Buckeye Traction Ditcher Company records

Collection – Multiple Containers

Identifier: MS-0380

Staff Only

Collection Overview

Abstract

Sales and instruction manuals, parts catalogs, customer information cards, newsclippings, and photographs documenting the Buckeye Traction Ditcher Company, collected by company sales manager William F. Wittenmyer.

Dates

Creation: 1900-1999, undated

Extent

25.25 Cubic Feet (54 legal manuscript boxes, 1 card box)

2 Items

Creator

Buckeye Traction Ditcher Company (Findlay, Ohio) (Organization)
Wittenmyer, William F. (Collector, Person)

Scope and Contents

The Buckeye Traction Ditcher Collection consists of various sales and instruction manuals, parts catalogs, photographs, customer information cards, and newsclippings, dating from the early 1900s to 1986. The collection, most of which was collected by William F. Wittenmyer, sales manager at Garwood, contains very little correspondence or other written material, which probably was destroyed when the company closed.

Biographical / Historical

The Buckeye Steam Ditcher Company was founded in Bowling Green, Ohio around 1893 by James B. Hill, who moved it to Deshler and Carey, Ohio before selling the company in 1902 to Van Buren, Heck & Marvin Co. At this time the firm moved to Findlay, Ohio, changing its name to the Buckeye Traction Ditcher Co. The firm has since switched ownership several times, including Garwood and Sergeant Industries. The company discontinued production in Findlay in 1973, although Ohio Locomotive Crane Company of Bucyrus is manufacturing a version of the machine. Buckeye's product line is still being marketed today by H & S Company, an agricultural drainage equipment dealer in Celina, Ohio.

As stated in an article on the Black Swamp in Northwest Ohio Quarterly, Summer 1984, "Buckeye Traction Ditcher Company grew into the largest tile ditching and construction trenching company in the world and remained so for over fifty years." The revolutionary design of the ditcher digging wheel had neither an axle nor spokes, enabling the machine to dig a deeper trench that was uniform in size and grade. In 1988 the American Society of Mechanical Engineers designated an early model of the ditcher, No.88, in the possession of the Hancock Historical Museum, an International Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark.

Conditions Governing Access

No known access restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Researchers using this collection assume full responsibility for conforming to the laws of libel, privacy, and copyright, and are responsible for securing permissions necessary for publication or reproduction.

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into the following series:

Correspondence, 1948-1971
Subject files, 1942-1970, 1999, undated
Literary productions, 1910
Printed material, 1914, 1920s-1969, undated
Photographs and motion picture film, circa 1920-1971, undated
Artifacts, 1958-1964, undated

Related Materials

Additional information can be found in a 1987 interview (MMS-1014) with Fred Baird, a Buckeye Traction Ditcher Company employee, conducted by Chris Haley and Susan Hughes in 1987. In addition, the Goldie Hill Dawson papers (MMS-1026) contain information on James B. Hill, inventor of the Buckeye Traction Ditcher.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The donation and transfer of these records to the Center for Archival Collections was arranged through the cooperation of Susan W. Wittenmyer, spouse of William F. Wittenmyer, on October 6, 1984. William Wittenmyer had been the former sales manager of Buckeye Traction Ditcher Co. Additions were received in September and November 1988 from Mrs. Wittenmyer.

Processing Information

Preliminary processing of the collection was done by Chris Haley in 1985. The finding aid was completed by Marilyn Levinson, Curator of Manuscripts in April 1995.