Champion Interest

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Champion Interest was an American group of companies based in Springfield ( Clark County , Ohio , USA) that manufactured the horse-drawn "Champion Reaper and Mower", the most successful agricultural harvester in terms of numbers, in the second half of the 19th century.

Company history

Preliminary remarks

The company conglomerate resembling a trust emerged from the Whiteley, Fassler & Kelly Company and initially comprised the three companies Whiteley, Fassler & Kelly, Warder, Mitchell & Co., and Champion Machine Company. The network was expanded in 1874 by the Champion Malleable Iron Company and the Champion Bar & Knife Company, as well as a railway, newspaper and hotel company.

The group was apparently not managed through a holding company, but rather directly by the three founding partners William N. Whiteley , Jerome Fassler and Oliver S. Kelly . These three people - complemented by Amos Whiteley , the younger brother of William N. Whiteleys - shared top management positions in the individual companies.

  • The founders

  • William N. Whiteley 1880

  • Jerome Fassler 1880

  • Oliver S. Kelly 1880

Development of the prototype

Jerome Fassler worked on the new mower in tough planning and development work after business hours. From 1851 on, his friend Whiteley, whom he knew from his time at Hatch & Whiteley, an equally hard-working and determined mechanic, dealt with the Reaper and worked on it in every available free time, supported and advised by Jerome Fassler.

The question of who contributed more to the development of the champion is idle. The American sources put Whiteley in the foreground, the German Fäßler. In truth, it will have been a joint effort of the friendly constructors.

The first production company "Whiteley & Fassler"

In 1856 the two of them were satisfied with their prototype and founded the company “Whiteley & Fassler” in partnership to manufacture the machine in larger numbers. Whiteley confidently called their product “Champion”, but at the time could not have known what a unique triumph this most famous agricultural machine of all time would make and make Springfield the “Champion City” for decades (this synonym is still known in Springfield today).

The champion was a complete success. The two determined partners produced at least 25 machines in their first year in two-man operation in 1856 (other sources speak of 20), but were far from able to meet the high demand. They doubled and tripled their production in the first few years, but that wasn't enough either.

The large company "Whiteley, Fassler & Kelly"

Whiteley and Fassler had to leave the small business behind and move on to large-scale manufacturing. However, the necessary capital was not available for this. Fortunately, they met the wealthy Oliver S. Kelly, made friends and allied with him in the following year 1857 and founded the company "Whiteley, Fassler & Kelly" with him as a third partner and investor. Kelly, who came from Springfield, had made a fortune in the lucrative building of houses in California from 1852 to 1856, and originally wanted to get into the food production business.

William N. Whiteley, who made mistakes in his long career as an entrepreneur, proved a particularly lucky hand when choosing the founding partner for the successful company "Whiteley, Fassler & Kelly". The troika divided the tasks according to their abilities and strengths: William N. was in charge of product development, Fassler was responsible for the energy supply, locksmithing and forge and the mechanical engineering departments and Oliver S. Kelly for the woodworking, assembly and painting departments. P. 63

At the start of production of "Whiteley, Fassler & Kelly" they brought in Amos Whiteley, who had already worked with William N. on the development of the Champion, and appointed him head of the accounting department and George W. Benns, a talented employee as accountant. They also assigned Amos to the tasks of the “sales agent”, which included the appointment of sales agents, the sale of the product, invoicing and collection, as well as the provision of funds for ongoing business, for running the business and shipping the goods . P. 64

The American Civil War of 1861-1865 brought growing profits and considerable expansion to society. The growing demand for agricultural machinery was so great that Whiteley could not meet it.

Other production facilities and companies

The Champion Shops 1875

The Springfield rival company "Warder, Mitchell & Co", formerly "Warder & Brokaw" (which later became "Warder, Bushnell & Glessner"), initially had the famous "New York Reaper" and later the "Buckeye" in their factory in Lagonda -Machine produced. They found the competition with the “Champion” machines to be too complex and uneconomical and proposed a remarkable agreement: “Whiteley, Fassler & Kelly” should provide them with additional premises and allow them to manufacture Champion machines via a license agreement. To do this, they would stop building the machines they had previously built. P. 64 The very modern looking contract was signed in 1867 and with “Warder, Mitchell & Co” the total production of the “Champion” increased considerably.

Around the same time in 1867, Amos Whiteley organized and integrated another champion production company on behalf of and with the support of "Whiteley, Fassler & Kelly" with the "Champion Machine Company" and convinced other partners such as Robert Johnson, DP Jeffries as shareholders, in invest the company. In addition, the “Champion Machine Company” received a license agreement from “Whiteley, Fassler & Kelly” (Licensed Royalty Contract) for the machines it manufactures in its sales area (the southern and western states of the USA). P. 65

These three licensed and directorate companies - Whiteley, Fassler & Kelly, Warder, Mitchell & Company, and the Champion Machine Factory - came to be known as the Champion Group or Champion Interest and gave rise to their success Springfield is nicknamed "Champion City".

  • Promotional material for the champion

  • Catalog 1869 cover sheet

  • Catalog 1871 cover sheet

  • Catalog 1882 cover sheet

  • Trade Card 1875

  • Advertising Handbill 1882

  • Advertising Handbill 1858

System optimization with our own standard suppliers

After the extraordinary expansion of the production capacity to three legally independent companies, which were linked by license agreements and in some cases the leading personalities, the necessity of defining identical design features for key assemblies and elements of the Champion, their manufacture as well as further processing and installation for all three was seen organizing manufacturing companies. P. 65

This could be done in the most economical way in the form of joint, optimized supply companies and so the owners decided to take appropriate restructuring measures that still seem contemporary today.

A key area for uniform prefabrication was the high-quality parts of the cutting devices such as the “cutter bar”, “protective fingers”, “knife”, “sickles” and “cut surfaces” as well as the “binding devices”. For this purpose, the three production companies "Whiteley, Fassler & Kelly", "Warder, Mitchell & Co." and "Champion Machine Co." founded the "Champion Bar & Knife Company" in 1874, built the factory facilities and equipped them according to the most modern aspects . P. 65

The second area offered was the production of standardized, deformable cast parts made of "malleable cast iron" for the three production companies in a company specializing in this area. To this end, the old factory facilities of the “Springfield Malleable Iron Company” were bought, expanded, completely refurbished and also put into operation in 1874 under the name “Champion Malleable Iron Company”. P. 65 The new company produced 3000 tons of finished parts from malleable cast iron quality iron for Springfield to meet the needs of the champion factories.

In 1875, the three core companies acquired a railroad to the coal fields of southern Ohio. The share capital belonged to the members of the Champion group and the railway line brought coal, charcoal and mill iron to the five companies.

Success and prosperity

The champion machine became the main product of Springfield. Once the value of mowers reached the value of all other products combined and Springfield became the world's leading producer of agricultural machinery. The economic crisis from 1873 to 1877, which hit many hard, hardly affected Springfield because of the flourishing worldwide sales of the "Champion". The factories were in full swing, overtime, and business flourished. On April 24, 1877, four 72-car trains brought 1618 Champion machines to market, the largest shipment of mowers the world had ever seen.

The overall increase in production was enormous. The 25 machines from the first year of 1856 grew to 36,000 in 1880 and 55,000 mowers and grain harvesters in 1882. To this end, over 4,000 workers were employed in five factories.

In 1660 the two-man business had grown into a huge corporate network that produced more agricultural machinery than all the factories in Chicago put together. The large factory on East Street in Springfield was called the second largest industrial plant in the world after the Krupp munitions works in Prussia.
- from The OHIO State University Extension: Springfield a POWER HOUSE of Agriculture

In the industrially prosperous Springfield a number of large companies were successful in the production of agricultural machinery. “Whiteley, Fassler & Kelly” towered over them all. The following quote describes the situation:

At a meeting of rival mower barons, one competitor asked how they could do business better, to which another short and sweet replied, "Kill Whiteley!"
- from The OHIO State University Extension: Springfield a POWER HOUSE of Agriculture

In the 1880s, the "Champion Machine Company" developed into the world's largest manufacturer of agricultural equipment with an output of more than twelve thousand reapers per year.

Reorganization and crisis

Amos Whiteley emphasizes in his memoirs his excellent human and business relationship with Fäßler and Kelly. On the other hand, he does not hide certain weaknesses and overestimations of his brother William N., but also points out that he has always followed him loyally throughout his life (the story: Mary had a little lamb). Apparently they saw (or only Whiteley) the need to change the corporate structure in the direction of a holding company and to transfer the operational business to the brother Amos Whiteley. The meticulous description of the gradual change and the respective approval (or non-protest) by Kelly and Fäßler read like a retrospectively embellished representation of the process. However, it must have been bubbling under the smooth surface, as the events around the East Street shops show, which apparently brought the barrel to overflow.

The East Street Shops

The excellent business results led William N. Whiteley, the active leader of the three-party consortium, to the extraordinary planning of a huge new plant on East Street in Springfield. The two partners Kelly and Fassler considered the procedure too risky, tried to curb Whiteley and finally threatened to leave the company. Whiteley pushed through his plans and lost his loyal colleagues Kelly (1881) and Fassler (1882). Both sold their shares in “Whiteley, Fassler & Kelly Company” to Whiteley and went their own business ways. Whiteley built the huge factory on East Street, but was ultimately not happy with it.

Decline

In the first half of 1887 - triggered by the collapse of the “Fidelity Bank” - Whitely, Fassler & Kelly , the then largest mower and harvesting machine manufacturer in the world, went bankrupt. At a creditors' meeting on June 28, 1887, a committee ( AS Bushnell , Amos Whiteley, Colonel Churchill, Alex Gebhardt and Walter Potter), which had examined the company's financial position, presented its results and a rescue plan. The company's liabilities were $ 3.14 million (including nearly $ 700,000 worth of mortgage notes in the hands of the downed bank) against $ 1.03 million in assets consisting of account balances, bills of exchange, estimated income from the current season's machine sales, Stocks, etc. The rescue plan that was finally adopted envisaged the takeover of the third-party shares in Whitely, Fassler & Kelly by the individual William N. Whitely, who had his back to the wall. The creditors should forego 40% of their claims (mode "60 cents on the dollar" ) and thus enable Whiteley to continue the company, to collect the outstanding debts and to service the reduced creditors' claims in a 5-step plan.

sale

Whiteley eventually sold the Champion Machine Company to Warder, Bushnell & Glessner . In 1902 that company merged with four others to form the International Harvester Company and Whiteley's former business became part of the new group of companies.

swell

literature

Web links

Commons : Champion Interest  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Notes, details, individual documents

  1. ↑ a b see literature Benjamin F. Prince: A standard history of Springfield and Clark County, Ohio
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g see literature Amos Whiteley: Whiteleys in America
  3. ↑ a b see web link hio History Central, Online Encyclopedia of Ohio History: Biography of William N. Whiteley ° Champion ° Ohio ° Springfield
  4. ↑ see literature William M. Rockel: 20th century history of Springfield and Clark County, Ohio and representative citizen
  5. ↑ see web link The New York Times August 7, 1887: Springfield's big failure, the assets and liabilities of the bankrupt firm