Posted 8 months ago
This is a 1919 newspaper advertisement for Twin City Farm Tractors and Equipment made by the Minneapolis Steel & Machinery Company, Minneapolis, Minn. --- The Minneapolis Steel and Machinery Company was founded in Minneapolis by J.L. Record and Otis Briggs in 1902 to manufacture steel components for buildings, bridges, and other steel structures. The company engaged in the singular steel fabrication business until 1910, when the Joy-Wilson Company of Minneapolis was hired to design a tractor for them. The tractor that was designed later evolved into the famous Twin City "40" tractor, and began the company's successful venture into the tractor business. A few years later, the company expanded its role in the tractor business by subcontracting to build heavy tractors for other manufacturers like Case Threshing Machine Company, and Bull Tractor Company. By the late teens, engineers realized the trend in tractor design was moving away from the massive behemoths that were their specialty, to smaller, cheaper, and more compact tractor designs. As a result, an entirely new line of lightweight tractors was engineered, supplemented by a new line of threshing machines and farm trucks. The new line of lightweight "Twin City" tractors were very well engineered, and as a testament to their quality they later served as the basis for the entire Minneapolis-Moline tractor line. Overall, sales of "Twin City" products increased throughout the twenties with growing consumer acceptance, but in the depressed agricultural economy of that period it was very difficult for a short line company to survive on its own. Therefore, merger negotiations began with another short line company, the Moline Implement Company of Moline, Illinois, and later included the Minneapolis Threshing Machine Company of Hopkins, Minnesota. An agreement was eventually reached, and in 1929, the three short line companies were amalgamated to form the Minneapolis-Moline Power Implement Company.