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Title: |
1904 Portrait, Meinard Rumely |
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Source: |
A twentieth century history and biographical record of La Porte County, Indiana, 1904 pg 407 |
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Insert Date: |
1/8/2012 1:11:11 PM |
The business was carried on from 1853 to 1882 under the firm name of M. and J. Rumely, and in the latter year M. Rumely purchased the interest of his brother. In 1887 the concern was incorporated under the name of the M. Rumely Company.
Of course the machines of fifty years ago were crude, unfinished and slow of operation compared with the beautiful, powerful and rapid productions of today. The oldfashioned horsepower furnished the motive energy; this was also manufactured by the Rumely brothers. But one has only to see the immense plant and glance over their large annual devoted to the description of their various machines to understand how from these small beginnings great things grew. Among the machines made by the company are several types of the modern traction engine, of utmost power consistent with smoothness of operation, ease of movement and general efficiency; boilers, water tanks and other accessories to a modern threshing outfit; and the new Rumely separator, with its band-cutter and self-feeder and wind-stacker, is one of the finest machines ever put on the market and one of the most popular among the farmers of the middle west. Many improvements and inventions, suggested by the experience and mechanical skill of the company, have made all parts of the different machines as nearly perfect in operation and clean and rapid handling of grain as twentieth century inventiveness can demand.
From the one small building in 1853 the M. Rumely Company plant was built up till several city blocks in the vicinity of the Lake Shore Railroad are now covered with foundry, machine shop, wood-working shops, boiler shops, warehouses, offices, etc., all commodious brick structures and equipped with everything needful for maintaining the reputation of the firm for first-class work. About two hundred and seventy-five men are employed, and many of these have been with the company since the days of their apprenticeship. It is especially pleasing to note, as throwing light on one of Mr. Rumely's chief characteristics, that no strikes or other troubles have ever marred the harmonious relations between the company and its employes. Mr. Rumely's kindness to and appreciation of his workmen were indicated by their fidelity to him, through all the years that he used their services, and by their many tributes of
affection at his death. Furthermore, these men are all home-owners and an important addition to LaPorte's citizenship, and in increasing their prosperity and promoting their welfare Meinrad Rumely contributed both wealth and substantiality to his adopted city.
The Rumely plant annually manufactures about three hundred threshing engines and outfits, besides other varieties of industrial and agricultural machinery, and for the disposal of this output branch offices are located at Chicago; Fond du Lac, Wisconsin; Logansport, Indianapolis, Indiana; Toledo, Ohio; St. Louis, Kansas City, Missouri; Cairo, Illinois; Des Moines, Iowa; Lincoln, Nebraska; Wichita, Kansas; and Grand Forks, North Dakota.
Meinrad Rumely, the late president and head of this monumental enterprise, was born in Adelsberg, near Zell, Baden, Germany, February 9, 1823, being a son of Joseph Rumely, a native of Baden and a farmer and weaver. Meinrad learned the millwright's trade in France* this trade included carpentering, cabinet-making, machine, work, and in fact everything in connection with the construction of a mill. In 1848, when a young man of twenty-five and without capital, he came to America, and for a short time lived in Canton, Ohio, and was then employed in a machine shop in Massillon, Ohio. While here his brother John, who had come to this country in 1849 and was also a machinist joined him, and in 1853, after Meinrad had been in a machine shop in Piqua, Ohio, for about a year, the brothers came to LaPorte and made the beginning of the M. Rumely Company. Meinrad Rumely thus lived to see the fiftieth anniversary of his successful enterprise and to enjoy the fruition of the hopes and plans of his youth. |
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1904 Portrait, Meinard Rumely
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