Dirt and Iron
The Industrial Revolution in the Delta
Case Study: Holt Brothers Manufacturing
Perhaps the most influential of Stockton’s industrialists was Benjamin Holt, of the Holt Brothers Manufacturing Company. In 1883 Benjamin Holt and his brothers William Harrison, Ames, and Charles opened the Stockton Wheel Company, which focused on constructing wheels, and later harvesters for wheat agriculture.
One major geographical problem with California wheat agriculture was that harvesters at the time could not work efficiently on hillsides. To solve this challenge, Benjamin Holt designed a suspension system that allowed for the wheels to be independently adjusted, as part of his “Side Hill Harvester.” Holt received a patent for his Side Hill Harvester in 1892. You can observe the challenges of wheat harvesting on a slope below:
Benjamin Holt’s second major innovation was also geographically motivated. The California Delta, comprising the western half of San Joaquin County, is today one of the most important regions for growing fruits, nuts, and vegetables in the Country. One reason for this, the rich peat soil, made of decomposed vegetation, also makes it incredibly difficult to farm. The soil is so soft and spongey that many people and machines, even today, get stuck!
Convinced of the need for a traction engine capable of moving through soft soils, Benjamin Holt built a track-laying crawler, known today as a tractor, so as to avoid the possibility of wheels getting stuck. The first Holt tractor was tested on November 24, 1904, and by 1906 the tractor was being sold around the Country to agricultural companies in wetland areas, such as Louisiana, Washington, and Wisconsin. Holt received a patent for his creation in 1907, and another patent for creating a gasoline-powered tractor in 1908.
The work of the Holt Manufacturing company in the early 1900s was primarily geared toward solving local problems in agriculture. The success of their inventions led to dramatic expansion of the Holt Company, and by 1915 the Holt Plant had over 1,000 workers, and over 2,000 tractors, branded as “Caterpillar” crawlers, were in service around the world in at least 20 countries.
During World War I, the Holt Manufacturing Company in Stockton was used heavily by the American and French armies for hauling artillery through swampy and muddy areas along the Western Front. According to some historians, Holt supplied over 60% of the tractors used during the war. In 1912, the US Army officially partnered with the Holt Manufacturing Company. Over the next eight years, the US military would let sixty-six contracts to Holt, and the company produced approximately 2,950 tractors for the army. Research and development conducted by the Holt Manufacturing Company also led to the creation of the modern tank, which gave the company much public acclaim.
After the war, Holt Manufacturing took advantage of the positive publicity it garnered from its support of the military. For four years, sales remained high. Unfortunately for the company, by 1923 local agriculture in the Delta had become more focused on specialty crops such as asparagus and cherries that did not require a tractor, and the local market for Holt tractors declined considerably. Holt’s second plant, in Peoria, Illinois, still maintained large sales after the war, and by 1925 the Holt Manufacturing Company had merged with the C.L. Best Tractor Company of San Leandro, and moved to Illinois. The new company, Caterpillar, would become the largest producers of tractors in the world for most of the 20th century.
