HAMILTON, Ohio – In a side room of the Gramco Feed Co. is an organized clutter of old books, photos and memorabilia from Hamilton. Carl Ruther and Gramco owner, Tim Gillespie, spend a lot of time and energy there pursuing their hobby and passion, the history of Hamilton.

Much of that history is tied to the early development of agricultural implements. This development was spurred when a citizen saw the hydraulic canal built in Massachusetts as a power source and brought the idea back to Hamilton.

“It started in 1818. They didn’t have electricity at the time in Hamilton, so they thought waterpower was the answer,” Ruther said. “The Hamilton city fathers realized that that would be a great thing here because we were near a river and we could easily develop that.

“So, they looked at the Massachusetts canal, and they came back and started digging this canal which would provide waterpower for Hamilton industry,” he said. “Even the mayor and the city council were digging a 30-mile canal from the Miami River, which is about three miles north of Hamilton.”

The Hamilton Hydraulic System was completed in 1845. That brought people in from all over. Everybody wanted in on that idea as it was unique. And it was free.

“It was about enhancing agriculture,” Gillespie said. “Agriculture was the nucleus of our industry in Hamilton. The hydraulic provided energy for the factories to operate.”

Ruther took up the story: “The first agricultural company was Owens, Lane, and Dyer, founded in 1846. They were the first to use waterpower to make farm equipment. They made the first threshers that take wheat off the ground, cut it, and would take the grain off the stalk. That would produce grain for bread.”

Before this, farmers would have to use a tool to cut the wheat by hand. It was very arduous. Gillespie has a wheat cradle that his great-great grandfather, Samuel Gillespie, used to harvest wheat.

“The thresher made Owens, Lane, and Dyer Co. very famous,” Ruther said. “It was known all over the country. The threshing machines were originally pulled by horses, but when steam engines became available, Owens, Lane, and Dyer designed and built their own steam engines, which powered these.”

They employed 100 men, Ruther said. By 1853, they were producing steam engines. In 1857, they built 350 large threshing separators, which they sold at $300 each. In 1859, they made 1,100 threshing separators. Few, if any companies outside the large cities of Ohio had a higher credit rating.

Clark Lane, who started the company and also gave his name to Hamilton Lane Libraries, had an even earlier start with agricultural equipment. When he was 13, he helped Obed Hussey develop what many now say was the first reaper, even before Cyrus McCormick built his.

When Hussey came to Ohio, he asked for a good blacksmith to help him build his dream machine. He was sent to Lane’s father. Clark Lane then helped Hussey develop the drawings, and Hussey got a patent on the reaper a year or two before McCormick. That discussion is ongoing.

In 1857, the Long, Black, and Allstatter Co. began making mowing and reaping machines from iron. They were known as the “Iron Harvesters” and were the first iron reapers made in this country. By 1859, the company had made 300 harvesters, and they were in great demand.

“That equipment was on the harvest side of agriculture,” Gillespie said. “There was also a planting side of agriculture with H.P. Deuscher Co. that produced various pieces of farm machinery.”

H.P. Deuscher opened his business in 1878 and was soon out of his original debt and making $1,000 a day. One of the first implements they made was the corn drill, which enabled a farmer to plant 4 acres of corn in a day.

“He had the famous check row corn planter, which was a planting device that saved thousands of hours of labor planting corn,” Gillespie said. “It was pulled by horses, and the farmer rode on it.”

In 1892, the Hamilton Evening Journal reported on the Deuscher Co.’s display at the Butler County Fair. They exhibited, the paper said, “The Hamilton Triple Section Harrow,” “The Spread Eagle Disc Harrow, “The Hamilton Steel Lever,” “TueMaster Hay Rake, “The Combined Fence Machine” and the “Favorite” churn.

“The farmers of Butler County know what these implements are,” the paper said. “They were never deceived in them, and they never will be deceived in them.”

A little later, Henry Ford came to Hamilton, Gillespie said. He opened a tractor plant in 1920. The plant remained open for 30 years, but only made Fordson Tractors for about six months. It was then retooled and became a massive producer of Model T and Model A wheels.

Gathering this information is a passion and a hobby for Ruther and Gillespie, but they also want to inspire young people with the achievements and accomplishments of their ancestors. They are working on a YouTube presentation that could be used in classrooms and on a permanent display to be placed somewhere in Hamilton.