Looking back in Springfield: an agricultural empire began in the ‘Champion City’

Credit: HANDOUT

Credit: HANDOUT

William Whiteley built his agricultural empire with the Champion reaper and mower.

After his empire collapsed in the late 1880s, the production of the reapers continued at the Warder, Bushnell, & Glessner Co. on Lagonda Avenue.

Lathe operators are shown here working at the plant in 1899, where they produced reapers and mowers.

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