International Harvester Company history

Chicagobased manufacturer and distributor of agricultural machinery, trucks, and construction equipment. The company was formed in 1902 with the merger of five leading agricultural equipment companies: the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, Deering Harvester Company, Milwaukee Harvester Company, Plano Manufacturing Company, and Warder, Bushnell and Glessner. The merger was the culmination of more than 10 years of negotiation between the McCormick and Deering families, and was made possible by the third-party intervention of George W. Perkins, a representative of J. P. Morgan. During its first 10 years, the company was governed by a voting trust of Cyrus MCCORMICK Jr., Charles Deering, and George W. Perkins. This trust expired in 1912, leaving Cyrus McCormick Jr. as president of the company and the other principals as vice presidents or directors.

Upon its formation the company controlled more than 80 percent of domestic production of the most important farm machines, binders, and mowers. Over the next 20 years, International Harvester greatly expanded its product line through the acquisition of existing companies and the creation of new production facilities in the United States and abroad. In 1917, it was the seventh-largest company in America. By 1920, the company had acquired the D. M. Osborne Company, Keystone Company, Weber Wagon Company, Kemp Manure Spreader Company, Chattanooga Plow Company, Minnie Harvester Company, and the Parlin and Orendorff Company. The company had also begun to manufacture construction equipment and trucks.

International Harvester’s rapid growth continued during the 1920s, and its sales tripled to more than $300 million per year by 1929. One of the company’s best-known and most important products, the Farmall tractor, contributed to this success. The Farmall was introduced in 1922 and by 1927 was the best-selling tractor in the industry. The company also continued to expand its overseas operations. By the end of the decade it had subsidiaries in Canada, France, Germany, Sweden, Argentina, Australia, Denmark, Great Britain, Italy, Latvia, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Spain, and Switzerland.

The growth of the company was interrupted by the onset of the Great Depression in 1929. The company suffered a drastic loss of income, and did not return to peak sales levels until the end of the 1930s. The company experienced renewed growth in the 1940s with the help of World War II government contracts and a postwar economic boom. In 1948, International Harvester was the world’s leading manufacturer of farm machinery, America’s largest heavy-duty truck manufacturer, and a major force in the construction equipment industry. The company also launched a major line of household refrigerators. Its total sales surpassed $900 million.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the company continued on a path of investment and expansion, but struggled to overcome labor strife and persistently weak profit margins. The company sold its refrigeration line to Whirlpool in 1955 and lost its lead in the farm machinery industry to John Deere & Co. in 1958. In addition, despite heavy investment in construction equipment, it failed to gain ground on Caterpillar, its chief rival in that industry. On the other hand, the company’s truck business grew in importance, surpassing farm equipment in total sales in 1954. By 1961, the company controlled 33 percent of the heavy-duty truck market.

International Harvester made modest gains in profits in the early 1970s, particularly in its heavyduty truck line. It continued to trail its competitors in the agricultural machinery and construction equipment industries, however. In 1980, the company experienced a six-month United Auto Workers strike, followed by a series of recessions in its prime markets. In serious financial trouble, the company sold its construction equipment line to Dresser Industries in 1982. Two years later it sold its agricultural equipment line to Tenneco, where it became part of the J. I. Case Corporation. In 1985, the company reorganized under the name Navistar International Transportation Corporation, and devoted itself to the manufacture and distribution of trucks and engines.

See also DEERE, JOHN; MORGAN, JOHN PIERPONT.

Further reading

• Carstensen, Fred V. American Enterprise in Foreign Markets: Singer and International Harvester in Imperial Russia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984. 
• Marsh, Barbara. A Corporate Tragedy: The Agony of International Harvester Company. New York: Doubleday, 1985. 
• Ozanne, Robert. A Century of Labor-Management Relations at McCormick and International Harvester. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1967. 

Lee Grady