November 24, 1849
John Froelich, the inventor of the first gasoline-powered farm tractor, was born in Froelich, Iowa, on this day. Froelich's tractor, completed in 1892, featured a Van Duzen one-cylinder gasoline engine mounted on wooden beams to operate a threshing machine. Froelich manufactured several more tractors of this type during the year, and in September shipped one of his engine-powered tractors to a farm in Langford, South Dakota, where it was employed in agriculture activity for the first time. Froelich established the Waterloo Gasoline Traction Engine Company in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1893, and began to manufacture tractors on a larger scale. In 1918, the Waterloo Traction Engine Company was purchased by the John Deere Plow Company. John Deere, a long-established plow company, mass-produced gasoline-powered tractors based on Froelich's designs. During the 1920s and 1930s, tractors rapidly changed the face of agriculture in America, and many traditional farmers were pushed off their land by the encroachment of large agricultural interests who utilized the efficient new farming technology.
November 24, 1900
On this day, the first gasoline-powered Pierce automobile was taken on a test drive through the streets of Buffalo, New York. George N. Pierce first founded the Pierce Company in 1878 as a manufacturer of household items, but in the late nineteenth century shifted to bicycle production. Pierce bicycles became known for their high quality, and after achieving a substantial capital base, Pierce and his company decided to try their hand in automobile production. The first few Pierce prototypes involved steam power, but in 1900 the designers shifted to gasoline engines. The first production Pierce, test driven on this day, featured a modified one-cylinder deDion engine capable of producing nearly three horsepower. The automobile would be christened the Pierce Motorette, and between 1901 and 1903 roughly 170 Pierce Motorettes were made. In 1903, Pierce began manufacturing its own engines, and later in the year, the Pierce Arrow was introduced, followed by the Pierce Great Arrow in 1904. By 1905, the George N. Pierce Company was producing some of the biggest and most expensive automobiles in America, with prices in excess of $5,000. In 1908, the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company was officially launched, and in 1909 U.S. president William Howard Taft ordered two of the prestigious automobiles, a Brougham and a Landaulette, for use by the White House.
John Froelich
John Froelich and his thrashing crew
Froelich Tractor in Froelich, Iowa
Rare Froelich replica, one of only three in existence, other are at the Smithsonian Institute and John Deere Company
Rear view of a gas station attendant filling up a 1900 Pierce-Arrow, (Huttington Library archive)
