Free
Grease: Arbuckle-Ryan Company
by
Alan Borer
On September 29, 2005, an old warehouse at the corner of
Ontario and Monroe was destroyed by fire.
Believed to be the work of an arsonist, the building was empty and
facing foreclosure. The building had
housed among other things, a paint store and Ohio Unemployment offices. But for many years, the building was the
headquarters of a farm machine and implement dealer, Arbuckle-Ryan Company.
Arbuckle-Ryan
had a long history in Toledo. The company
was founded in 1871 by John M. Arbuckle and Charles Ryan. At first it sold mainly general hardware and
garden seeds. Gradually, the company
grew into an agricultural equipment dealer, specializing in kerosene-fueled
threshing machines and farm implements.
At its height, Arbuckle-Ryan was a notable supplier of power
sources. The company’s “automatic
department” built “complete power plants” for large customers such as the Owens
Bottle Machine Company.
The
company built the aforementioned four story warehouse in 1887. Arbuckle-Ryan did not manufacture farm
equipment; they were a distributor, of in the business lingo of the time, a
“jobber.” They participated frequently
in trade shows and salesmanship. For
example, in 1916 the company “were exhibitors at the big tractor demonstration
at the Bannister farm a mile and a half northeast of Wauseon, O.” [Farm Power, June 27, 1916] In 1922, at the National Farmer’s Exposition,
held in Toledo, a company representative was in charge of the division which
showcased threshing equipment [Farm
Implement News, November 9, 1922]
Another ad from 1922 listed some of the equipment offered by Arbuckle-Ryan: “…tractors, steam engines, threshers, silo
presses, potato diggers, and boilers.” [Agrimotor,
July 15, 1922]
Arbuckle-Ryan had branch offices in Hillsdale, Michigan,
and Goshen, Indiana. Traveling salesmen
were used to expand the company’s reach.
The company was well thought of by customers. In 1906, a Michigan reader of the trade
journal American Thresherman
wrote: “We buy our machinery of Arbuckle
Ryan & Co., of Toledo, Ohio, who are gentlemen to deal with.” [American
Thresherman, October 1906]
The company also tried promotions. One offered ten pounds of “cup grease” (!) free to any customer ordering “oils and
supplies.” If you truly needed grease,
you could qualify for”Fill in the card below; send in with supply order and we
will include a sample 1 lb tin of Arno Graphite Grease Free.”
Arbuckle-
Ryan was in business until 1928. By then
the company had moved to 1152 E. Broadway.
It was a difficult time to be in the farm supply business. The Great Depression started in 1929 in the
cities, but earlier on the farm. Changing
technology on the farm and a drop in on-farm population also helped bring an
end to Arbuckle-Ryan.
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