Page 31 - Copshaholm Curriculum Book_2015

Oliver Family History 5

link between the foundry, which he loved, and the land, for which he harbored an
attachment stemming from boyhood in Scotland. However, James became
apprehensive about his future when St. Joseph Iron Company changed hands and he
decided to investigate the possibility of buying into a small business. While waiting for a
late train in Goshen, a major plow manufacturing center, he inadvertently heard that a
small foundry on the west race in South Bend, owned by Ira Fox and Emsley Lamb,
might be for sale.

By May 5, 1855, James Oliver and a molder co-worker, Harvey Little, each
purchased one-fourth interest in this building. Cast iron plows were one item this little
foundry produced. James was 32 years old, South Bend’s population was less than
2,000, but the company, the town and James were destined to grow together despite
considerable adversity.

Six weeks after the purchase of the foundry, it was devastated by rampaging
waters of the St. Joseph River. James referred to this in later life as his “first great
discouragement.” Oliver and Little managed to survive and the plant went back into
operation in November of 1855. Oliver and Little then purchased Lamb’s half interest
and renamed it South Bend Iron Company. That name appeared on the title page of
their first book of accounts.

February 6, 1857 high water again damaged the plant, but Oliver and Little were
undaunted and the plant soon was back in production. They bought scrap iron for one
and a quarter cents a pound and converted it to almost anything that could be made of
cast iron at a charge of five cents a pound. They made iron window weights, caps and
sills for windows, kettles, spiders (frying pans with legs and long handles), pulleys, stove
castings and grates. They also produced bob shoes (metal strips that fit on sled
runners) for the fledging Studebaker Brothers Company.

James, molder, designer, salesman and bookkeeper for the company, also
continued experimenting with ways to produce a better plow. All plows of that era were
“walking plows.” Pulled by two horses, the plowman walked behind and guided it
through the soil with two handles. Cast iron and steel plows both wore out rapidly. Dirt
stuck to the moldboard and made it difficult for horses to pull. This forced the plow from
the ground with a jerk, endangering the plowman. The dirt had to be scraped from the
moldboard with a paddle every few minutes.

June 30, 1857, James obtained his first patent from the U.S. government, entitled
“Improvement in Chilling Plow Shares.” It covered a new way to process a plow point,
or share, to an extremely hard surface. This was his first improvement in the plow.
Many were to follow and the Oliver Plow became the most popular plow in the world.

To get nearer to the plant, the Oliver family moved in 1858 from Mishawaka to an
old brown frame house purchased for $600, on unpaved Main Street near downtown
South Bend. In 1868 the house was moved to the back of the lot and a larger structure
of brick was erected.

So successful were Oliver and Little that they were able to advertise a reward of
$500 to anyone who could “chill or harden plowshares with equal success without
infringing on their patent.” The firm was renamed “Oliver, Little & Co.” in 1860 when
Thelus Bussell, a machinist, was taken into the partnership. Each now owned a third
interest in the firm. But on Christmas Eve, 1860, disaster struck again. Fire destroyed
their plant on the West Race with an estimated loss of $4,000, a fortune in that era.