Untitled Document

THE D. M. SECHLER CARRIAGE AND IMPLEMENT COMPANY

The D. M. Sechler Carriage Company was founded in 1888 by D. M. Sechler. who was already at that time a veteran in the art of carriage building. Serving as an apprentice in a carriage factory, he had learned the trade from the bottom of the ladder. D. M. Sechler started his first shop in Milton, Pa., where he also married, and where his only son, T. M., president of the Sechler industry here, was born. In 1877 D. M. organized Sechler & Company as a partnership in Cincinnati, and two years later it was organized as a corporation. It has continued until the present time under the same name.

In 1887 he disposed of his stock in the Cincinnati company. In January, 1888, he began his factory in Moline, erecting the factory buildings which for nine years housed the vehicle business started here. The line put out by the company consisted of buggies, phaetons, surreys, spring wagons and carts. The latter, known as the B. B., has become the staple two-wheeler of the country. An additional building was erected in 1890 to take care of the big cart business. The manufacture of a corn planter was undertaken as a side line in 1897. The Black Hawk planter, whose life began that year, filled the demand then ripe for an edge drop planter, and very soon the sale of this implement necessitated the erection of additional buildings. Mr. Sechler's original estimate was from 2,000 to 2,500 planters a year, but in 1903. the year of his death, sales exceeded 10.000.

T. M. Sechler. who had been secretary and then vice-president of Sechler & Company in Cincinnati, came to Moline in January of 1889. Since his father's death he has been president of the Moline company. The manufacture and sale

of vehicles and corn planters, listers and harrows, corn drills and cotton planters has continued without diminution, and in 1908 an additional line was added in the form of a manure spreader. The spreader was given the name Black Hawk. In 1909 the company added the variable drop device to its corn planter, which permits varying the number of grains of corn in a hill to conform with the richness of the soil.

The name of the company was changed November 9, 1910, from the D. M. Sechler Carriage Company to the D. M. Sechler Implement and Carriage Company, in order that the name of the concern might more nearly conform with its activities. The factory buildings in Moline have more than five acies of floor space, besides ample yards for storage of lumber and other bulk material. The present officers of the company are: Thomas M. Sechler, president; Joseph W. Moon, vice-president ; A. Theodore McElvain, secretary; William J. Davis, assistant secretary and general manager, and Orville M. Stowe, treasurer

Article from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois

Illinois Ancestors

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