Edward Huber To Be Honored At Steam Show in Marion

By Staff
Published on June 1, 1995
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Edward Huber.
Edward Huber.
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1937 Model LC Huber tractor lining up for the antique equipment parade.
1937 Model LC Huber tractor lining up for the antique equipment parade.
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Sawmill in operation at a past Marion Co. show
Sawmill in operation at a past Marion Co. show
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Marion Co. Steam & Gas Engine Society president Stan Winck pulling his 1941 Huber combine with his 1927 Huber Model 40-62 in a recent Society antique machinery parade.
Marion Co. Steam & Gas Engine Society president Stan Winck pulling his 1941 Huber combine with his 1927 Huber Model 40-62 in a recent Society antique machinery parade.

3203 Norton Road Radnor, Ohio 43066

From earliest Colonial times, searching for more progressive
approaches to the business of farming practices has concerned our
leaders as well as the common farmer. Ben Franklin, as early as
1743, and his fellow members of the American Philosophical Society
discussed ways to improve agriculture and animal husbandry for the
betterment of this country. George Washington, at Mount Vernon,
employed such farming techniques as diversification of crops and
soil conservation practices and he made use of new farming tools as
they were introduced. Thomas Jefferson, designer of the mould board
plow, built a seed drill and improved on an early threshing
machine.

The tools of cultivation used by the earliest of Colonial
America’s farmers were axes, hoes, spades and grubbing hooks.
Those used in harvest were the sickle, scythe, cradle and flail.
All required the physical strength of man to operate, and put
severe restraints upon the size of a crop a man could plant,
cultivate and reap.

As settlers spread across the country, discovering the vast
fertile plains, unimpeded by trees, which were ready and awaiting
their pleasure, farmers began to realize how limited they were with
only crude hand tools and horse-drawn plows unsuited for this sod.
America’s farmers wanted better tools.

With the development of special plows, tilling and seed drilling
equipment the work of horses and oxen replaced that of man as a
major source of power on American farms, enabling farmers to
produce more and to more easily feed the growing population of the
country. Finally, instead of the farmer carrying his crude tools to
the fields, he himself was hauled there sitting upon his tools, his
‘modern farming equipment,’ and for the first time some
farming operations could be accomplished while the farmer sat down.
Many tried to invent equipment for every aspect of farming life.
Few succeeded. One of these successful innovators was Edward Huber.
Born in 1837, he died in 1904, a span of only 67 years. Yet during
that short time he made a profound difference on the American farm
scene. He was a blacksmith living in Indiana when he devised a
revolving hay rake. This rake, made of wood, was drawn by horses
across a field of cut hay and would gather the hay into the
revolving mechanism until it was full, then the hay was dumped into
a pile. Later these piles would be pitched onto a hay wagon. Mr.
Huber, at the age of 26, was granted a patent for this machine in
1863. This was his first. In his lifetime he was granted over one
hundred patents for his inventions.

He found that ash and hickory were the best woods to use in the
manufacture of his hay rake. John Hammerle, his wife
Elizabeth’s brother, told him that these trees grew in
abundance in and around the little town of Marion, Ohio, so he
moved his operations there in 1865, the year that marked the end of
the Civil War.

With borrowed tools Huber rented space at the corner of State
and Mill Streets and the Hammerle, Monday and Huber Company was
formed, with Huber acting as superintendent. He soon invented a
machine which would bore and mortise the rake heads and insert the
teeth automatically which increased production. This is the present
site of the Huber Museum.

Huber so impressed local financiers with the success of his
fledgling business that he had no trouble obtaining backing for
expansion. In 1875 Huber incorporated his own company, the Huber
Manufacturing Company, with a capital stock of $75,000, and he was
able to continue designing patentable mechanical devices, among
them steam farm engines, grain separators and grain threshers.

In 1876 Huber’s road scraper took first place at the
Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, and in 1893 the Huber
Manufacturing Company won four awards for their engines exhibited
at the World’s Fair at Chicago. At this time the Huber Company
began to sell internationally to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Russia
and West Indies. At one point in the history of the company, Huber
became America’s largest manufacturer and exporter of farm
machinery.

He always used high quality materials, good workmanship in
manufacturing his equipment, and he maintained integrity and
honesty in his business dealings. He had a special affection for
his workers. Knowing that his employees needed homes but could not
have them without a money source, he founded Marion’s first
Building and Loan Company. He held a picnic each year for the
enjoyment of his employees and their families, a tradition which
continues during the Marion County Fair each year. He was so well
liked that at his death 5,000 people attended his funeral. This was
about a third of Marion’s population at the time.

Sawmill in operation at a past Marion Co. show. Don Bradon,
formerly in the engineering department of the Huber Manufacturing
Company, having purchased all rights and parts from that former
company from Figgie International, has formed a new company, ENFAB,
in Galion, Ohio, and will produce a ‘new’ Huber maintainer
in the near future. We hope to have an example of this new
equipment at the 1995 show in June.

Edward Huber was a man with a generous nature and he supported
financially many of the progressive ventures in Marion, leading the
city into the industrial revolution. He was instrumental in the
building of the Marion Electric Company, the Marion Street Railway,
the Marion Oil Company, the Marion Tool Works and the Prendergast
Lumber Company. As stated earlier he founded the Marion Building
and Loan Company and the Marion Malleable Iron Company. He was
president of the National Bank and of the Marion Implement Company.
He founded Marion’s first public lending library and
established Marion’s Young Men’s Christian Association
(YMCA). Of all of these accomplishments, he is probably the most
famous for incorporating the Marion Steam Shovel Company in 1884
which manufactured the steam shovels that made the building of the
Panama Canal possible.

The Marion Steam Shovel Company continued to produce power
shovels through the age of steam into the modern age of gasoline
and diesel fuels. Some of these power shovels were so large that
several dump trucks or a hundred men or more could be placed within
their shovels. These were often used in strip mining and other
large earth moving operations.

For his life’s work, dedicated to the betterment of farming,
Edward Huber was admitted to the Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1990.
Prior to this he was admitted to Senior Citizens Hall of Fame in
1987.

In spite of all his accomplishments Edward Huber seems hidden
behind the image of President Harding, another famous Marion
resident. It is time this great man is recognized for his vision
and industry and his unique ability to see a mechanical need and
meet it with the invention of the proper machine.

A group of people in Marion fully appreciate Edward Huber and
keep his memory alive through the Edward Huber Memorial
Association. Though fund raising has been difficult, the
Association members are hoping to dedicate a new museum in his
honor at the 18th annual Marion County Steam and Gas Engine Society
Show to be held on the Marion County Fairgrounds, Marion, Ohio,
June 15-18 (Father’s Day weekend). At this show many examples
of Huber’s machinery and memorabilia will be on display.

One piece of memorabilia offered by the Association is a
pamphlet called Tractor in the Making, available for a donation of
$1 and a self-addressed stamped business envelope. Send to the
Edward Huber Memorial Association, Anna May Schwaderer, 649
Columbus-Sandusky Road South, Marion, Ohio 43302. This pamphlet
contains information suitable for school projects and reports. If
you wish to make a donation to the Museum Fund send it to the
address listed above or call (614) 389-1098. All donations are
greatly appreciated.

Ask the gate personnel about handicapped parking and for any
assistance you need. Representatives of the press and media are
admitted free. Arrange bus tours of Marion’s historical points
of interest and our show through the Marion Area Convention and
Visitor’s Bureau (614) 383-1666. For show information send a
self-addressed stamped business envelope to Marion Ohio Show,
Stanley Winck, President, 585 Cleveland Ave., Marion, OH 43302, or
call (614) 383-4871.

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