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Martinsville, Ohio | <p>We wore out an Oliver 50T then a 520. I always thought the NH was more trouble free from what I observed, Oliver and all the rest had their problems, though I have seen Deere 14T and 24T with tons and tons of bales tied on them...</p><p><strong>13. The Ann Arbor Baler, Shelbyville, Illinois - To commemorate the site of the developer and manufacturer of the world's first pickup baler in 1929. Dedicated 1980?</strong></p><p><strong>Gee, I just learned from my own links:</strong></p><p>.D. Oliver (pictured) was eight years old when the Oliver family moved to South Bend. He first attended the ungraded four-room Madison School while his sister, Josephine, four years older, attended County Seminary at the "end" of Washington Street. Later, Joseph was sent to attend the boy’s school at Notre Dame. The college owed money to the Oliver firm for cast iron columns, and J.D.’s father, James, fearful the money might not be collected, credited Joseph’s tuition against the account. Notre Dame enrollment was 230.</p><p>In February 1865, at the age of 14, Joseph began working part time, six days a week, cutting threads on nuts in his father’s plant. He disliked it intensely and was relieved when his father sent him back to Notre Dame in September. He had earned $100 in the six-month part time job.</p><p>Joseph again threaded nuts in the summer of 1866, returning to Notre Dame once again in September. The company credited Notre Dame’s account for $125.57 tuition that year. Joseph later spent one semester at Ashbury College (now DePauw University) and also took a short business course at South Bend Business College. That completed his formal education.</p><p>George Milburn hired 16 year-old Joseph as a bookkeeper for the plow factory on July 1, 1867, and sent him home to lunch. After lunch, Milburn opened to Joseph the first set of double entry books the company ever had. Milburn was a critical teacher, but Joseph was a good pupil. He kept the job for more than 66 years.</p><p>James tried to instill in his son his own love for the foundry but Joseph preferred to view the factory from across an office desk. He was an organizer and financial wizard. Fortunately, the talents of father, as inventor and builder, and son, as marketer and financier, paralleled each other to make a winning combination. Shortly after Joseph took over the books, he realized the company’s bookkeeping methods were haphazard, at best. He began a campaign to collect outstanding debts and made drastic changes in the billing procedures. In 1869, Joseph’s annual salary was raised to $1,000 and by 1871, he owned 180 shares of the company’s stock. He became company treasurer before he was 18 and a director before he was 21. In 1878, James took his wife and daughter, Josephine, to Scotland, England and Ireland on a business-pleasure trip. Meanwhile, Joseph went east to investigate malleable iron production and later played a major role in establishing the Oliver Malleable Manufacturing facilities in South Bend.</p><p>On July 22, 1868, the Oliver company was incorporated as South Bend Iron Works, which it remained for the next 50 years. The firm was capitalized for $100,000 (2,000 shares at $50); thus began the company that was to become the world’s largest plow producer. George Milburn resigned from the Oliver firm in 1870 to devote all his resources to his wagon-building business in Mishawaka. His leaving left the Olivers in a troublesome financial situation. However, the great Chicago fire of 1871 proved to be a blessing in disguise for the Olivers. James knew that cast iron columns supported most of Chicago’s large buildings. Before the smoke cleared, Joseph was in Chicago purchasing the columns as junk. These were shipped to South Bend to be recast into sewing machine parts for Singer Sewing Machine Company. The profits realized not only offset Oliver’s financial difficulties, but also provided the company with funds for needed expansion. In addition to buildings already owned, the company erected a brick foundry, 40' x 132', a 24' x 155' warehouse, plus machine and wood shops on the West Race of the St. Joseph River. A 72-inch water turbine was purchased to provide additional electricity.</p><p>James continued his experiments with the plow and in 1872 was issued an important patent to modify parts in a manner that permitted the plow to stand the stress of striking hidden roots or stones. He also changed the coulter’s position and attached an adjustable plow wheel. These two innovations became standard features of the wood-beam Oliver Chilled Plow. By the close of 1872, five hundred tons of Chicago iron remained on hand. The Olivers were using it at the rate of 14 tons per day. It was a year of prosperity.</p><p>The Oliver family engaged in many projects that benefited the community. In 1882, James and Joseph teamed up with the Studebaker brothers, who manufactured wagons, to petition the Common Council for a street railway. The first horse cars were put in service in 1885 on Washington Street. An attempt to use an electrically-operated trolley system on Michigan Street failed due to improper current distribution, but the problem was solved and trolleys soon gave way to horse-pulled cars. Despite the original failure, South Bend holds the distinction of being the first city to use electrical power for streetcars. Among other civic projects were construction of an opera house, a hotel, apartment houses, row housing and a dam.</p><p>Ground was broken December 5, 1883, for "Oliver Row," a block of row houses at Main and Market (Colfax) streets. These were described as "nine residences with a total unbroken frontage of 200 feet on Main Street, 12 feet back from the sidewalk, four stories in height, including basement and attic. The basement (ceiling) will be five feet above the level of the street. Stories will be approached by flights of stone steps." This structure was later remodeled and became the Christman Building.</p><p>Both James and Joseph enjoyed the theater and attended as often as time permitted. In the 1880s, Good’s Opera House and Price’s Theater were the only venues in South Bend for the performing arts; neither was considered adequate for the growing city. Therefore, the Olivers decided to build a new facility, and construction of the Opera House on Main Street started in March 1884. While demolition of brick and frame buildings on the site was in process, 100 wagon loads of stone were brought in for the foundation. The Opera House was part of a business block, but profit, apparently, was not the sole motive. Ostentation was a corollary of wealth at the time, and this new facility was built with a lavish hand.</p><p>The Opera House was opened October 28, 1885, with the performance of W.E. Sheridan in the role of Louis XI. The overture prior to the performance, composed by Professor Chris Elbel of South Bend, was titled "The Oliver House Triumphal." It was played by Professor Lorenz Elbel’s orchestra.</p><p><strong><font size="3">J.D. Oliver and Family</font></strong></p><p>Joseph (J.D.) Oliver was 34 when he met Anna Gertrude Wells, daughter of a wealthy family of Johnstown, New York. Anna had come to South Bend to visit Grace Studebaker, a schoolmate at Madam de Silva’s Finishing School in New York. She was 22, tall, aristocratic in bearing, and shy, with a good sense of humor. Joseph, handsome and conservative, also had a good sense of humor. Their storybook romance culminated in marriage on December 10, 1884, in Johnstown, New York, in the north parlor of the Johnson home.</p><p>After the wedding banquet and dancing, a special train from the railroad of the bride’s father took the bride and groom to Fonda, New York, where they left on a two-month wedding trip to California. Newspapers printed a list of wedding gifts, among them, solid silver tea and coffee sets, silver flatware, salad bowls, ice cream sets, and a $15,000 check from the father of the groom. Upon their return to South Bend, the newlyweds became the first occupants of Oliver Row, where they took up housekeeping in Apartment #1.</p><p>The Olivers were staunch Republicans, and in the Democratic sweep of 1884, South Bend citizens elected Democrat George Ford as their representative in Congress. A graduate of the University of Michigan who had been active in local politics, George and Josephine Oliver (J.D.’s sister) had known each other from childhood. The bride and groom were both 39 when they were married November 25, 1885, in the home of the bride’s parents. Ford was the first Democrat to enter the sphere of the Oliver family. He retired from Congress in 1887 and resumed his law practice in South Bend. In 1888, he was elected secretary of the South Bend Iron Works. George and Josephine resided in a spacious white frame house on an acre of land at 630 W. Washington Street (now the Oliver Inn Bed and Breakfast). They had no children. Josephine died on May 28, 1914, and George on August 30, 1917.</p><strong><font face="Arial" size="3">Copshaholm</font></strong><font size="3"> <p> </p></font> <p>On February 3, 1894, J.D. Oliver purchased 76 feet of land on the south side of Washington Street which lay adjacent to another property he owned. He planned to build a new home on this property, which provided 250 feet on Washington Street and 300 feet on Chapin Street. Exterior work on the dwelling was finished in 1895. Woodwork for the interior arrived in April 1896, and the Olivers moved in on January 1, 1897.</p><p>The house had 38 rooms, 9 bathrooms and 14 fireplaces. The basement included a laundry room, work room, clothes drying room and five store rooms. There were 12 rooms on the first floor, including a large central hall, reception room, library, den, music room, dining room, porte-cochere hall, butler’s pantry, kitchen staff dining room, and two kitchen pantries. Five bedrooms, a sitting room, a dressing room and two linen rooms were located on the second floor. The third floor had nine rooms, including four bedrooms, a sitting room, sewing room, ballroom and billiard room.</p><p>The total cost of the structure was never officially revealed. J.D. was a very private person who conducted his personal business in the utmost privacy.</p><p>Pretty interesting! </p><p> </p>
Edited by Ed Winkle 6/15/2006 18:15
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Evolution of balers
