Jerome Increase Case built a three-story brick factory in 1847 on the Root River in Racine, Wisconsin. That shop became the hub of his farm machinery manufacturing business and was called the Racine Threshing Machine Works.
By 1848, Case was producing 100 threshers a year and claimed he was meeting only half of the orders received. By 1854, water power was supplanted by a steam boiler and engine within the factory.
In 1862, Case began selling the “Sweepstakes,” a thresher capable of producing 300 bushels of wheat a day. Pressures, including the Civil War, drove Case to form a partnership by 1863, established as J.I. Case & Co. The partnership included Case, Massena Erskine, Robert Baker and Stephen Bull.
In 1869 Case brought out what was touted as a highly improved thresher, a no-apron machine called the Case Eclipse. The appearance of this thresher was significant. Case recognized that in order to realize the full potential of the new thresher, some power source other than horse treadmills or sweeps must be developed. Realizing the need for additional power to utilize the potential of his threshing machines, Case brought out the first of his steam engines in 1869. In the ensuing years, 36,000 of these portable steam engines were built to power American farm implements. The draft animal was not totally replaced: A team was necessary to pull the steam engine from job to job.
In 1878, Case produced its first steam traction engine, and by the following year had sold 109 of them.
Sales doubled in 1878, reaching the one million dollar mark by 1880.
The partnership was incorporated as J.I. Case Threshing Machine Company in 1880.
A plow works was established in 1876 by Ebenezer Whiting with financing supplied by J.I. Case. Initially known as Case, Whiting & Co., the company’s factory was located next door to Case T.M. Co. When mismanagement resulted in financial difficulties, Case bought out Whiting and renamed the firm J.I. Case Plow Works. The year before he died, Case made his son, Jackson, president of the plow works.
For the next several decades, the two entities functioned smoothly side by side. But as Case T.M. expanded its production of steam engines, the company was inexorably drawn into providing plows for those engines – plows branded “Case.” After a series of bitter lawsuits, the Wisconsin Supreme Court finally issued a decision. J.I. Case Plow Works was given exclusive rights to brand plows with the name “Case,” while Case T.M. Co. was allowed to use the name on products other than plows.
Following Case’s death in 1891, leadership of the company was passed to his brother-in-law and one of his former partners, Stephen Bull, who was assisted by his son Frank. Between 1893 and 1924, the company expanded to Europe, South America, and Australia.
In 1910, the J.I. Case Threshing Machine Co. purchased the Pierce Motor Co. of Racine. The firm had been operating for a number of years manufacturing the Pierce-Racine automobile (no connection with Pierce-Arrow). Case Company renamed the Automobile "Case" and utilized the company’s 8,000 dealers and agents world wide to sell the new line. Case automobiles came in Touring models, Sedans, Coupes, and a few sporting types of a luxury class. Case continued to build automobiles until the mid 1920s.
The gasoline tractor became one of the company’s most important products. Since 1902, many firms were fighting to produce the gasoline-powered successors to steam-powered engines. The design and manufacture of lighter, smaller versions of the engines made Case a major player in the gasoline tractor market by the 1920s. By the late 1920s, Case had become a full-line manufacturer, aided by its 1919 acquisition of Grand Detour, a tillage equipment company.
In 1928, the declining J.I. Case Plow Works sold out to Massey-Harris of Canada. Massey-Harris immediately sold its rights to the Case name to Case T.M. Co., ending decades of confusion and animosity.
The depression in the American economy in the wake of World War I greatly impacted the farm equipment industry. By 1929, only 18 of the 157 manufacturers of farm equipment operating 12 years earlier remained. Case did not keep up with competitors’ improvements while it was enjoying the sales of its steam traction engines and threshers. In 1924, Case’s new president, Leon R. Clausen, assumed the reigns after leaving John Deere Company. The company name was changed to J.I. Case Company after reorganization around 1928.
In 1927 the J. I. Case Company ceased building its legendary steam engines. Case steam engines, of which over 30,000 were produced, were painted in black with green machinery, while the gas tractors were painted grey.
Case introduced the Model L tractor in 1929. Undergoing rigorous testing for four years before it was introduced to the market, elements of the tractor’s design were used in Case tractors for the next 20 years. Lines were expanded by acquisition as well as invention: Case purchased a line of farm equipment that included binders, mowers, reapers, and corn planters. The Rock Island Plow Company was acquired in 1937, adding drills, spreaders, and plows to the company’s offerings.
to be continued in Part Two: the modern years