The company started in Doylestown, OH, and built the Akron plant in 1865. [the-daily-record]
Scott Brown posted two images with the comment: "From an 1874 Atlas. Does anyone know where this was located?"
Rod Hower: I think my ancestors were involved with that! The Excelsior Mower and Reaper Works was an influential 19th-century farm machinery company in the Akron, Ohio area, co-founded by industrialist John Henry Hower in 1861. It was a significant early industry in the region and a precursor to the Quaker Oats Company and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company.
History of the Excelsior Works and John Hower
Founding: John H. Hower partnered with the inventor John F. Seiberling to organize the Excelsior Mower and Reaper Works in Doylestown, Ohio, in 1861. The machine they manufactured was patented by Seiberling and called the "Excelsior".
Brian Vogus: One of these sites now E. J. Thomas Performing Arts [The 1882 map below shows it is south of University, Ave.] Hall. Competitors' plants Buckeye and Excelsior located adjacent to each other. Both consolidated into the massive International Harvester of America, which then began the manufacture of motor wagons, an early type of truck. Shut down and motor wagon business moved to Fort Wayne [c1923] and Springfield.
Vince Nicklin: Broadway @ State. [I'd say the southeast quadrant of University Ave. and the tracks.] #47 at this link
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| 1882 Akron |
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| A larger excerpt to provide context. |
Within a decade, buildings were torn down and University Ave. was extended west of the tracks.
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| 1903/61 Akron Quad @ 62,500 |
One of the big deals concerning the reaper was the paddle reel.
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| iastate, p2, Credit: Iowa State University. Special Collections and University Archives This is a 24 page description of the reaper. |
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| WoosterHistory "This sketch from Caldwell's Atlas of 1873 features a mower from Excelsior Mower and Reaper Works of Cline, Seiberling and Co., in Doylestown, Ohio. The piece of innovative farm technology was sold in the mid-Nineteenth century to cut lodged and tangled grain in 3 1/2 inch sections." |
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| WhoosterHistory "This piece of innovative technology from the mid-Nineteenth century was captured in a sketch by the Caldwell Atlas of 1873. It features a man cutting lodged and tangled grain with a mower from Cline, Seiberling and Co., of Doylestown, Ohio." |
In the background is a couple of the mowers. The foreground mower shows how it folds up for transport down a road.
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| huntington Excelsior Mower and Reaper. This is from an advertisement. |
John F. Seiberling sons, Frank and Charles, helped transform Akron from a hot bed of farm machinery manufacture to a hot bed of rubber manufacture. [FarmCollector]
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