Moline Wagon Company

In the early twentieth century, the Moline Wagon Company was the largest wagon manufacturer in the world. Its founder, James First, opened the wagon shop in 1854, and in 1869 sold it to Morris Rosenfield, who formed [Charles] Benser, Rosenfield and Company, with fifty employees. Buildings were enlarged and the named changed to the Moline Wagon Company in 1871. In 1881, Rosenfield began to distribute wagons through John Deere branch houses, having himself bought in interest in Deere, Wells & Company, Deere’s Omaha branch. By 1908, the company was capitalized at $600,000, employing 500 workers with an average annual output of more 30,000 wagons. It was said that a new wagon was built every six minutes. John Deere bought the Moline Wagon Company in 1910.

-Historic Rock Island County, Kramer & Company, Publishers and Engravers, 1908.
-Ralph Hughes, John Deere Buggies and Wagons (American Society of Agricultural Engineers 1995)

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