A 1913 16 HP Aultman-Taylor Traction Engine

Cornelius Aultman got an early start on his career. At the age of fourteen he went to work with an uncle as an apprentice millwright. For reasons not recorded this arrangement didn’t work out and he was back at the homestead a few months later. Laying around the house, plopped in front of the electronic sewer and sponging off the “rents” wasn’t a career option for a young man back in the early 1800’s, so Cornelius soon found himself in a new job at a shop that made spinning wheels. This venture proved more successful but he didn’t hit his stride until he spent two more years as an apprentice learning the machinist trade.

In 1851 he opened his own shop in Canton, Ohio under the name of the C. Aultman Company. This was a time when machines were revolutionizing agriculture and the western frontier was opening up. In 1862 the Homestead Bill offered 160 acres of land to any farmer who paid $10 down and pledged to farm the land for five years. This created a huge market for tools and equipment produced in shops like Aultman’s.  

Sometime around 1856 Henry H. Taylor entered the picture as a sales agent for C. Aultman Co. Taylor was a wheeler dealer who had already made a fortune in Chicago real estate, banking and insurance. Apparently Henry’s chief function as a partner in the new Aultman and Taylor Manufacturing Co. was to bring bags of cash, along with his numerous business connections, to the table. C. Aultman Co. had been working on a new design for a vibrating threshing machine and by 1867 a new factory to produce it had been constructed in Mansfield, Ohio. 

Threshing machines needed a power source to run them and the best option available was the steam engine. I have not been able to find a definite date of when exactly Aultman began building steam engines, but in Jack Norbeck’s  Encyclopedia of American Steam Traction Engines, examples from 1889 are the oldest shown. 

Engines were built under both the C. Aultman Co. and the Aultman Taylor brand name. Portable engines, steam traction engines and road locomotives were produced.  Horsepower ranged from 8 to 25 hp. Both simple and Compound engines were manufactured. All told, at least 5,870 engines were made before production ended in 1924. In addition to the steam engines they also built sawmills, windstackers, and horsepowers. 

By all accounts Aultman-Taylor made high quality products. Boilers were high pressure, rated for a working pressure of 150 psi and hydrostatic tested at 200 psi. An independent steel frame was used to mount the traction drive gearing and wheels. This isolated the boiler from the jolts and strains that was transmitted from the ground on traction engines that used the boiler itself as a frame. This design undoubtedly saved many a boiler from damage and stress due to everyday use and traveling the roads of the day. 

By the early 1920’s steam engines were rapidly being replaced for most applications by the internal combustion engine and electrification in many rural areas. Sales dwindled and Aultman - Taylor apparently failed to adapt to the new environment. The company faced liquidation by 1923 and it was eventually absorbed by Allis-Chalmers Co. 

You can find a detailed history of Aultman-Taylor Co. that was written by a Dr. Lorin Bixler and printed in the Nov. / Dec. 2000 issue of Farm Collector Magazine at their website. Collectors and history buffs will want to check out advertisements in a digitized version of The American Thresherman and Farm Power  from May 1915  available at Google Books. The 1913 16 horsepower Aultman Taylor traction engine shown in this post was photographed at the 2018 Steam Expo. at Cumming, Ga. presented by the Cumming Antique Power Association. www.capa-ga.com .

Resources:

Encyclopedia of American Steam Traction Engines by Jack Norbeck 

www.farmcollector.com 

https://books.google.com