Please note this is a new photoduplicated reproduction, not an original. The accompanying images were scanned from a reprint, not the original.
According to steam power historians John Spalding and Dr. Robert Rhode, the Gaar family listed 1836 as the founding year of the company that bears their name. Family members designed and built the first threshers in 1845, but it was not for another four years until they sold their first thresher. Their first steam engine was built in the 1850s, making Gaar-Scott one of the first firms to enter the field. In 1888, Gaar-Scott recorded over $1 million in gross sales, according to a table in Steam Power on the American Farm, by Professor Reynald M. Wik. By the 1890s, the Gaar-Scott manufactory was one of the largest agricultural implement facilities in the United States, and was the clear rival to first place J.I. Case Threshing Machine Co. for sales of agricultural steam engines and threshing machinery.
In December 1911, the family sold the firm to M. Rumely Co., which had also acquired the Advance Thresher Company. These acquisitions were joined with Rumely’s exisiting business to create the Advance Rumely Co. In turn, Advance Rumely was sold to Allis-Chalmers in 1931.
This reproduced Catalog includes eleven dozen profile photos or drawings of Gaar-Scott engines, including the 30 HP universal traction and plowing engine, plus a score or so pictures of various components and sub-assemblies of the engines. There are about a dozen images of the company’s different threshers, two different water wagons, and one picture of the rare Garr-Scott Double Standard Heavy Saw Mill.
Page 4 includes a view of the manufacturing plant in Richmond, Indiana.
Please note that this is a photoduplicated reproduction, not an original. The accompanying images were scanned from a reprint, not the original.