Every so often, something truly remarkable surfaces in the collections of the HCEA Archives. This is such an instance.
In 2019, the Archives was anonymously given an assortment of records originating with the Athey Truss Wheel Co. in the 1920s and 1930s. They consisted of some rather clean-for-its-age sales literature, a lengthy typed financial report, and approximately 90 black-and-white prints. When the records were studied further, we discovered amazing things. Along with numerous prints of Athey Truss Wheel crawlers by themselves and in various applications, five different crawler tractors are depicted: three of which proudly wear the Athey name.
Although the financial report deals with a controversy that enfolded the company, it begins by providing some context to the images: The Athey Truss Wheel Co. of Chicago was incorporated in September 1922, having “acquired the assets and business and assumed the liabilities of the Athey Tractor Company, not incorporated.” Athey Tractor is also identified as Athey Truss Wheel’s predecessor, and the time span of the financial report implies that it existed in January 1920.
The Athey Tractor Co.? And crawler tractors bearing the Athey name? A search for additional information yielded almost no results. Nothing in the Archives. Experts Roger Amato, Eric C. Orlemann, and Keith Haddock knew nothing of this. The Encyclopedia of American Farm Tractors had nothing. Richard Robinson’s four-volume Crawler Tractor Scrapbooks, which document all manner of obscure makes worldwide, have no mention of it. A brief mention of their existence, but nothing more, was found in Endless Tracks in the Woods. The 2nd Edition of the Standard Catalog of Farm Tractors 1890 to 1960 contains only a terse “no information available” notation for Athey Tractor.
Google produced references to a patent issued to Issac H. Athey in 1922 for a powered rigid crawler assembly. One of the tractors shown in the photos is lettered with a citation of U.S. Patent 1209360, issued to James M. Worth of Chicago on December 19, 1916, for a rigid crawler assembly. Evidently, Athey acquired the patent, as his own was an improvement on it, and the design was applied to at least five “models” of tractor.
A history of Athey’s subsequent years and products will have to wait until another time. Suffice it for now that Athey Truss Wheel went on to considerable success with its crawler assemblies and towed wagons using them, especially heavy-duty dump wagons. Its broad range of later products included most prominently force-feed loaders; a line of rubber-tired end-, bottom-, and side-dump wagons for use with rubber-tired prime movers and off-highway trucks; and a small motor grader. It also acquired conveyor and screening equipment manufacturer Kolman Manufacturing Co. circa 1964 and the Mobil Sweeper line by 1975. The company failed in 2001; the motor grader line was sold to Robert A Hanson Co. (RAHCO), and the force-feed loaders went to Lee Boy Manufacturing Co. Inc.
About the HCEA
The Historical Construction Equipment Association (HCEA) is a 501(c )3 nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the history of the construction, dredging and surface mining equipment industries. With over 3,500 members in a dozen countries, our activities include operation of National Construction Equipment Museum and archives in Bowling Green, Ohio; publication of a quarterly magazine, Equipment Echoes, from which this text is adapted from an upcoming article; and hosting an annual working exhibition of restored construction equipment. Individual annual memberships are $45 within the U.S. and Canada, and $65 elsewhere. Our next International Convention and Old Equipment Exposition will be September 18-20, 2025, at our Museum. We seek to develop relationships in the equipment manufacturing industry, and we offer a college scholarship for engineering students.
Information is available at www.hcea.net, or by calling 419.352.5616 or e-mailing [email protected].
