This tractor (serial #820) was made by the Minneapolis Threshing Machine Company in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded in 1889 in Hopkins, Minnesota, this company started, like many other tractor companies, as a builder of threshing machines and steam engines. By 1910, the company had developed its first tractor. By 1912, it had started making the 25-50. After nearly two decades of building tractors in a variety of sizes, including a 40-80 model, the Minneapolis Threshing Machine Company merged with the Moline Plow Company and the Minneapolis Steel & Machinery Company to form the Minneapolis-Moline Implement Company in 1929.
If you were to look around the engine of this tractor, you might come upon a grease cup made by Charles H. Besly & Company of Chicago, Illinois. This cup was called the Badger No. 5, and it was probably made early in the 20th century, possibly around the time this tractor was manufactured. Charles H. Besly was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1852. He and his family moved to Chicago in 1863. After working for Marshall Field & Company and Bergen Tool Company, Besly established Charles H Besly & Company in 1881. Under his leadership, the company grew, moving to new facilities in 1891 and 1903. In 1886, Besly opened a second factory in Beloit, Wisconsin. Charles H. Besly died on December 31, 1908, leaving a strong company that not only produced the Badger grease cup for this tractor (and one for the large Sandwich corn sheller here in this exhibit) but also disc grinders, temper taps, bevel gears, hack saws, and lathe dogs.
Notes
You can find a brief history of the Minneapolis Threshing Machine Company (as well as the Minneapolis Steel & Machinery Company) here.Information on Besly and his company is from his obituary printed in The Iron Trade Review, vol. XLIV, no. 4 (January 28, 1909).
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