd the winter of 1869-1870, he developed and built three jobs— beginning in a local lumber yard. In 1869, he portable grain cleaners. During the following harvest, established C. H. Holt & Company, "Importers of he and his brothers operated all three machines; Best hardwood lumber." Much of his wood was sawed at soon opened a local factory for their manufacture. his father's New Hampshire mill — as well as the famous Not long after, the young inventor moved to Albany, wagon shops of nearby Concord. Axles from Concord Oregon, and added a seed dusting machine and fanning were held in high esteem among the trade; seasoned mill to his line. He experimented with a wide variety of stagecoach drivers claimed an ability to distinguish agricultural and general usage products, even patented their characteristic "sing" as they rolled over mountain a washing machine in 1877. In the early 1880s, Best roads miles from town. moved once again— this time to Oakland, California. During the following decade, however, it became Business continued to boom; the company became so apparent that wood products of the East did not re- pressed for space that products were stored in the ceive proper seasoning for the hot, dry western climate. streets. When Oakland police objected, he looked Wheels shrank, warped and fell apart under the merci- again for a new location and chose nearby San Leandro, less heat and sand. Charles Holt decided to manu- a few miles to the south. A Caterpillar Tractor Co. facture his own wheels and other wagon articles at an plant now stands on the same site. Holt combine — powered by rive men, 33 mules. The first "Holt Bros. Link & V-Belt Combined Harvester" appeared in 1HH6. In addition to combines, the IHHOs saw manufacture of wagons, wheels and farm implements — not to mention railroad cars and streetcars, both horsedrawn and electric. Alfcr w.%.;^ ... ' Appearance of a photographer in the field meant a lengthy work stoppage ... as all hands mugged the camera. Mother and daughter dropped harvest-time meal preparations long enough to don their Saturday night best and get in the act. \||IWlv ^C Well, old-time farmers tell us, there will never be another sight like those big old combines — far larger than those of today— looking for all the world like ships lumbering across a sea of wheat . tended by two-horse teams whisking away the finished grain . followed by every curious boy in the area . each boy aspiring to one of the jobs on the four-ton juggernaut. Perhaps one coveted the job of steersman, sitting high above all atop the separator . guiding the machine by means of chains running to the rear of the combine tongue. Another pictured himself as driver, perched over the pilot wheel and maintaining order among the 30-odd animals out front. Or the machineman, who raised and lowered the cutting bar and ministered to the mechanical health of the machine. Or, finally, the sack sewer . turning the separator spout into his waiting sacks, filling them, sewing them shut and rolling them out on the stubble . always keeping a pile of sacks and threaded needles ready beside him. In the 1880s, more and more marginal land came under the ambitious scrutiny of the farmer. His eyes turned to the foothills and rolling meadows with which California abounds. These knew no plow and had felt, if anything at all, only the hooves of Spanish and pioneer American cattle. The combine had proven ineffective on these fertile hills. Grain grew well enough . but in a tilted combine, it moved too fast or too slow and bunched up in the corners of the machine. In 1891, Benjamin Holt introduced his sidehill harvester, probably the first one to achieve any continued commercial success. Now, for the first time, the harvester could go anywhere a team could go — and still operate efficiently. Profitable grain farming became a reality on hundreds of thousands of sloping untilled acres across the Pacific Northwest. Best sidehill harvester. Both Holt and Holt self-propelled sheet Best machines were of the "pulled" metal harvester (1913). The type and cost about $1.25-$1.50 per company turned out its first acre to operate— including mainte- self-propelled harvester nance, depreciation, labor and horses. model two years earlier. y Holt sidehill combines — like these— helped boost Washington wheat production from six million bushels in 1890 to 42 million in 1920. Holt purchased this company in 1901, continuing its line of combines, plows and other farm tools. Several similar firms were acquired in the 1894-1908 period. xw i ligHw^i i i immm PLOWING AND HARVESTING BY STEAM -*** IJj_ *> I .... now „ inafactnring the ( Vl.brat. >d REMINGTON TRACTION ENGINE OR If yon are interested in Steam Plowing and Steam Harvesting, go and investigate for STEAM PLOW, idaptad Co all kinds of heavy work usually done by BmlM or horeea. A youreelf and be convinced. The following pirtiea are using my Tra. tion Kaginea and Har- i. umber d these Koginca an- now in use, giving entire setiefaction, for plowing and polling vesters, who will take pleasure In ahowing them up: .J. S. Uatler, W 1-Vnnell, Tenetm*. Tehama bleed II irvf.«tera. 1 have alao painted and put into the field a successful STEAM HARVESTER, whioh the abo e out represents, and can be seen on the ranch of Mr. J, H. county; Henry lleet, Vuba City, Sutter county; and Kester A Peters, St. Johns. Colusa county. K -ster, x luiius, Colusa county, harvesting 65 to 100 acree per day. Note what the owners Thee* laat parties are running a complete steam outfit, oonaiating of Tractioo Kogine and s^-im s«y in testimonial: Marveater. Kor further deecriptlon, prices, etc., add res* 8T Ji.iisn, OaU., Aii.-urt 1,1*19. "J"- a to report how we like the. Trsr'l'.n Engine »;..! BftaasB BatreatM |>iir< hased - ... v*. can oajj m. thai ws ar* dciighi* haaa, and it is gtvtng anttn aai -• m. W» nitsrhld t)«tUr r. M wttb at binnttUn «r.< Daniel Best Agricultural Works, - < ' H *it Metal our 2Ti-foot BaaJer, traveling three miles per hour, cuttmic an J ti o to lou aora (« r dav.