As early as 1857, Alexander Rickard (also spelled Rickart, Ricket, and Rickets) was granted a patent on a hub lathe for making carriage wheels. He also received patents for various types of agricultural machinery. There is no direct evidence that he manufactured these products, though we suspect that he did. In 1870 he co-founded the Schoharie Valley Machine Company. We have not found any direct evidence of what the company manufactured but we presume it included at least some of the items patented by Rickard. In any event, the company did not seem to last beyond 1873.

A directory published in 1873 listed the Schoharie machine shop of Rickard & Cary. Since John E. Cary was one of the partners in Schoharie Valley Machine Company, it is likely that Rickard & Cary was a successor (or perhaps a predecessor) to the Schoharie Valley Machine Company.

Information Sources

• Patent 17,846 was awarded 1857-07-21 to Alexander Rickart of Schoharie, N. Y., for a "method of turning carriage-hubs".
• Patent 111,975 was awarded 1871-07-25 to Alexander Rickard of Schoharie, N. Y., for a plow.
• Boyd's New York State Directory for 1872-1874 lists under Schoharie, "Rickard & Cary, machine shop, n. depot."
• Hamilton Child's Gazetteer and business directory of Schoharie County, N.Y. for 1872-3 lists "Rickard, Alexander, (Schoharie,) (Schoharie Valley Machine Co.) The entry for Schoharie Valley Machine Co. lists "Geo. D. and Alex. Rickard, John E. Cary and David D. Bouck."
• Awards at the thirty-third annual exhibition of the New York Agricultural Society, Albany, NY, October 1873: Alexander Rickets, Schoharie, C. H., N. Y., patent hub lathe: Bronze Medal.
• Awards at the Thirty-sixth annual Fair of the New York State Agricultural Society, Albany, NY, September 1876: Alexander Ricket, Schoharie, N. Y., friction damping arrangement of wheel-horse hay-rake. Certificate of high merit.
• A lawsuit involved this company, Cary v. Schoharie Valley Machine Company, and the original verdict, for Cary, was appealed. The following is summarized from The New York Supreme Court Reports for June to November 1874. The company was in business from about 1870 until February 13, 1872. At that point the old company was ended and a new company of the same name was formed, with more capital and additional members. One of the original stockholders, John E. Cary, sued that firm after it ceased doing business, because he was owed money. He was successful in that suit, but then the company appealed the decision on the grounds that the original company was already dissolved. The New York Supreme Court rejected that argument, saying that the original company had ceased doing business but was not dissolved, and found for Cary and awarded him costs. The amount of money in dispute, by the way, was $176.67.