TRACTOR TRIVIA and other interesting stuff 6/2/2024

[953 nut 55,188]

Shaw Du-All

 

Galesburg, Kansas, is probably one of the least likely places you would choose to locate a manufacturing facility. Though it was served by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Rail Road this southeastern Ks community was sparsely populated and had on access for shipping by navigable waterway. Its population was 205 in 1922 and the surrounding Neosho County had only 1900 people in 1900 when Stanley Shaw was beginning to manufacture his tractors.

As a boy growing up on his family’s farm near Galesburg Shaw built his first little tractor at the tender age of nine. It had no engine, which shouldn’t be surprising in 1890, but it was a sign of things to come. When he was fourteen, he built a working steam engine using two bicycle air pumps and a well-pump. By 1902 Shaw had built his own gasoline engine using the cylinder of a well pump, plumbing check valves and various scrap heap parts found on the farm.

Having developed mechanical skills Shaw began repairing and selling watches when he was twenty-two. He sold and repaired watches in the front, while he built gasoline engines in the back. Before long he was manufacturing and selling air-cooled and water-cooled engines in various sizes for home, farm and boating applications.

With the success of his motorized bicycle Shaw became the first motorized vehicle owner in the region in 1903. In 1905, Shaw patented his air-cooled 2 ½ horse power engine that converted his bicycle into a motorbike. Orders for the conversion engines were brisk with over 13,000 sold at $53 each from 1905 to 1917.

Business was good, in 1911 Shaw was outgrowing his little factory. He purchased the Kokomo Motorcycle Co. of Kokomo, Ind., that same year to expand his product line and a new factory was built.   Kokomo produced a 300cc side valve motorcycle which was rather underpowered. Shaw transferred the production to Galesburg and enlarged the engine capacity to ca. 400 cc to overcome its lack of power. Between 1912 and 1920 about 240 of these Kokomo/Shaw motorcycles were sold.

Shaw Manufacturing introduced the Shawmobile in 1908. It was a six-foot-long open motor car powered by the company’s single-cylinder 2.5-liter engine. The automobile was said to go 25 mph seating two people for only $150.

Following World War One dozens of manufacturers including Shaw began manufacturing kits to convert Ford Model T cars into farm tractors. This led to Shaw’s development of its own garden tractors beginning in 1924.

The Shaw Du-All Model T-25 was successful in the garden and the marketplace. The demand for tractors exceeded Shaw’s ability to build its own engines and Briggs & Straton was chosen to meet the need. The T-25 and its big brother the T-45 were built for nearly a decade. They also developed a riding lawnmower

Around 1933 a larger walk-behind garden tractor, the Model D was introduced offering horsepower ranging from 2 to 5 Brigs & Stratton engines. Production was so brisk that Shaw was receiving a boxcar load of engines each week. The Model D served as the basis for the 1938 introduction of the first riding tractor, the RD. The Shaw Du-All was “the tractor of 100 uses,”

During World War II the Shaw built aircraft and machine gun parts to support the war effort.

Shaw had many opportunities to relocate the company from Galesburg but he flatly refused. He was as loyal to Galesburg and his employees as they were to him, and he often made financial contributions to Galesburg schools, the city water department and religious institutions and gave generous employee bonuses during good years. Stanley Shaw operated the company until 1962, when, at age 81, he sold the business to Bush Hog of Selma, AL. One of the more unusual aspects of the sales agreement was that production must remain in Galesburg, Bush-Hog continued production there until 1972.

The three-day Galesburg Days celebration honoring a century since Shaw Industries began was held July 4, 2003, and included Shaw family members and former employees who shared experiences and memories of Stanley Shaw and the Shaw factory. A large selection of Shaw-built equipment owned by collectors from across America were on display, and a Shaw swap meet was held.

The names of a few natives of Galesburg who all worked at Shaw may ring a bell.  Glen Heilman, founder of Gard’n Mast’r garden tractors, his brother-in -law Harold Pond who was the man behind Speedex garden tractors, and Harold’s brother Elmer and son Cecil Pond who gave birth to Wheel Horse.  

Edited June 2 by 953 nut

[ebinmaine 67,422]

Excellent write up

[ri702bill 8,316]

Ford transmission, rear axle, rear wheels???

[Sparky-(Admin) 21,315]

With a connection to Wheel Horse…very cool!