The firm of Sharps, Davis & Bonsall began operating the Buckeye Engine Works in 1851; later catalogs would claim "since 1846" so there may have been a predecessor firm operating the Works. The partners were Simeon and Joel Sharp, Milton Davis and Joel S. Bonsall. They manufactured steam engines, and likely manufactured direct-acting reciprocating muley sawmills in those early years. These were sawmills where a frameless stiff straight sawblade was connected more-or-less directly to the engine's piston. In 1856 they built the first direct-acting circular sawmill, where the circular sawblade was driven directly by the engine's flywheel.

in late 1870 the business was reorganized as the Buckeye Engine Co. By this time the business was very successful: in 1873 they employed 250 and had annual sales of $300,000. By 1890 they had over 200 employees and sales of over $500,000. Products included engines, sawmills, planing mills, self-acting shingle machines, lath machines, and more.

The business survived until 1932 when the Buckeye Engine Company was officially de-registered.

Information Sources

• Ohio State records show that the Buckeye Engine Company was registered on 19 December 1870, and de-registered on 1 July 1932.
• 1891 book History of the upper Ohio Valley, Volume 2, by Gibson Lamb Cranmer, Brant & Fuller, page 88.

  The Buckeye Engine Works was begun in 1851, under the firm name of Sharps, Davis & Bonsall, and twenty years thereafter the present company, viz., Buckeye Engine Company, was organized. During all these years this establishment has been the most important industry of Salem. At this time their works occupy about four acres, and are made up of numerous buildings. They have a capital stock of $300,000 all paid in. More than 200 men are employed in their works. They manufacture the celebrated Buckeye automatic cut-off engine, of which 2,500 are in use, making engines of various sizes, from ten horse power to 1,000 horse power. They also manufacture saw-mills, planing mill engines, self-acting shingle machines, lath machines, and various other machines and engines, and ship them to every state and territory in this country, and some foreign shipments have been made. The total annual output of engines, boilers and other machinery, probably exceeds in value $500,000.

• Mentioned in 1872 issue of Manufacturer & Builder.
• Listing in the 1874 work, Wiley's American iron trade manual of the leading iron industries of the United States: "J. Sharp, president; Thos. C. Boone, treasurer and secretary; J. S. Bonsall, superintendent. This works has been established twenty-two years, and makes all kinds of steam engines, circular-saw mills, shingle machines, and mill gearing. The company has a paid-up capital of $250,000, and the works covers two acres, employing 125 hands, with annual sales of $300,000."
• Listed in a work published by the United States Centennial Commission, Official Catalog of the 1876 International Exhibition, as a maker of an "automatic shingle machine".
• The July 1896 issue of the engineering journal Cassier's Magazine had a history of sawmill development in 19th century Ohio written by Joel Sharp. The following extract is relevant:

  [The success of direct-action reciprocating sawmills] finally suggested the direction action circular sawmill-mill, and in 1856 Sharp, Davis & Bonsall (founders of the Buckeye Engine Company) built the first one of this kind for a large land owner in Iowa, who wanted a portable saw-mill to cut lumber to improve his farm. We remember that the gentleman came to Salem with his money in a belt under his clothes (bank checks were not as common then as now), and stayed with us until we built and shipped his mill.

  The foundation for this engine was on oak timbers, about 10"x20", keyed at each end to solid oak stumps, about 2 feet in diameter and 15 feet apart. The mill was set properly on this and started without a shelter of any description. The engine was a 6"x14" and drove a 54-inch saw. The capacity was from 600 to 800 feet of oak boards per hour when properly handled. This was doubtless the first direct-action circular saw-mill in the United States, if not in the world. The success of this mill encouraged the building of others of the same type, and in a few years they substantially superseded the direct mulay.

  The engines for these mills that were furnished by the Sharps and their copartners, were from 6" to 8" bore and 14" stroke, and they, as well as the engines for direct mulay mills, were operated without a governor. The sawyer had control of a gate valve in the steam pipe by means of a lever, or a cord over pulleys, and ran the engine at any speed desired, generally at the rate of 400 or 500 revolutions per minute. For their duty the engines would stand up to this speed very well, as it was only for a few seconds at a time, or while a cut was being made; then the gate valve was partially closed and the speed reduced while the log carriage was backed, and the log set for the next cut. The practice called for a very light fly-wheel in order to stop and start quickly. The reciprocating parts of the engine were all made as light as possible, consistent with requisite strength. Disc cranks were always used, and balanced with the shaft on parallels. Experience with these engines demonstrated that, when doing hard work, they would run quietly at a very high rotative speed,—more so than at a slow speed. When the sawyer would start into the cut with a slow or moderate speed, the engine would pound, but as the speed increased the pounding would disappear almost entirely.

  A test trial of direct mills was made by Sharp, Davis & Bonsall in the spring of 1857 as follows :—The mill proper was one of their regular direct mulay mills, with one boiler, 40 inches in diameter, 16 feet long, with two 14 inch flues; engine, 6½"x17". On the opposite side of the boiler they set up, temporarily, one of their direct circular mills, with 6"x14" engine and 54" saw; both engines took steam from this boiler. With the mulay saw they cut in nine hours, from twenty-three poplar logs, 12,229 feet, all inch boards, except 1100 feet of 2-inch planks; and with the circular mill, in nine hours and four minutes, they cut from forty-two poplar logs 14,948 feet, all inch boards; in all, 27,177 feet. The fuel was 2½ cords of dry slabs.

  There was nothing remarkable in this, excepting the amount of work done with those small engines. The firing was very brisk, and possibly half the heat generated went up the chimney. With a proper amount of modern boiler capacity, at least one-third less fuel would have done the work. The test was made to satisfy a competitive builder. Many of our direct circular mills were built with 8"x14" engines, and 60 to 66-inch saws. Sometimes a 30-inch top saw was added. With good-sized timber and proper handling, these mills had a capacity of 2000 feet per hour from our soft timbers.

  During late years, since the remaining timber is very generally in small patches, the portable belted circular mill is doing country sawing, the power for it being furnished by agricultural engines of various types, the mills being moved from one timber lot to another, as desired by owners. These mills are necessarily of small capacity, say, with the present average of the timber, 1500 to 2000 superficial feet per ten hours.

  In conclusion, we need only to add that the advent of the modern large gang mill with edgers, and steam feed, etc., in the great pine forests in the Northwest, where a large log is literally transformed into boards in one single trip, and where one mill turns out as high as 100,000 feet of lumber in a single day, has dispelled the necessity of any further advancement on this line, even though such were possible. Figuratively speaking, forests have already hoisted the white flag, and are crying " Hold! Enough!!"

• 1956-06-05 Salem News. "...Sharps, Davis & Bonsall, [the] firm that preceded Buckeye Engine Co. ... was composed of Simeon and Joel Sharp, Milton Davis and Joel S. Bonsall..."
• American Steam Engine Builders: 1800-1900 by Kenneth L. Cope, 2006 page 43
• American Gasoline Engines Since 1872 by C. H. Wendel, Volume #1, 1983 pages 69-70
• The Complete Guide to Stationary Gas Engines by Mark Meincke, 1996 page 102