Baker & Sons Equipment Company
(Baker & Sons Equipment Co.)
A.D. Baker was born in Ohio in 1861 and around the turn of the century he produced his first steam traction engine. These included many innovative features and were instantly recognizable in their bright blue and silver livery. Sensing the growing interest in tractors, but not fully anticipating the appeal of liquid fuels, Baker built a range of steam-powered "tractors" for many years, Eventually, however, he followed other gas tractor pioneers and produced a series of powerful and well-respected machines. These tractors were consistently under-rated, and at the Nebraska tests in 1929 the 25-50 model actually produced 43hp on the drawbar and 67hp on the belt!
History
Baker & Sons Equipment Company was founded by John Baker in 1958, then primarily to cater to the area's agricultural interests. Baker & Sons Equipment Co. began carrying major brand equipment in 1961 beginning with Massey Ferguson and then New Holland and Bush Hog agricultural equipment. In the 1970's we took a major leap into the logging equipment industry with Franklin skidders, Hood knuckleboom loaders and Hydro-Ax brush cutters. As products were needed by the local industries and as Baker & Sons identified a market for them, they were added to our lines. In more recent years we have added many other respected equipment brands such as Kuhn, Kuhn Knight and Landpride, just to name a few of the agricultural lines. We have also been a successful forestry/landclearing dealer for the Duratech, Pitts,
Rotobec, Sneller, CTR and CSI equipment lines. "Our customers are the backbone of our business and are very important to us, therefore, we are dedicated to providing them with dependable, low maintenance equipment."
Baker & Sons Equipment Co.'s logging and industrial equipment is managed by Greg Baker who is also the President of Baker & Sons Equipment Co. Greg Christy has been taking care of customers in the southeastern part of Ohio and West Virginia since 1988 and specializes in the Hood knuckleboom loader and Franklin skidder lines. Vaughn Christy covers the northern section of Ohio and is specialized in the Duratech grinder and
Prentice Hydro-Ax lines. Frank Winland is a longtime employee who joined our sales force in 2003. Frank is responsible for the southern part of Ohio and is very knowledgeable with all of our equipment lines.
Steve Baker now manages the agricultural product lines and the buying and selling of new and used agricultural equipment.
Steve is available to answer questions regarding our agricultural equipment lines and if needed he can also arrange a demonstration of selected units.
Our Parts Manager, Joyce Johnson handles customer's requests for agricultural, forestry and industrial parts with the assistance of
Jeff Schnegg and Kevin Marshall, who also manages our used parts department. We are committed to finding the best quality and most affordable parts for our customers and stress having a large inventory of original equipment parts and used parts for agricultural, forestry and land clearing equipment.
Our service department, managed by Mike Kuhn and Pam Griffith, has factory trained mechanics who handle all major repairs and rebuilds, including transmissions, rear ends and engines. Pam is also kept busy lining up service commitments and scheduling out our fleet of delivery and service trucks which are equipped and ready for service calls at all times.
Financing and leasing have become a very pertinent part of our agricultural, logging and industrial equipment departments' success. This allows our customers to make monthly payments to free up their cash flow. Baker & Sons Equipment Co. utilizes various finance companies as well as local banks and can offer a wide array of payments terms such as monthly, semiannual, annual and skip payments.
A. D. BAKER Steam Traction
(Last Baker)
A. D. BAKER HISTORY
This picture was taken at the
James Whitbey Show, 1954.
A. D. BAKER HISTORY
LEROY W. BAKER
May/June 1956
ABNER D. BAKER, SON of Samuel and Lydia Baker was born March 17, 1861 near Fredericktown, Knox County, Ohio. When 15 years of age he moved with his parents to a farm a few miles east of Swanton, Ohio.
He had a common school education, and when he was 23 years old went to Akron, Ohio, and worked as a machinist in the Empire Reaper Works about three years. From there he went to Erie, Pennsylvania, and worked one year in the Erie City Iron Works. From there he went to Detroit, Michigan, where he worked in the Frontier Iron Works about three months.
At this time he returned to Lucas County and started a repair shop on his father's farm in the country. He conducted a prosperous business there for a few years, and in 1895 he opened a similar shop in Swanton.
He conducted the Swanton business as a repair shop until 1901, when it was incorporated under the name of the A. D. Baker Company and they engaged in the manufacture of steam traction engines. Mr. Baker had already built five traction engines as a personal business enterprise before he organized the stock company.
In April 1886, Mr. Baker married Ella Berkebile, and in 1891 a son, Louis R. Baker was born who was the mechanical engineer of the company.
Abner D. Baker was a widower many years before his death on June 17, 1953.
The A. D. Baker Company enjoyed many years of prosperity under the able management of Abner and Louis Baker. In one of their most prosperous years they built a fine modern brick home about 40 rods south of the factory, or just across the New York Central double track railroad.
Read more: http://steamtraction.farmcollector.com
