Champion Machine Company
 Champion Reaping and Mowing Machines Brochure |
The Champion Machine Company was the largest producer of agricultural machinery in the world during the late nineteenth century. It was located in Springfield, Ohio.
In 1852, Andrew Whiteley opened the Whiteley and Fassler Company, a manufacturing establishment for farm implements in Springfield. William Whiteley, his son, also joined the business. William eventually assumed control of the company and renamed it the Champion Machine Company.
Under William Whiteley, the Champion Machine Company flourished. Whiteley received forty-two patents for his farming inventions. In 1882, Whiteley opened a new plant in Springfield. It was the largest factory of its kind in the entire world. It was eight hundred by twelve hundred feet. The Champion Machine Company actually owned fifty-four acres of land in Springfield, and by the mid 1870s, employed more than two thousand workers.
The Champion Machine Company was the largest producer of farming implements in the world by the 1880s. The firm manufactured more than twelve thousand reapers each year during this time. Whiteley eventually sold the Champion Machine Company to Warder, Bushnell & Glessner. In 1902, Whiteley's former business became part of the International Harvester Company.