464 S. 5th Street Sebewaing, Michigan 48759-1559
My dad built this bean and pea thresher in 1938 or 1939. We used
it to thresh beans in the fall of 1939 and for several years after,
until the combines took over the bean threshing.
Dad heard that the Russell Manufacturing Company at 630 Erie
Street South, Massillon, Ohio, was starting to build steel grain
threshing machines again. He contacted them and asked if they would
be interested in building a bean and pea huller threshing machine.
They told him that they were not interested at that time, but would
keep in touch with him.
In the letter to my dad from the Russell Manufacturing Company,
dated May 3, 1939, a Mr. Snyder wrote, ‘The writer has been
connected with the old Russell Company since 1905, and although I
never had the pleasure of meeting you or your dad, yet I knew from
correspondence of you people, and really always felt that I knew
you personally.
‘As you know, Russell always built only quality machinery,
and this is the same thing we will do in the future we will keep on
trying to improve our machinery, and reduce price if we possibly
can, as long as we do not have to sacrifice quality.
‘We assure you that we now have a better grain thresher than
any other machine now on the market of competitive make, and that
our new ones will thresher [sic] faster, cleaner, and require less
fuel to operate than any other. It has 30% more teeth in the
cylinder, 32% more grate surface it has eight points of separation,
which is a great deal more than any other machine one could
buy.
‘If you are interested in a new thresher, or know of any one
in your section that is, send us their names, and you can be sure
that unless they buy a Russell they will not have a best
thresher.
‘With best wishes, and assuring that you will hear from us
at a later date regarding the ‘Beaner’ we are, Yours truly,
A. H. Snyder, The Russell Manufacturing Company.’
Combines took over bean threshing, and the Russell Company never
got back to Dad about a huller.
