WHEN MAYTAG MEANT QUALITY FARM PRODUCTS

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Manager Public Relations Activities, The Maytag Company, Newton, Ohio 50208

It is doubtful that a farmer in the last decade of the 19th century would have agreed with the frivolous label 'Gay Nineties.'

The mechanical wonders and labor-saving devices of today were far from reality in the 1890s. Hard work and long hours typified the farmer's life and the labor frequently was dangerous. Field workers of that period knew the dangers of hand-cutting on bundles of grain and feeding grain into the whirling cylinders of big threshing machines.

Frederick Louis Maytag, a farm youth, was conscious of threshing dangers and, while working in the lumber business in Newton in 1892, he watched G. W. Parsons experiment with and build a band cutting and self feeder attachment. Implement companies had failed in many experiments to find a practical attachment of this type.

Mr. Maytag assisted in the first test of this machine in the autumn of 1892 and in February, 1893, Mr. Parsons invited him to cooperate in the further development and marketing of this new product.

Company is Formed

In March, 1893, the Parsons Band Cutter and Self Feeder Company was formed with a capital of $2,400. Four men, each with one-fourth of the stock, comprised the firm. W. C. Bergman was elected president and manager; A. H. Bergman, vice-president; F. L. Maytag, secretary and G. W. Parsons was named to direct production.

Manufacture of this thresher accessory was a first. It was the first product of its kind to be produced and it was the first in a long line of products that were first in their field.

During the first year of operation, Skow Brothers of Newton were contracted to manufacture 150 attachments and later, an additional 50 feeders. About 100 were condemned or discarded by the users as unsatisfactory and the season ended in serious financial losses.

A Marketing Lesson

Years later, Mr. Maytag recalled that during the first disasterous year, 'We learned that nothing was actually 'sold' until it was in the hands of a satisfied user, no matter if it had been paid for.'

He pointed out that, 'For the first year, nobody gave his entire attention to the company's affairs. Each was busy at a regular bread-and-butter occupation and was obliged, for financial reasons, to handle his part of the new enterprise as a sideline.'

Although first-year success eluded the four enterprising men, they remained confident and optimistic. Mr. Maytag assumed fulltime management of the business and offices were opened in the Newton Opera House block. The abandoned 30 by 40 ft. Newton Stove Works building was purchased as a factory. Losses from the first year were made good following a successful second year of operation during which 286 machines were built, sold and delivered.

Within a few years 28 different concerns were purchasing and selling the Parsons Band Cutter and Self Feeder as an essential part of their threshing machines. Improvements in the product were made and in March, 1895, the first office building, 16 by 24 ft. was built.

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