This firm began as the one-man operation of G. M. Seymour in 1861 when Mr. Seymour won a contract to use prison labor in making barrels. Two years later he took W. Webster as a partner, and three years after that, in 1866, W. Willim became a partner. The firm operated as Seymour, Webster & Co., until the contract expired in 1869. A new partnership was formed under the name of Seymour, Sabin & Co., which included Dwight M. Sabin. In 1874 the business incorporated with Sabin as president and Seymour as vice-president. In 1875 or '76 the company introduced a new threshing machine, the Minnesota Chief, which became central to the company's future success.

By this time the company was making agricultural implements, farm engines, sawmills, and drilling machines, along with a variety of wood products such as furniture, sash and doors, and wagons. By 1881 the business was one of the largest employers in that part of the country.

In May of 1882, Sabin and some outside investors created the North Western Manufacturing and Car Co., which proceeded to absorb Seymour, Sabin & Co. The prison-labor arrangement continued, supplemented by a large contingent of "civilian" workers. Two fires in 1884 heavily damaged the prison complex where the company's works were located, and reconstruction was not completed until mid-1886. The company was forced into receivership and seems to have disappeared in 1888 or thereabouts. One source says that the company was absorbed into local competitor Minnesota Thresher Manufacturing Co., with the resulting firm being the Northwest Thresher Co.

Information Sources

• Encyclopedia of American Steam Traction Engines by Jack Norbeck, 1975 page 47
• Annual Report of the Commissioner on the Statistics of Minnesota, V8, 1877,page 156:

  A number of enterprising Minnesotians, appreciating the magnitude of the business arising out of the sale and consumption of threshers, and the advantages to be derived to the state from having its threshing machines manufactured at home, and also the great importance of having a machine that would separate from the straw, whatever the condition the straw may be in, all the kernels of grain, and thus give the farmer the whole, fruit of his labors, commenced under the corporate name of Seymour, Sabin & Co., at Stillwater, Minn., in 1875, the manufacture of the Minnesota Chief. This is a thresher of Minnesota invention, as well as manufacture, and is acknowledged to be simple in construction, of easy draft, and as a separating, and grain saving machine, surpassed by none. It was awarded the first premium at the Minnesota State Fair, in 1876, and in many a field had proved itself a "Chief of Threshers."

  The company commenced with the manufacture of a small number, and having added improvements each year, is now developing a large business, and is extending its operations into all the northwestern states. The past year it manufactured and sold one hundred machines, not supplying half the demand, and is now building three hundred for the trade of 1877. This number will be largely increased from year to year. These gentlemen have invested a capital of $325,000 ill the business, and are already beginning to reap the fruits of their enterprise and sagacity.

  Enterprises like this are of great importance to our State, as they will keep within its borders a large part of the money heretofore sent abroad for the purchase of these indispensable machines. It is estimated that the number of threshing machines annually sold in the State averages about 600. At the retail price for which the Minnesota Chief is sold, viz., $650 each, the total outlay for threshers each year would be the large sum of $390,000; and this would be increased by the $50 to $100 additional price asked for most of the other machines.

  Such manufacturers of agricultural implements should be encouraged by all citizens of the State, as they furnish a market for the hard wood timber, so abundant in our forests, and give employment to hundreds of mechanics, who in their turn build up our villages and cities, thus making a home market for the various productions of the farmer, and thus all will work together for the common good of the whole State.

• The Steam Tractor Encyclopedia by John F. Spalding & Robert T. Rhode, 2011 pages 260-275
• From History of Washington County and the St. Croix Valley, by Edward D. Neill, 1881:

  G. M. Seymour is a native of Onondaga county, New York, born March 26th, 1829. He passed his early life on a farm, and in 1845 commenced learning the carpenter’s trade. Four years later he engaged in the manufacture of lumber and staves, and soon after in the manufacture of salt, in what is now a part of Syracuse, continuing for five years. In 1855 he again engaged as architect and builder; three years later came to Stillwater, still following his trade. In 1861 was awarded the prison contract, and engaged in making cooperage. In 1863 he took as partner W. Webster, and continued three years, when Mr. W. Willim became a partner, the firm name being Seymour, Webster and Company, until the expiration of the contract, which was in 1869. The same year a new copartnership was formed under the title of Seymour, Sabin and Company; and was incorporated in 1874 with the title of “The Manufacturing Corporation of Seymour, Sabin and Company," with Dwight M. Sabin president, and G. M. Seymour vice-president. Mr. Seymour has held the office of sheriff of this county two years, and has been for eight years past member of the city council. During the late war he was provost marshal three years. He has an interest in several silver mines in Leadville, which occupy much of his time. Miss Anna B. Kingsley became his wife in 1851. Frank A., their only son, is now cashier of the First National bank of Stillwater. Marian 0., their only daughter, graduated with high honors in 1880 from Mount Holyoke Seminary.

  In a section of the book on manufacturers is the following.

  AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.

  Seymour, Sabin and Company. The manufacturing interests of this company, conducted in the state prison, have grown to mammoth proportions. The first contractors for the convict labor, were Seymour and Willim, at a time when the inmates of the institution numbered but seventeen.

  In the spring of 1868, they were succeeded by Seymour, Sabin and Company, the firm consisting of George M. Seymour, one of the early settlers of Stillwater, and also one of the first contractors for the convict labor, and D. M. and J. H. Sabin, who had recently arrived from one of the eastern states and settled in Minnesota. The firm at this time employed about forty convicts and an equal number of citizen help in the manufacture of doors, sash, blinds, tubs, buckets and cooperage.

  The partnership continued, the business in the meantime steadily increasing, until July, 1874, when the company felt the necessities of more capital to meet the demands of their growing trade, and formed a joint stock company, incorporating under the name of Seymour, Sabin and Company. They soon after commenced the manufacture of the threshing-machine, which, under their management, has become so justly celebrated, and has taken the front rank in the thresher family, until to-day the “Minnesota Chief” has a world-wide reputation, and its manufacturers have placed on the market more machines in a single year than any other manufactory in the world.

  In addition to this extensive industry, they also do an aggregate business of over a quarter of a million dollars annually in doors, sash, cooperage, general office and bank fixtures, and furniture of all kinds in that line. They have also established an extensive machine and boiler-shop, for the manufacture of portable farm engines, of which three hundred are being placed on the market the present year.

  The firm has on its pay-rolls upward of six hundred men, being the largest of any single corporation in the state of Minnesota or the North-west. In 1876, J. H. Sabin, the junior member and secretary of the company, was removed by death, the firm thus sustaining an irreparable loss by being deprived of the assistance and counsel of one of the brightest and most promising young men of the West. Although but twenty-seven years of age, he had acquired a standing and reputation in_the business world, achieved by but few men of greater age. He was succeeded in the concern by W. S. Goodhue, of Polo, Illinois, who has since been secretary, of the company, and takes entire charge of the general and field agents, of whom there is a multitude, in the interest of the “Minnesota Chief” thresher and other manufactures. Major J . H. Elward, formerly of the St. Paul Harvester Works, holds the position of general superintendent of the machine department, and is also the patentee of a number of valuable improvements on the threshing machine and horsepowers, likewise a traction and straw-burning engine which seems destined to go to tho front and prove a profitable investment for the company, as well as a boon to the wheat raisers on the boundless prairies, where wood and coal is so expensive and difficult; to obtain, and straw, which is a burden, is better and easier used for fuel than any other method of disposition.

  George M. Seymour holds the office of vice president and takes general charge of their building and outside operations, of which the company has enough to make a very large business of itself. The president, H. M. Sabin, has held this responsible position from the time the company was organized, succeeding from the old firm to the same position in the corporation, involving the general and financial management of a concern whose monthly pay-roll may be counted by a score of thousands, and whose annual business far exceeds a million dollars.

  This company until last year has been largely interested in the lumber business, having one of the most efficient and best appointed saw-mills on the St. Croix river. This, however, has been sold to the “C. N. Nelson Lumber Company,” one of the most extensive lumber corporations in the Northwest, in which Mr. Sabin is one of the leading spirits. We here give a description of each department in these extensive works:

  Office. On the first floor of the prison building, and to the right of the main entrance, is located Seymour, Sabin & Co.’s offices, in which a large force of book-keepers and accountants are constantly employed.

  Foundry. This building is 85x120 feet, and contains two sixty inch cupolas, in which are melted twelve tons of iron per day. A forty horse~power engine adjoins the foundry, which furnishes power to run the cupola, fans and other machinery. In addition to the necessary amount of casting for the works, a large amount of job work is done for parties in the city. Sixty-two men are on the pay-roll in this department.

  Machine shops. This department occupies a room 48x112 feet and two stories. Eighty-five men are here employed, who operate the following described machinery: two planers, four bolt cutters, four longitudinal boring machines, eight upright drill presses, one boring bar, manufactured in the shop, and used for boring cylinders, one gang-drill machine, used for drilling cylinder bars; it drills eleven holes at once, and is one of the most useful machines in the establishment; one fifteen-inch stamping machine, fourteen vises, one full set of steel shell reamers, and gauge rings, ranging in size from five-eighths, to two and a half inches, one single and two double milling machines, one punching machine, three key-seating machines, and thirty-four turning-lathes. New machinery is being constantly added to this department.

  Blacksmith shop. This building is 40x80 feet. Fourteen forges are in constant use, and about thirty men are employed. The shop contains one trip-hammer, one bolt-heading machine, capable of making six thousand bolts per day, large punches, shears, and all other necessary machinery.

  Hard and soft wood shops. In these shops are prepared all the wood work for the “separators” and horse-powers. There is one double surfacing machine, one tongue and grooving machine, one “Daniels” planer, one gang boring machine, circular saws, and a large amount of heavy machinery such as is generally used in working hard wood. From fifty-five to sixty men are employed in the two shops, which adjoin each other.

  Wagon shop. In this building is made all the running gear for the separators, horse-powers and farm engines. It is 40x80 feet, and is well fitted up with all the latest improvements for setting axle skeins, turning spokes, gauge lathes, etc. About fifteen men are employed in this department.

  Setting-up room. This room is 65xl04 feet, and twenty-five men are employed in the different departments. Here all the separators and horsepowers are set up, the material being all prepared in the other departments and delivered here in bulk. The labor of setting up the separators is ingeniously divided into seven departments, the machine being moved along as fast as each set of men complete their part of the work. When they are finished, both separators and horse-powers are run from a half an hour to an hour, so that any inaccuracy in the mechanism may be detected before leaving this room. They are then run on an elevator and hoisted to the paint shop, which is directly over the setting-up room, and where the machines are made ready for market. Upwards of thirty men are employed in this department.

  Farm engine shop. This building is 40x112 feet. Twenty-five men are employed in the various departments of this shop, which is well supplied with flexible drills, forges, and all other machinery necessary to complete the machines with neatness and dispatch.

  Belt shop. This adjoins the paint shop and gives employment to ten men, who manufacture the conveyancer, stacker, and all other belts used on the various machines manufactured, and also for use in the works.

  Planing mill. This department gives employment to eight men, and contains all the machinery, such as surfacing, moulding, flooring machines, etc., usually found in a well appointed planing mill.

  The carpenter and cabinet shop occupies a room 64x2l0 feet and furnishes employment to eighty-six men. Here are manufactured sash, doors, blinds, and all kinds of bank and office furniture, besides a large amount of brackets, scrolls and other builders’ furnishings. One hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of goods are manufactured in this department annually.

  Pattern shop. Eight men are employed here in the preparation of patterns for the horsepowers, separators and other machinery in process of construction. The shop is 30x-10 feet.

  Cooper shop. These shops occupy two floors of a building 24x150 feet. The manufactures are principally pork and flour barrels. About forty men are employed, and six hundred barrels per day are turned out of the shops.

  Fire department. Extensive precautionary measures have been taken to guard against a serious conflagration in the works. On the hill which overlooks the prison yard, a reservoir has been built with a capacity of four thousand five hundred barrels, which is supplied by a Blake's duplex direct acting pump. This reservoir affords a pressure of seventy-five pounds to the square inch. Located at different points in the works are upwards of fifty hose-valves, to each of which attached from fifty to one hundred feet of hose, in condition for use at a moments warning. The city water works are also attached to these pipes, by which, at a moments notice, by the simple opening of a valve, the entire supply and pressure of an inexhaustible supply of water can be turned on.

  Engine and boiler room. The vast field of machinery described in the foregoing article is kept in motion by two engines, located in an engine room 30x45 feet. The larger of the two is an Allis-Corliss, with a twenty-six inch cylinder and forty-eight inch stroke, and three hundred and fifty horse-power. The fly-wheel is twenty feet in diameter, with a forty inch face, and weighs forty thousand pounds. The smaller engine has a twenty-four inch cylinder and thirty inch stroke, and one hundred and fifty horse-power. The boiler room is 30x40 feet and contains six tubular boilers of five hundred and fifty horse-power.

  Besides the above mentioned working force, a large number of men are employed in the capacities of engineers, firemen, night-watchmen, repairers, teamsters, loaders, etc.