John Samuel Rowell - The JS Rowell Manufacturing Company

The JS Rowell Manufacturing Company

In 1855, he purchased a small building and foundry for $400 on Mill Street, later named Rowell Street, in Beaver Dam, Wisc., which he used to make plows to sell to the local trade. Upon purchasing, he moved his family to the small apartment upstairs. In 1860 he built and patented the first successful "broad case seeder" ever put on the market. In 1861, he built a combination seeder-cultivator with a "Slip Tooth" to prevent breakage when hitting rocks while cultivating, which he patented; this was to guarantee his success.

He incorporated the company in 1888 with $100,000 in capital stock, of which $40,000 in cash was contributed by JS Rowell and the remaining $60,000, shown on the previous company's books at cost or good will, were contributed by the owners via the assets from the previous unincorporated JS Rowell Manufacturing Company, although the assets had a market value of nearly twice that amount. The company manufactured 26 different kinds of machines at this time. Js held 25% interest in the company, with each of his sons Samuel W. and Theodore B. each owning 25%, nephew Ira 12.5% and the remaining 12.5% divided up among his grandchildren. By 1900 JS, and sons Samuel and Theodore, were each receiving an annual salary of $3,000. Management salaries from 1868 to 1904 totaled approximately $125,000. JS owned the land the company sat on and collected an annual rent of $1,000. From 1888 to 1904, the factory had manufactured and sold 9,900 machines. Annual Net Profitability ran consistently at 15-16%.

By 1888, JS was receiving royalties from the company of $1 per machine in which one of his patents were used. Numerous companies in the seeder cultivator industry were also paying a higher royalty for using Rowell patents including the Van Brunt Seeder Manufactory in Horicon, Wisconsin which was later purchased in 1912 by a firm that would be acquired by John Deere. Rowell also invented the "Force Feed" for grain drills, harrows, hay rakes, fanning mills, and Tiger Threshing machines. Sales of these machines were throughout the Midwest, Canada, Germany, South America, Russia, to which many Rowell Tiger Threshers were sold, and South Africa. He has built up one of the largest manufactories of the state, and gained for himself a comfortable fortune, with the factory employing more than 200 employees. Among the assets of the firm were 6 pedigreed trotting horses, including Badger Girl a champion trotter. The book value of these horses was placed at $4,200 in 1889, with their market value being higher. One large distributor was the Northwestern Implement Company in St. Paul, Minnesota, which was acting agent for the firm for Minnesota, the Dakotas, and Montana to sell Rowell seeders, hay rakes, grain drills, and threshing machinery. Total orders accepted, shipped, and settled from this one distributor for 1887 was $72,822.47.

Rowell was vigilant in defending his patents, even fighting patent infringements all the way to the US Supreme Court. In Rowell v. Lindsay, 113 US 97 (1885), JS and his brother Ira filed with the court to restrain the infringement of reissued letters patent No. 2,909, dated March 31, 1868, one of only 5 or 6 patent cases ever heard by the court. The court found that the defendants had not used every element of the Rowell Patent and therefore dismissed the plaintiff's case.