EARLY MANUFACTURERS

Many of the companies that are today best known for having made tractors such as John Deere, Oliver, International Harvester, Allis-Chalmers, Massey-Harris, J.I. Case, Minneapolis-Moline and others were already established agricultural implement builders before they ever built their first tractor. While there were almost no tractor manufacturers at the beginning of the century by 1917 there were somewhere around 260. J.W. Stoddard, a company from Dayton, Ohio well known for their hay rakes went in another direction.

John W. Stoddard, a cousin of Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman, began manufacturing farm equipment in 1869. Their “Tiger” brand name became known the world over. By 1890, more than 200,000 Tiger hay rakes had been sold.

In the mid 1890’s the company began building bicycles. Charles Taylor, who would become the chief bicycle mechanic for the Wright Brothers and builder of the engine that powered their 1903 airplane, first worked for Stoddard.

In the same year that the Wright's first flew Stoddard switched to building motorcars as the Dayton Motor Car Company. Their Stoddard-Dayton automobile won the first race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1909 and was the pace car for the first Indianapolis 500 held in 1911. After various mergers the company eventually became part of Chrysler Corporation.