Company History · 1837–1916
History of the Buffalo Pitts Company: From the 1837 Groundhog Thresher to Global Steam Power
On December 29, 1837, twin brothers John A. Pitts and Hiram A. Pitts of Winthrop, Maine, received U.S. Patent No. 542 for a machine that combined a mechanical grain thresher with a fanning-mill separator on a single frame—forever changing the economics of the North American grain harvest.
1. The 1837 Patent & Move to Buffalo, New York (1851)
Recognizing that the Erie Canal and Great Lakes rail hubs made western New York the gateway to the expanding Midwest grain belt, John A. Pitts relocated his manufacturing works from Rochester to Buffalo in 1851, establishing the Pitts Agricultural Works at Fourth and Carolina Streets.
After John A. Pitts died in 1859, the company was incorporated in 1877 as The Pitts Agricultural Works and later renamed the Buffalo Pitts Company in 1897 under president Carleton Sprague.
2. Double-Cylinder Steam Traction Engines & Global Export
During the golden age of agricultural steam (1880–1914), Buffalo Pitts became famous for its Niagara grain threshers, return-flue and direct-flue traction engines, and heavy double-cylinder road locomotives exported to Argentina, Australia, Russia, and across the American Great Plains.
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