22 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



March 25. 1922 



Who's Who in Woodworking 



{t_'oniinin:d Jioni page -\\ 



J. B. Bartholomew 



Mr. Bartholomew was bora on a farm one and a quarter miles 

 north of Elmwood, Peoria county, 111., in February, 1863. He may 

 be said to have inherited an interest in labor-saving farm machin- 

 ery, for his father was a pioneer user of such devices and a most 

 enthusiastic advocate of them. He kept the equipment on his farm 

 always abreast of the latest improvements and this afforded his 

 young son a great opportunity to early become expert with these 

 devices. When young Bartholomew was fifteen he knew his fa- 

 ther's threshing machine like a machine gunner knows his gun. He 

 was also one of the first in his part of the country to operate a 

 straddle-row cultivator, as his father was the purchaser of the 

 first machine of this kind in Peoria county. His father was always 

 a progressive buyer of harvesting machines and mowers from the 

 first hand-rake types up to and including the evolution of the mod- 

 ern twine binder. 



Young Bartholomew familiarized himself with the mechanical 

 upkeep and field operation of every new development of farm 

 machine or implement that came onto his father's farm. When 

 the first steam tractor arrived in his township in 1879 he took to 

 it like a duck to water and there was not a threshing bee in those 

 parts at which he was not counted "among those present" in a 

 very practical capacity. 



The spring of his seventeenth year he attracted the attention of 

 C. M. Avery by the facility with which he was operating on his 

 father's farm one of the first Avery planters furnished to farmers. 

 Mr. Avery was then canvassing the country in the interest of his 

 company's implements. The next December he hired young Bartho- 

 lomew to work at the company's plant at Galesburg, 111. During 

 the remainder of that winter, the young farmer from Peoria county 

 labored in the factory, warehouse and yard of the Avery plant, 

 taking the first steps up the ladder toward the presidency of the 

 company. 



His devotion to his "job" (Mr. Bartholomew insists this was a 

 "job" and no "position") caused Mr. Avery, in April, 1880, one 

 year later, to assign him to territory in Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, 

 to move from place to place on letter and telegraphic orders, set- 

 ting up and starting corn planters and check rowers on the farms. 

 After ten weeks of successful work along these lines, he was called 

 back to the factory, given a vacation of two weeks to visit his 

 folks on the farm, and then sent out on the road to make exhibits 

 of Avery machines at the fairs. In the autumn of the same year he 

 was promoted to the position of salesman and factory representative 

 to take orders and contracts from dealers. 



From this position Mr. Bartholomew climbed steadily from one 

 place of responsibility to the other until he reached finally the 

 highest post in the gift of the company. He remained in Iowa for 

 ten years in charge of a branch house of the Avery company, build- 

 ing up the business of the company in that section until the Iowa 

 branch became one of the most important of its distributing points. 



Upon the death of R. H. Avery, in September, 1892, he was called 

 back to Peoria to take charge of the Traction Engine & Thresher 

 Manufacturing Division of the Avery Company, made a member 

 of the board of directors, and elected vice-president of the com- 

 pany. Mr. Bartholomew continued in these capacities until the 

 death of C. M. Avery in 1907, by which time the business of the 

 Avery Company had reached in volume nearly a million dollars a 

 year and the capital stock had been raised from $200,000 to $600,- 

 000. He was elected president of the company in 1907. 



Shortly before the expiration of the charter of the original 

 company, Mr. Bartholomew effected the necessary reorganization 

 under the name of "Avery Company" with a capital stock of 

 $2,500,000. 



Under his able direction the big company has continued to grow 

 and prosper and is second to none in its field in its progressiveness. 

 As an instance of this progressive spirit, it has kept pace with the 

 evolution of the steam tractor to the gas tractor and has developed 



an Aver\' gas tractor for every size farm, thousands of which have 

 been marketed in every state in the Union and eighty-one foreign 

 countries. Mr. Bartholomew, through his world-wide organization, 

 keeps in closest touch with actual users of tractors operated under 

 all kinds of conditions and is fully conversant with every innova- 

 tion as fast as it makes its appearance. 



Floyd R. Todd 



Mr. Todd at the time was a young and successful lawyer of Syra- 

 cuse. Born at Richmondville, Schoharie County, New York, July 16, 

 1874, he moved soon afterward with his parents to New York City, 

 had resided there until he was eight years old and had spent later 

 years of his boyhood at Morrisonville Station and other towns in 

 Central New York. He had been graduated from the high school 

 of Oneida, New York, in 1893, had studied law at Oneida and Syra- 

 cuse, had been admitted to the bar at Rochester, N. Y., in 1896 and 

 had practiced law at Syracuse for six years. 



Blessed with all of the endowments that make a successful 

 lawyer — a keen, analytical mind, the gift of oratory, a commanding 

 presence, aggressiveness and the abilitj- to make friends — Mr. Todd 

 was looked upon by older members of the Syracuse bar as a young 

 lawyer who would go far in his profession. 



But Mr. Todd also had the real selling instinct and a hearty desire 

 to exercise it. Business, with its prospect of hard fighting and 

 high reward, allured him. So the opportunity to help revive the 

 business of the Kemp & Burpee Manufacturing Company found him 

 ready. 



As vice-president and sales manager of the company, Mr. Todd be- 

 gan a c.'impaign to educate farmers to the value of the machine- 

 method of spreading manure. With only a small advertising appro- 

 priation possible he began to use farm papers. In the first year one 

 thousand machines were sold — an encouraging volume, in comparison 

 witli the practically stagnant business in the years just preceding. 

 In each succeeding year larger sums were appropriated for advertis- 

 ing, and the business of the company grew in proportion. In 1909, 

 seven years after Mr. Todd's affiliation with the company, the an- 

 nual volume of sales had mounted to 10,000 spreaders. 



In 1910 the business was sold to Deere & Company, and Mr. Todd 

 was engaged by the purchasing organization to manage its new Mar- 

 seilles Company at East Moline, 111. 



The new job brought serious problems. The products were corn 

 shellers, grain elevators and manure spreaders. The new plant was 

 too large for the volume of business than available, so Mr. Todd 

 set out to increase business. Securing greatly increased advertising 

 appropriations, he began a special campaign for the sale of John 

 Deere Spreaders. Within three months after the campaign was 

 started the factory showed signs of being too small. 



After a few years of increasing success at the Marseilles plant, 

 Mr. Todd was made manager of Deere & Mansur Company, one of 

 the larger plants of Deere & Company. Later he became vice-presi- 

 dent of Deere & Company, a member of the Board of Directors, a 

 member of the executive committee, and officer and director in sub- 

 sidiary companies. 



For a number of years, Mr. Todd has been a member of the 

 Executive Committee, National Association of the Farm Equip- 

 ment Manufacturers and of the Emergency and Publicity Commit- 

 tee of that association. 



During the war he was a member of the Farm Implements Com- 

 mittee of the national association. This was the first war service 

 committee recognized by the War Industries Board. 



At the present time Mr. Todd is a member of the President's Con- 

 ference on Agriculture, and a member of the Advisory Committee 

 to the Transportation Division of the Joint Congressional Commis- 

 sion of Agricultural Inquiry. 



A banker-philosopher says that a great man is great because he 

 had concentrated on one thing better than other people. That fits 

 Mr. Todd. He thrives on hard work. Nothing suits him any better 

 than to tackle the knottiest problems that arise in the farm equip- 

 ment world. He gets the facts and utilizes them effectively. Co- 

 workers call him the "kevnoter" of the industry. 



