Advance-Rumely Thresher Company

The roots of this popular vintage tractor company can be traced back as far as 1852, when Meinard Rumely opeded his blacksmith shop. Meinard and his brother John started M. and J. Rumely Company in 1856 and operated under this name until 1882 when Meinard bought out his brother's interest. Sometime in the early 1900's Edward A. Rumely, Meinard's grandson, took over the company and immediately surrounded himself with some of the day's brightest minds. This list included John A. Secor, William H. Higgins and Rudolph Diesel. Rumely, Secor and Higgins worked together to develop the famous Rumely Oil Pull. An interesting design note was their attempt to build a tractor operated with a pair of reins, called a "line-drive". This unit was edsigned as an attempt to mimic driving horses, however, it never became successful. During 1913, the company encountered devastating financial defficulties and was placed in receivership with a new firm. The Rumely family lost majority control of the Advance Rumely Company. Many buyouts of smaller companies and competitors took place and Advance-Rumely continued to produce "Oil Pulls" until 1929, when the Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company acquired them.