Samuel Nevin Hench		Walker A. Dromgold

Hench & Dromgold Factory View, ca. 1905

This company dates back to about 1873, when S. Nevin Hench invented and manufactured the Pivot Axle Riding Cultivator. They remained in business until at least 1920. The firm manufactured stationary and portable steam engines, woodworking machinery, and sawmills.

“Hench & Dromgold Company, extensive manufacturers of saw mills, engines, grain drills, corn shellers, spring tooth and spike tooth harrows, own one of the prominent industrial establishments in York. The business was founded at Ickesburg, Perry County, in 1877, and in the spring of 1879. removed to York. Since that time, about 225 men have been regularly employed. The firm is composed of S. Nevin Hench and Walker A. Dromgold. Within recent years, the firm has owned large tracts of woodland in Randolph County, West Virginia, where they have operated saw mills, regularly employing 100 men. During the bark season about 200 hands are employed.” (Quote from 1907.)

Information Sources

• C. H. Wendel's The Circular Sawmill lists this maker. Wendel quotes a 1905 catalog indicating that the company had been in business for "some 40 years".
• A search of U.S. patents from 1920 onwards turned up a single patent assigned to this firm: a 1920 patent for a "nozzle-header for a bottle-washing machine".
• The 1911 edition of Midland Publishing Company's The Implement Blue Book: The Standard Implement and Vehicle Directory of the United States has the following entry on this company.

  THE HENCH & DROMGOLD CO. President, S. Nevin Hench; Vice-President and General Manager, Walker A. Dromgold; Secretary and Treasurer, T. Edward Dromgold; Assistant Secretary, Nevin F. Hench.—Saw Mills, Engines, Grain Drills, Harrows, Cultivators, Planters, Etc.

• Hench & Dromgold Catalogue L, circa 1905
• History of York County, Pennsylvania, V1, 1907, pg.764