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Early
in the nineteenth century, American farmers broke the soil pretty
much the same way as old English grangers or even Biblical tillers
did—with wooden plows. Steel points were added in Thomas Jefferson's
day, and in the 1830s John Deere introduced the all-metal "prairie
breaker" plow.
Not long afterward, John A. Stewart began to make improved plows
in a machine shop located near Marshall,
Texas, and in doing so launched a major East
Texas industry.
Stewart moved
his operation to Four Mile Branch, a campsite for wagoners located
approximately that distance from Jefferson,
Texas. This was a good location for a wagon repair shop, which
he operated with this brother-in-law, Zachariah Lockett. They continued
to make metal plows as well, making iron in a furnace heated by
charcoal. Then George Addison Kelly joined the partnership in 1852,
and by 1860 Kelly had acquired complete control of the firm.
Kelly introduced the "Blue Kelly” plow, the most popular such implement
in Texas, and also supported the Confederate States of America by
manufacturing cannonballs and other iron implements and tools both
for military and civilian use. The company continued to provided
its own iron by processing ore at a facility near Kellyville.
The arrival of the rails and the subsequent decline in the importance
of Jefferson
as a shipping point had become a problem for Kelly in the 1870s,
and then his manufacturing plant burned in 1880.
Kelly rebuilt
his factory in Longview,
Texas, in 1882. He expanded his product line from plows to all
cultivation implements available at the time until his death in
1909.
Kelly was succeeded by his sons, Robert Marvin Kelly and LeGrand
D. Kelly, as president and secretary-treasurer, respectively, of
the company and also as co-managers of the manufacturing plant,
until 1941, when George A. Kelly Jr. and LeGrand D. Kelly Jr., took
over. Eventually, five generations of Kellys kept the plows coming
that tilled the fields of East Texans before the company ceased
manufacturing them in the 1960s, a victim of the progress it had
helped to bring about.
© Archie P. McDonald
All
Things Historical
September 10, 2007 column
A syndicated column in over 70 East Texas newspapers
This column is provided as a public service by the East Texas Historical
Association. Archie P. McDonald is director of the Association and
author of more than 20 books on Texas.
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