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Way Back Wednesday
The Oliver Corporation was established on November 1, 1943. The business was purchased from the Ann Arbor Machine Company on a patent royalty and rental proposition. The Oliver Corporation would have an option to buy the plant in 1953.
During the time that Ann Arbor owned the plant, the company had grown to be the largest manufacturer of baling presses in the United States. An increased demand for manufacturing and distribution facilities brought about the move to sell the business.
At the time of the sale, Ann Arbor owned more than 4 city blocks of property, employed 275 local people during peak production, and the payroll was approximately $290,000, annually. During the time that the business was owned by Ann Arbor, Shelbyville experienced one of the best employment periods on record.
Just six weeks after the purchase, the Oliver plant caught fire. Most of the townspeople were attending a basketball game at the high school when the fire whistle was heard. The spectators of the basketball game began to leave to the building only to discover that the Oliver plant was burning down. As word spread, a crowd gathered at the plant to watch the fire burn.
Later, G. L. Tallman estimated that the fire damage would amount to $500,000. This estimate would include both the building and the equipment.
Realizing that the loss of the plant would be a devastating blow to the local economy, the Oliver Corporation and the Tallman family came to an agreement. The Tallman family would replace the buildings and the Oliver Corporation would replace the machinery. By 1944 the new plant had been built and was operating to full capacity.
Immediately after the reconstruction, the plant only manufactured one product, the hay baler that had been developed by the Ann Arbor Company.
In 1950, the company began to design and build agricultural field mowers. In 1954, hay rakes were added to the line.
In 1954, the federal government arranged for a contract to be written for the production of military arms. The Oliver Corporation signed the contract and the size of the plant was increased by 20 percent. During 1956 and 1957, the plant manufactured navy missile containers, too.
When Oliver announced that it would be closing the manufacturing plant in Springfield, Ohio, the production of manure spreaders, front end loaders, hay conditioners and cotton harvesters were transferred to the Shelbyville plant in 1958.
Due to the local expansion, construction of a new manufacturing area started in the fall of 1958. The new construction would double the manufacturing area of the plant and would include the addition of a new office.
During the construction period, the plant was modernized with an overhead conveyer system. This conveyor would carry parts and complete machine units to the ultra-modern flo-coat paint system, which painted and baked the green units.
During 1958 and 1959, the plant experienced times when production was low and others when production would run high. This trend would cause problems with the employment of its workers.
White Motors had purchased all of the Oliver plants, including the one in Shelbyville, in 1960. Samuel White was named as president of the new Oliver Corporation.
Employment dropped to 130 workers at one time in 1961 but the plant began to experience new production growth by late in 1961. When an announcement was made, in 1962, that the corn picker and the corn header would be produced in Shelbyville, it was received well by the community. This would mean that the Oliver Corporation would continue to provide year-round work for the area.
White Motor Company also announced that it had purchased Cockshutt, Limited. The Cockshutt company was one of Canada’s finest farm equipment manufacturers. Markets were increased again and the Oliver Corporation would benefit by more production required in the Shelbyville plant. Later, the White Motor Company would purchase the Minneapolis-Moline Company. This acquisition would provide even more production requirements from the Shelbyville plant.
During the rapid expansion and growth period in the 1960’s, two new agricultural products were manufactured in the Shelbyville plant. The Oliver Model 74 corn picker that was mounted on a Model 1600 Oliver tractor, and the Model 62 baler with its new bale thrower. The bale thrower was designed and produced first, in Shelbyville.
During 1963, the Oliver Corporation was Shelbyville’s largest single employer. The plant size was listed as 220,000 square feet, the annual payroll was in excess of $12 million dollars yearly, and the total annual production was over $12 million. On August of 1961, Shelbyville payed tribute to its largest manufacturing industry. This was the 20th anniversary of the Oliver plant.
During the anniversary celebration, tours were given of the local plant and ceremonies were held in front of the Roxy theater in downtown Shelbyville. Samuel W. White was present to take part in the ceremonies. The Moose lodge held a dinner and dance during the evening and there was a free half-and-half dance on the Main Street School blacktop. Several models of the Oliver Farm equipment were displayed on the Main Street blacktop during the day and a parade of the farm equipment was spotlighted in a parade.
During the early part of 1970, local employees started to anticipate that the plant might be shut down for several months. They had no idea that a closure of the plant was in the being considered.
F. L. Wilson, plant manager, reported that the reduction in the number of farm equipment units sold had brought about over-capacity in the manufacturing plant in Shelbyville and in the industry, in general. The last product manufactured in Shelbyville would be the 840 forage harvester. The last one would leave the assembly line on August 25, 1970. The Oliver/White Farm Equipment plant would be completely closed by October of 1970.
Over the years, some of the Oliver employees were listed as Dan Winnings, lathe operator; Jim Hudson, chucking machine operator; Jack Kensil, drill press operator; Fred Miller tool and die maker; Andrew Craig, Richard Elam, and John Chapman, engineers; Noble Corley, cost department supervisor, Ellen Jiter, office worker and Forest Miller the chief inspector. These employees are just a few of the hundreds of people that contributed as employees during the 27 years that Oliver that operated in Shelbyville.
[Information gathered from “Shelbyville Past and Present, written by the Chautauqua History Book Committee in 1991. The Hart-Parr/Oliver Collector Jan/Feb 2001 issue. ]
