Holt Manufacturing Company Information

The Holt Manufacturing Company began with the 1883 founding of Stockton Wheel Service in Stockton, California, United States.Benjamin Holt, later credited with patenting the first workable crawler ("caterpillar") tractor design, incorporated the Holt Manufacturing Company in 1892. Holt Manufacturing Company was the first company to successfully manufacture a continuous track tractor. By the early 20th century, Holt Manufacturing Company was the leading manufacturer of combine harvesters in the US, and the leading California-based manufacturer of steam traction engines.

Holt Manufacturing Company operated from Stockton, California, until opening a satellite facility in Walla Walla, Washington, to serve the Pacific Northwest. In 1909 Holt Manufacturing Company expanded by purchasing the facility of defunct farm implement maker Colean Manufacturing Company in East Peoria, Illinois. Holt changed the name of the company to Holt Caterpillar Company, although he did not trademark the name Caterpillar until 1910.

The companys initial products focused on agricultural machinery and were distributed internationally. During World War I, almost all of its production was military materiel. Its tractors were widely used by the Allies to supplant horses pulling haul heavy artillery and tow supply trains. Holt tractors also played a part, to varying degrees, in the development of military tanks in Great Britain, France, and Germany. Holts equipment was credited with helping the Allies to win the war.

The Holt Manufacturing Company gained worldwide recognition for the quality and durability of its equipment.

As the war ended, the Holt company was left with huge surplus inventories of heavy-duty tractors ill-suited for the agricultural market, which had been dominated during the war by the Holt Companys primary competitor, C. L. Best. The company decided to focus instead on heavy construction equipment and sought to capitalize on the passage of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921. Laden with debt and needing more capital to switch its product line, the company struggled to move forward.

Both the Holt Manufacturing Company and C. L. Best were hurt by the depression of 1920–21 which further inhibited sales. Both companies streamlined their over-lapping product lines. The two companies had spent about US$1.5 million (about $21,429,791 today) in legal fees fighting each other in various contractual, trademark and patent infringement lawsuits since 1905. On the advice of investors, the two companies merged in 1925 to form the Caterpillar Tractor Co. As of 2010[update], Caterpillar Inc. was the 229th largest company in the world.

Charles H. Holt arrived in San Francisco from Concord, New Hampshire, in 1864 to form C. H. Holt and Co. Initially the company produced wooden wagon wheels and later, steel wheels for streetcars. In 1869, at age 20, his younger brother Benjamin went to work in their fathers sawmill in New Hampshire along with William Harrison Holt and Ames Frank Holt, preparing hardwoods for shipping to Charles in San Francisco. William and Ames joined Charles in San Francisco in 1871.

In the same year, Charles and Ames established the Holt Brothers Company in San Francisco. The company sold hardwood, lumber, and wagon and carriage materials, primarily manufacturing wagon axles, wheels, and frames. W. Harrison Holt and Ames both temporarily returned around 1871 to New Hampshire – where both were married – to manage the eastern business. The brothers built a factory in Concord, New Hampshire, to manufacture wagon wheels, wheel components, bodies and running gear. In 1872, at age 23, Benjamin was given an interest in his fathers business, and he assumed more responsibility for the companys operations. W. Harrison Holt moved to Tiffin, Ohio, to manage the companys lumber business there, where he remained until the early 1880s. Their mother died in 1875, and their father died eight years later in 1883. After his fathers death, Benjamin Holt left New Hampshire in 1883 to help Charles build the business in California.

Charles, Benjamin and Frank incorporated the Holt Bros. Company on January 7, 1892, to deal in lumber and iron. Four days later, they also filed incorporation papers for "Holt Manufacturing Company" with Charles H. Holt, Benjamin Holt, Frank A. Holt, G. H. Cowie and G. L. Dickenson as directors.

The Holt Bros. Company formed a subsidiary, "The Stockton Wheel Company", to build the wheels. They based their company in the Central Valley town of Stockton, California. Stockton was an ideal location, as it could be reached by ocean-going ship via the San Joaquin River, 72 miles (116 km) east of San Francisco, and was hot enough to season woods to prepare them for use in the arid valleys of California and the deserts of the West. The factory cost US$65,000 (or about $1,957,540 ) to build and used a 40 horsepower Corliss steam engine manufactured in Providence, Rhode Island, and shipped around Cape Horn. All of the plants machines were driven by belts connected to the Corliss engine.

Brothers Charles and Benjamin eventually bought out the other brothers, with Charles running the business side and Benjamin running manufacturing operations.

During the first year, the Holt subsidiary Stockton Wheel Company produced 6,000 wagon wheels and 5,000 carriage bodies. One of their most popular wheel types was 10 feet (3.0 m) in diameter used by redwood loggers, who connected two of these wheels with a strong 10 feet (3.0 m) axle, and then attached a team of horses to pull logs from the forest.

In the late 19th century, there were companies globally striving to build a practical horse-drawn combine harvester and other farm equipment. They soon progressed to steam-powered farm machinery and, later, designs for crawler-type tractors. More than 100 patents were issued for various crawler designs. Holt began manufacturing horse-drawn combine harvesters in the 1890s and converted to steam-power types around the early 20th century. Over the next few years, Benjamin Holt designed and manufactured the first successful crawler-type tractor and designed a gasoline engine (see Tractor design, below.)

In California, the Best Manufacturing Company of San Leandro and the Holt Manufacturing Company were competitors. In 1905, they resolved a patent infringement lawsuit when Daniel Best retired and gave one-third of Best Manufacturing Company to his son, Clarence Leo ("C. L.") Best. He sold the remaining two-thirds to Benjamin Holt for US$325,000 (roughly equivalent to $9,062,685 today).:59 C. L. Best was made plant manager of the new concern, but Holt retained effective control. C. L. did not stay long, and left in 1910 to form the C. L. Best Gas Traction Company to replace his fathers firm, resulting in further difficulties between the two men. Holt registered "Caterpillar" as a trademark in 1911.

Holt wanted to find manufacturing facilities closer to the vast agricultural markets of the midwest. Benjamin Holts nephew, Pliny E. Holt, had been dispatched in March 1909 to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he began manufacturing operations. They shipped parts for ten Model 45 tractors, but only two were produced. Pliny met Murray Baker, an implement dealer, who knew of an available factory that had been used to manufacture farm implements and steam traction engines. Baker, who later became the first executive vice president of what became Caterpillar Tractor Company, wrote to Holt headquarters in Stockton and described the plant of the bankrupt Colean Manufacturing Co. of East Peoria, Illinois. Pliny inspected the Colean factory in late June 1909 and learned they had spent at least $450,000 on the relatively new building and machinery. Holt could acquire the assets for the $50,000 note held by a trust company. Pliny Holt wrote a letter to the Stockton management team on July 1, 1909, reporting, "The plant is as complete and perfect in every detail as I have ever seen ... and one of the best arranged plants that I ever saw."

On October 25, 1909, Pliny Holt purchased the factory, and immediately began preparing the plant for operations with 12 employees.The "Holt Caterpillar Company" was incorporated in both Illinois and California on January 12, 1910, and Pliny accepted the deed to the plant on Feb 16, 1910. East Peoria became Holt Manufacturing Companys eastern manufacturing plant, competing with the nearby Avery Tractor Company.

The Peoria facility proved so profitable that only two years later the Peoria facility employed 625 people and was exporting tractors to Argentina, Canada, and Mexico. Tractors were built in both Stockton and East Peoria.

In 1909, the engineers building the 233-mile-long (375 km) Los Angeles Aqueduct bought one of Holts Model 70-120 tractors to haul supplies across the Mojave Desert. It effortlessly hauled 30 short tons (27 t) up a 14% grade. They were so impressed that they ordered 26 more, giving the Holt tractor and the company considerable credibility and substantially boosting sales.:59

In 1913, Holt merged its various companies into the Holt Manufacturing Company, with a combined capital of US$3 million. The merged subsidiaries were: the Stockton Wheel Co.; the Houser and Haines Manufacturing Company of Stockton; the Aurora Engine Company of Stockton; the Best Manufacturing Company of San Leandro; the Canadian Holt Company, Limited of Calgary; the Holt Manufacturing Company of Stockton; and the Holt Caterpillar Company of Peoria, Illinois.:76

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