A Brief History Of The

RUMELY COMPANY
1853-1931
M & J Rumely Co.
   M. Rumely Co.
Rumely Products Co.  
Advance Rumely Thresher Co.

Meinrad & Theresa Rumely

Meinrad Rumely was the founder and driving force behind the Rumely empire. Born in Baden, Germany in 1823, he was a young man  in the German army when he was unfairly pistol-whipped by an officer for being slightly out of line during an inspection. He left his native land for the promise of America in 1848.      
Meinrad and Theresa Rumely

Meinrad, with his brother Jacob, arrived in America and found employment making wooden pumps. Meinrad was trained as a millwright and soon found other work as a machinist with, among others, the Russell Thresher Co.
Left: The Rumely plant, 1911

      Meinrad wandered throughout the midwest and eventually founded a blacksmith shop in LaPorte, Indiana. He sent for brother Jacob, and the two had all the business they could handle doing custom work for the railroad. Thus, in 1853, the M. & J. Rumely Company was founded.
     The brothers began to produce threshing machines, or grain separators in 1854. In 1859 the Rumely separator won first prize at the U.S. Fair in Chicago. Realizing the booming market for agricultural machinery, the Rumely brothers produced their first portable steam engine in 1872. In 1882, Meinrad bought out the business interest of his brother and re-christened the company the M. Rumely Company. By the 1890's the firm was a major player in the agricultural world, offering an extensive line of steam engines, threshing machines and other machinery.

     Meinrad was a remarkable Christian man. He took great pains to watch over his employees, paying passage to bring  skilled craftsmen from Germany and Poland, then helping them to secure mortages on their first homes. Meinrad set off several acres of company property so that each employee might have acreage to pasture his own cow for milk and butter. His wife Theresa regularly visited sick or injured employees in the hospital, whether she was familiar with them or not. Meinrad made many donations to the city of Laporte, being a principal supporter of a new city hall and donating land for a fire station.
     Meinrad Rumely passed away in 1904,  having passed the reins of the company to his sons William and Joseph. Meinrad was active in the plant's operations to the bitter end, coming in to talk to employees  and work on projects even in his advanced old age.                                                                  

       Edward A. Rumely was the son of Joseph Rumely, and was Meinrad Rumely's grandson. He spent a lot of time with his grandfather, absorbing many of the basic values that Meinrad himself displayed. Born with a keen mind and insatiable curiosity, he studied at Oxford and Heidelburg, Germany, where he became acquainted with Rudolf Diesel. From here he developed a keen interest in the internal combustion engine. In 1907 he returned to LaPorte and took a position in the company.
   He took on more and more repsonsibility until he was running major parts of the company. Gradually control of the Rumely Company passed for all wants and purposes from his uncle William to Edward.
Edward Rumely

    Edward soon put all his efforts into producing a reliable farm tractor. Edward's uncle William Rumely related his meeting a man named John A. Secor in New York City. Secor had been experimenting with oil-burning Marine internal combustion engines, and William thought it similar to what Edward had been looking for. Edward met with John Secor, who was intrigued with the idea of applying his patents to the developent of a farm tractor. Secor joined the Rumely Company in 1908 and work began in earnest.

John Secor

    A massive new shop was built especially for production of the tractor, which was nick-named 'The OilPull.' The heart of the tractor was the new carburetor developed by Secor and shop foreman William Higgins. The engine burned kerosene, or 'coal oil' as it was commonly known in that day. The Secor-Higgins carburetor broke the kerosene into a mist of fine globules. On light loads, only kerosene was drawn into the carburetor. On heavy loads as much water as kerosene was drawn into the mixture. The OilPull was one of the first engines able to economically burn kerosene, which was much cheaper and more plentiful than gasoline.
Model B, First Production OilPull
 

   The first OilPull prototype (which incidentally still exists today) was nicknamed 'Kerosene Annie.' This machine was developed into the 25-45 model 'B'. Shortly afterwards this was replaced by the more powerful '30-60 Model E', and the one cylinder '15-30 Model F.' (All other OilPulls had two cylinders.) Sales went phenomonally well, what with the western U. S. and Canadian wheat lands being opened. Plowing and threshing engines were in great demand, and the OilPull had many advantages over the contemporary steam-powered rigs of the time.

Kerosene Annie, First OilPull Prototype

    Dr. Rumely, having acquired working control of the company, made plans to expand the size and scope of the M. Rumely Company. Dozens of small-line items like plows, hay presses, statioanry engines, cream separators and corn shellers were added by arrangements with existing companies. In 1911, Rumely acquired the Advance Thresher Co. of Battle Creek, Michigan, and the Gaar-Scott Co. of Richmond, Indiana. In 1912, seeking entry into the lucrative Canadian markets, Rumely acquired the American-Abell Engine & Thresher Co. of Toronto, Ontario. Northwest Thresher Co. of Stillwater, Minnesota followed.
Advance Thresher Co., Purchased By Rumely in 1911

   In 1913 the M. Rumely Company  was reorganized into two separate entities, the M. Rumely Co. handling engineering and manufacturing concerns, with the newly created 'Rumely Products Co.' acting as a sales umbrella to promote the Rumely, Advance and Gaar-Scott lines. 
   All this left the company with very little reserves to weather out tough times in the farm market. Crop failures, droughts and a general farm recession left the company sretched to the limit. By January, 1915, the collpase came and the Rumely family lost control of the company. In December, 1915, the company was reorganized as Advance-Rumely Thresher Co. Canadian Rumely Co. was part of the sale, and continued to operate as such. Manufacturing was centered in LaPorte, Battle Creek and Toronto. Most other factory sites were closed.

    The first chore of the new company was to update the OilPull. This they did by introducing a new 'Heavyweight' line in 1918. It included four models, the old standby 30-60 E, the 20-40 G, 14-28 H (later re-rated 16-30 H.P.) and their first entry into the small tractor market, the 12-20 K. (The number ratings stood for drawbar and belt horsepower, ie., '20-40' meant 20 horsepower on the drawbar, 40 on the belt).
     These were very advanced tractors for their day, and they once again met with great acceptance from the farmer. The Rumely OilPull had earned a reputation for great power and reliability, as well as economy. This line of tractors stood right up with their forebears. A farm truck was added, along with other innovative machinery such as 3-wheel 'Motor Cultivator' tractors and a 'Line Drive' tractor specially designed to be used with horse-drawn implements.

Through decades of its existence, the heart and soul of the Rumely company was the threshing machine.
The company introduced it's 'Ideal' separator in 1904, and it remained the hallmark of the industry.
It was built of the finest wood by master craftsmen,  and an all-steel design which was first offered in 1916.
     Thresher production was centered in the Battle Creek plant until 1920, when all operations were moved to Laporte. Rumely threshing machines had a reputation for ruggedness and dependability, as well as being real 'grain savers'. Tens of thousands found their way into the grain fields of America.

  The best features of both Rumely and Advance steam engines ended up in the Advance-Rumely Universal, thought by many to have been the best all-around steam engine design of the period. But by the OilPull era, steam was on the way out, although many threshermen and sawyers stayed true to their favorite engines many years.

 Seeing that the days of the old threshing run, if not over, were certainly numbered, Rumely introduced combines in 1925. Rumely combines were well accepted and  came in models No. 1, 2, 3, and 4, the later being equipped with a power takeoff .
Rumely Combine at Work.

By 1928, the world was moving towards the row crop tractor. The International Farmall was in the wings. The OilPull was becoming an outdated design. In order to keep up with the times, Rumely introduced a 6-cylinder tractor, the 'Rumely-6A', and a convertible tractor for either standard work or cultivating, the 'Do-All'.
Rumely '6A' Tractor.

  Through much of the 1920's Finley P. Mount was at the helm of   Advance-Rumely. In 1923 Advance-Rumely bought-out the Aultman-Taylor Co., ostensibly to take out a competitor.  Once again the company was left short of cash reserves in the up and down 20's. By the late 20's the company was in a great state of change, gradually abandoning the OilPull design in favor of more modern machines when the Great Depression hit. Suddenly, farmers had no cash for new machinery. Thousands of purchasers of new tractors, threshers and combines were unable to pay their bills. Advance-Rumely slogged along, all the while discussing a merger with the Allis-Chalmers Company.
Aultman-Taylor 30-60 Tractor.