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The origins of the A. B. Farquhar Company, founded by Arthur Briggs Farquhar (1838-1925), stretch back to the 1850s. Originally an employee (1856) and later a partner (1858) at the W.W. Dingee & Co. in York, Pennsylvania, Farquhar took over the company in 1862 after a devastating fire. The company became known as the Pennsylvania Agricultural Works. The company manufactured steam engines, sawmills, threshing machines, plows, agricultural steels, cultivators, grain drills, corn planters, horse powers, and other agricultural equipment.

A.B. Farquhar was later joined by his sons, William E. and Francis, and the company became A. B. Farquhar & Sons. In 1887, it was incorporated as the A. B. Farquhar Company, Limited. It began building threshing machines in 1887 and later produced cultivators.

When the company was acquired by the Oliver Corporation in 1952 it became the Farquhar Sawmill Division. Oliver sold the division to E. E. Titus Inc. of Petersburg, Virginia in 1956.

The A. Harris, Son and Co. company was started in the 1870s by Alanson Harris. The plant manufactured farm implements. It was located on Market Street South and later moved to Colborne Street. Harris’ son John Harris helped grow the company, and the firm merged with Massey Manufacturing in 1891, to form Massey-Harris, which eventually would become Massey Ferguson.

The A. Harris, Son and Co. company was started in the 1870s by Alanson Harris. The plant manufactured farm implements. It was located on Market Street South and later moved to Colborne Street. Harris’ son John Harris helped grow the company, and the firm merged with Massey Manufacturing in 1891, to form Massey-Harris, which eventually would become Massey Ferguson.

Brothers Meinrad and John Rumely, natives of Germany, established a blacksmith and machine shop and foundry near La Porte, Indiana in 1853. By 1857 they had begun building threshers under the name of M & J Rumley. A Rumley brothers thresher took first prize at the United States Fair in Chicago in 1859.

In the 1860s and 1870s, M & J Rumley also began manufacturing stationary steam engines, portables, and traction engines. Meinrad bought out John’s interest in the company in 1882 and by the late 1880s and early 1890s under the name M. Rumley Company, Meinrad had introduced a straw burning steam engine and self-feeding separators. Meinrad died in 1904, but the company continued to thrive and expand under his sons.

In 1911 and 1912, Rumley acquired the Gaar-Scott Company, the Advance Thresher Company, the Northwest Thresher Company, and the American-Abell Engine & Thresher Company and, in 1913, became the M. Rumley Company Inc (Manufacturing), with its sales and distribution branch known as the Rumley Products Company. In 1915, the company was reorganized under the name Advance-Rumley Thresher Company. The company would also acquire the Leo Rumley Tractor Company in 1916 and the Aultman & Taylor Machinery Company in 1923.

Following financial collapse during the Great Depression, the Advance-Rumley Thresher Company was acquired by Allis-Chambers Manufacturing Company in 1931.

Agrico Canada Limited/Limitée is a Canadian wholes ale distributor of crop input products, primarily dry and liquid fertilizers. The company began in 1931 as Agricultural Chemicals Limited (ACL), the Canadian division of the American Agricultural Chemical Company (AACC). Its head office was in Port Hope, Ontario. A second plant was constructed a year or two later near Montreal in Chambly, Québec. ACL’s first general manger was M.J. Daignault. In the ensuing decades, ACL and AACC became known by their trademark brands, “Agrico Fertilizers” and “AA Quality”.

With the booming petroleum industry and the advent of Peak Oil in the post-Second World War period, AACC and all its divisions - including ACL - were purchased by the Continental Oil Company (Conoco) in 1963. In 1965, Conoco merged AACC with another U.S. division and it was renamed the Agrico Chemical Company (ACC). In 1972, Conoco sold ACC to The Williams Companies of Tulsa, Oklahoma. ACL retained its name and continued operations in Canada, creating a network of Agrico Farm Centres and independent dealers. By 1974, ACL diversified into the wholesale fertilizer business by creating a “Blender Dealer” division to supply the farm centres and dealers, eventually expanding across the country.

Robert “Bob” Linday Whitelaw (1937-2014) was born in West Williams Township, Ontario. He joined the ACL in 1965 as District Manager of Middlesex County and, by 1974, managed the Blender Dealer division of ACL. By the mid 1980s, ACL changed its name to Agrico Canada Limited/Limitée (Agrico) to reflect new federal regulations requiring corporate names to be bilingual, and Whitelaw became General Manager. He was responsible for creating a Canadian chapter of the Certified Crop Care Dealer Association.

In 1985, a small group of associates headed by Whitelaw, purchased 85% of Agrico Canada Limited/Limitée from ACC and its owner, The Williams Companies. Whitelaw became President of Agrico Canada Ltd. In 1987, the company built a fertilizer terminal in Hamilton, and in 1988 they entered a joint venture partnership with Double Diamond Farm Supply of Boissevain, Manitoba. Williams had sold the remaining 15% of ACC to IMC-Agrico in 1988, which Agrico Canada purchased in 1994.

In 2011, Agrico Canada Ltd was sold to La Coop fédérée (now Sollio Cooperative Group) of Montreal, Quebec.

[https://www.agricocanada.com/about-us/our-roots/]

The Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin was formed in 1901 when Edwin Reynolds (1831-1909), director of the Edward P. Allis Company of West Allis, known for manufacturing steam engines and mill equipment, merged with Fraser & Chalmers of Chicago (mining equipment), the Gates Iron Works, also of Chicago (ore crushing machinery), and the Dickson Manufacturing Company of Scranton, Pennsylvania (engines and compressors). In 1904, the Bullock Electric Company of Cincinnati was also added. The company became a leader in steam, water, gas, and electric engines.

By 1914, Allis-Chalmers also started producing farm equipment. In 1931 it bought the Advance-Rumley Thresher Company of LaPorte, Indiana, and thus Allis-Chalmers became the fourth-largest farm implement manufacturer in the United States after International Harvester, John Deere, and the J.I. Case Company. Known for their bright orange tractors and silver combine harvesters, Allis-Chalmers added many innovations to their farm implements, including pneumatic rubber tires.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Allis-Chalmers began to falter. It sold its construction equipment division to Italy’s Fiat, and in 1985 offloaded its farm implement manufacturing to K-H-Deutz AG of Germany. The power business turned into a joint venture with Siemens of Germany, and Allies-Chalmers eventually dissolved in 1999.

The American Bosch Magneto Corporation was founded as Robert Bosch, New York, Inc. in New York City in 1906 by Robert Bosch. It was an American division of his German operation, Robert Bosch A.G.. Originally a selling branch, the American subsidiary established a manufacturing plant in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1912. The company produced high tension magnetos, spark plugs, diesel engine and fuel-injection systems, and radios. The company became the American Bosch Magneto Corporation in 1918 and then the United American Bosch Corporation in 1930. The company was sold to the Arma Corporation in 1949, who changed their name to American Bosch Arma Corporation in 1954 to reflect the acquisition. The company plant in Springfield was shut down in 1986.

George Armstrong (1788-1865), originally from Roxburghshire, Scotland, settled in Eramosa Township, Wellington County circa 1824. The Armstrong name became particularly prominent in connection with the establishment of the historic Armstrong Mill of Guelph Township, which the family built in 1856. A community sprung up around mill called Unionville, which was later renamed Armstrong Mills. A school opened in 1863 and a post office in 1876. The Armstrong family operated the mill until 1903. It subsequently changed hands a few times before George Parkinson purchased it in 1931. The mill ceased operations in 1950. In the 1960s, Ken Danby (1940-2007) purchased the Armstrong Mill and began the task of restoring the dilapidated structure. The property was sold after Danby’s death in 2007.

The Associated Designers of Canada (ADC) was founded in 1965 as a professional, not-for-profit organization supporting all set, costume, lighting, projection and sound designers regardless of the stage in their careers and whether they worked in theatre, television, or film. As the organization evolved, it became recognized by the newly formed Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (PACT), which then allowed the ADC to undertake formal contract negotiations. Key in the negotiations would be the development of baselines in the design professions. The ADC put in place the "Standards and Working Procedures" document. According to the ADC "This document was the catalyst to a growth in membership across Canada. It demonstrated what the organization could do for its members and took a necessary step toward the creation of a supportive National design community" (ADC: Our History & Mission).

It additionally advocates to increase awareness of the role of theatrical design in Canadian theatre and of design as an art form within both the profession and the public domain.

Sources:
Contents of the fonds.

"Our History and Mission." Associated Designers of Canada website. Accessed on November 29, 2024. Available at https://designers.ca/about/.

Established in 1874 by brothers George (1845-1921) and Matthew Beatty (1836-1884), Beatty Brothers Limited was a farm implement, barn equipment, and home appliance manufacturer in Fergus, Ontario.

Initially focused on agriculture, the Beatty Brothers made such equipment as plows, reapers, mowers, hay carriers, pumps, churns, grain grinders, barn slings, and manure spreaders. Later they also manufactured home appliances including washing machines, water heaters, and vacuum cleaners. By 1929 the company product line made more than 600 items and had factories in Fergus, London, Ontario, and in Great Britain. Factories, offices, and stores were later added in Saint John, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, and New Westminster, as well as in Wellington, New Zealand and Sydney, Australia.

The Beatty Brothers acquired numerous other companies from 1900 to 1961, including the James Provan Company of Oshawa, Whitman and Barnes of St. Catharines, Cowan & Company of Gananoque, Cameron and Dunn of Strathroy, the Galt Machine & Screw Company, Tolton Brothers of Guelph, Emerson and Campbell of Tweed, Clements Manufacturing Company of Toronto, Goold, Shapley & Muir of Brantford, Wortman and Ward of London, Spencer Foundry Company of Penetanguishene, and the James Stewart Manufacturing Company of Woodstock.

Beatty Brothers Limited amalgamated with General Steel Wares in 1969 to become GSW Limited and continued to operate in Fergus until 2013.