Historical
Tidbit
NOTICE We send one extra stave with this Silo to provide for any breakage which might occur in shipment. |
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The notice is pasted to a May 28, 1915 invoice from Harder Manufacturing Company of Cobleskill, “Makers of Silos and Agricultural Machinery.”
The invoice, to Levi Coolman of R.D. 5, Amsterdam, is in the amount of $242.16 for one each “Harder Pat. W. Pine Silo, 14 X 28” and “Metal Roof with Dormer.”
Date of your order: Mar. 9th TERMS: Net Cash Sept. 1, `15
Found in a 1915 Harder promotional brochure at a Schenectady antiques store. Purchased for $5.00, about 2 percent of the delivered price of the 1915 white pine silo (with roof).
The Harder Manufacturing Co. of 1915, which sold the silo to Mr. Coolman of Amsterdam (invoice above), was no newcomer to Cobleskill.
In 1859, brothers Minard and Reuben Harder of Summit bought David Anthony’s foundry and machine shop on Mill Creek, near the present Youth Center. There, they began the manufacture of fanning mills and horse powers.1
Reuben Harder was an inventor who changed the fanning mill into a threshing machine run by horse power. The firm name, “R and M Harder,” became known over a wide territory.
In 1881, Minard Harder bought Reuben’s interest. The name was changed to “The Empire Agricultural Works.” In 1897 Mr. Harder sold his business to his only son, George D. Harder, who continued to manufacture the agricultural machines and added round stave silos. The silo part of the business grew rapidly at the same time sales of horse powers and other early agricultural machines declined due to development of the gasoline engine and electric motor.
Both Minard and George D. Harder died in 1901 and the factory was purchased by Edgar S. Ryder, son-in-law of Minard and brother-in-law of George D Harder. The new firm included Mr. Ryder’s two sons, Frank H and George D. Ryder. In 1913, the Ryders purchased land on the D&H Railroad, in the west end of Cobleskill, and erected a modern brick factory. The business moved from North Grand Street to what is now McArthur Avenue.
-- Condensed from the Spring, 1965, HISTORICAL REVIEW, page 3.
1. Horse powers and dog powers were treadmills on which the animal would walk, turning the tread which transferred power to an axle and the other machinery.