This company made punching and shearing machinery, and they also made woodworking machinery, including a 12" tablesaw. They were in business by 1903. At some point their name changed to Nowlan Machine Works (Harry O. Nowlan was company president and treasurer). In 1920 the company's assets were acquired by the owners of the Wisconsin Farm Implement Company, and the machinery and equipment moved to Beloit, Wisconsin.

Ad from 1909 "Iron Age" magazine

Information Sources

• Modern Machinery, Dec 1903 pg 6
• Listed in the Wisconsin Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics Biennial Report for 1904, as a machine maker. They had one building (under 3 stories), and 8 employees, all male.
• Ad in a 1909 issue of Iron Age: "Punches, shears, bending tools, woodworking machinery. Badger State Machine Co., Janesville, Wis."
• Listings in various issues of Iron Age Directory:
  • 1906 (circular saw arbors, metal shear blades, bolt and nut machinery, wood boring machines, bulldozers, car shop tools, car shop wood working machinery, iron castings, cornice machinery, cutting-off machines, wire-forming machines, builders' iron works, pattern makers' machinery, pattern making, buzz planers, hand and power punches, punches and shears for plate work, I-beam punching machines, hand tube and manhole punches, bending and straightening rolls, hand- and belt-power bending rolls, sawmill machinery, wood-sawing machines, hand-shearing machines, alligator shears, tinners' shears and snips, beam and channel shears, slitting shears, metal slitting machines, straightening presses, tinners' tools and machines, wood working machines)
  • 1908 (tube and manhole hand punches, multiple punches, screw punches, I-beam punching machines, I-beam hand punching machines, wood working machines, swing cut-off saws, band saws, wood sawing machines, metal sawing machines, electro and linotype sawing machines, saw mill machinery)
  • 1909 (screw punches, I-beam punching machines, I-beam hand punching machines, swing cut-off saws, wood sawing machines, wood working planers); 1911 (slitting shears, wood sawing machines).
  We found no listings in a 1903 directory.
• Listed in the May 1911 issue of American Blacksmith and Motor Shop as a maker of punches and shears.
• Listed in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers' Mechanical Catalog and Directory as a maker of bending rolls.
• The 1920-09-30 Automotive Industries carried this new item.

  Nowlan Machine Works, Janesvllle, Wis., formerly the Badger State Machine Co., has been acquired by interests at Belolt, Wis., to which city the plant and equipment are being transferred. The new owners are George B. Slater and George E. Marsden, of the Slater & Marsden Foundry Co. and Wisconsin Farm Implement Co., and Harry E. Whittemore, of the Hendley & Whittemore Co., all of Beloit.

• The 1920-09-30 Iron Age carried the following news item.

  The Nowlan Machine Works, Janesville, Wis., manufacturing punching and shearing machines, has been purchased by George B. Slater, George E. Marsden and Harry Whittenmore, all of Belolt, Wis., who are transferring the operation to that city. The equipment Is being installed in the machine shop of the Slater & Marsden Co., Beloit, founder and machinist, also operating the Wisconsin Farm Implement Co. Mr. Whittemore will manage the punch and shear department, while Messrs. Slater and Marsden will continue to devote their attention to the gray iron shop.

• From Iron Age Vol 129 p. 1103, 1932:

  He established the Badger State Machine Co. and the Rock River Machine Co. In 1906 he moved to Beloit and established the firms now known as the P. F. Mork Foundry Co. and the Rock River Machine Co. In 1906 he moved to Beloit and established the firm now known as the P. F. Mork Foundry Co. and the Hendley-Whittemore Co., manufacturing a...

• 12" tablesaw seen on eBay.
• This company is listed on a University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee page of defunct Wisconsin corporations, 1848-1945.
• A search failed to reveal any patents assigned to this maker.
• Seen on AbeBooks.com: an undated catalog from this company, for "Punching & Shearing Machinery".
• From the October 1920 issue of The American Drop Forger

  Beloit, Wis.—George B. Slater and George E. Marsden of the Wisconsin Farm Implement Co. and others, have purchased the Badger State Machine Co., Janesville, Wis., and all machinery and equipment will be moved to this city and installed in the new owners' plant here.