The Iron Mule: May 2020

Nothing unusual about seeing a Farmall M at a show. From 1939 until 1952 International Harvester churned out more than 290,000 copies as M, MD, MDV, and MV variants . What sets this one apart is the road grader on the front. At first I thought it was an aftermarket item, like other attachments. Now I’m not sure what the story of this machine is.

The road grader was manufactured by the Trojan Speed Patrol Company located in Batavia, NY. Trojan is another of those firms that have vanished without a trace, at least as far as information available on the internet is concerned. One comment left on yesterdaystractors.com offered that Trojan bought the Farmall M’s from International Harvester and then converted them, but no information that would back up this claim was provided.

The North Carolina Equipment Company, on the other hand, has better documentation. Formed as a partnership between A.E. Finley, H.A. Mooneyham, and J.M. Gregory in 1928, it operated as a sales agent for Caterpillar Tractors. In 1931 they added machines produced by Galion Iron Works & Manufacturing Co. As the years rolled by Finley managed to secure sales agent rights for other product lines that included International Harvester, Euclid Road Machinery Co. , Bucyrus-Erie Co. Jaeger Machinery Co. and probably others. I did not, however, find any reference to Trojan. Does that mean that the Speed Patrols were sourced from International Harvester?

NC Equipment Co. began with its main office and plant located in Raleigh, NC, but it quickly expanded its operations with branch offices in Charlotte, Wilmington and Asheville. Before long, it wasn’t just the NC Equipment Co. Finley established branch offices in Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

Back in 1928 when the company was founded it was an equal partnership, with each of the three amigos contributing $3,500 to the startup capital. It didn’t stay that way for long.

Finley was the driving force behind the company and soon enough he was micromanaging every aspect of the business. Oddly, the other two partners didn’t seem to mind. Mooneyham and Gregory even agreed that Finley should receive 25% of the net profits each year in addition to his salary.

Business was booming. By 1940 total net sales amounted to $1,729,299. In 1941 they jumped to $3,572,325. In 1940 Finley’s compensation was $39,034, in 1941 it increased to $102,254. It was about this time that things hit the skids.

Like many a wheeler dealer before and since, Finley soon found himself in trouble with the tax man. In 1945 the case of NC Equipment Co. Vs. Commissioner was heard in United States Tax Court and recorded in Docket No. 4737 for deficiencies in income and excess profits tax. The complete document can be found online at www.leagle.com .

So did Finley’s brush with the IRS lead to the demise of the NC Equipment Co.? Not a bit of it. The tax man might have brought down Al Capone but he was no match A.E. Finley. His company would remain a fixture of the Raleigh business community for more than a half a century and Finley went on to become an icon of the Chamber of Commerce set and widely regarded as a pillar of the community.

In 1956 Finley decided to pass the baton to the next generation of leadership and sold his interest in the company to W.C. Calton who was one of the original minority shareholders and a lifelong employee of the company. Calton would run the company until his death in 1990 and leave his interest in it to his wife and children. This proved to be fatal for the company because years of chaotic mismanagement were to follow. By 2001 the NC Equipment Co. was bankrupt and the remaining assets were liquidated and Finley’s empire faded into history.