Cockshutt attends the plowing record attempt

Manitoba Agricultural Museum release

A surprise visitor, Mr. William Cockshutt, made an appearance during the plowing record set at the Manitoba Agricultural Museum on Aug. 1, 2010. Mr. Cockshutt heard that the basis of the record-breaking plow were Cockshutt engine plows which were built by the company his family founded in Brantford, Ontario in 1877. So a visit to catch the action was in order for Mr. Cockshutt. The museum was very pleased by Mr. Cockshutt’s attendance and was honoured by his agreement to drop the ceremonial first bottom for the record run.

William Cockshutt sits on a Cockshutt engine plow Aug. 1 at the Manitoba Agricultural Museum. The beam that connected the engine plows together to form the record-breaking plow can be seen to the right, along with two of the five Rumely Model ‘E’ tractors used to pull the plow on the record-breaking run. (Manitoba Agricultural Museum photo)

William Cockshutt is the great-grandson of Ignatius Cockshutt who funded his son, James Cockshutt, in a venture called the Brantford Plow Works which grew into the Cockshutt Plow Company. Unfortunately this son, James, died at an early age. Another son, William Cockshutt, at that point briefly became president of the company. The William Cockshutt who visited the museum for the plowing event is the grandson of this man. By 1888, the presidency of the company had passed to yet another son, Frank Cockshutt.

The Cockshutt Plow Co. was very much a family affair, with Cockshutts of various generations being employed by the company in various capacities and a Cockshutt serving as company president up to 1958. Cockshutt was wholly owned by the Cockshutt family up to 1911, when it was taken public with a share offering. However the Cockshutt family retained enough shares to retain control of the company.

Cockshutt survived through the 1920s, which saw tremendous consolidation of the early farm machinery manufacturers, and through the 1930s, a difficult decade for farmers and the farm machinery industry as a result of the economic depression and droughts of the 1930s.

Cockshutt did not usually sell the most implements of any one category; rather, it was usually in second or third place in sales. Cockshutt survived through conservative management and attention to detail. This conservative approach is seen in the Cockshutt purchase of equipment from other manufacturers for resale in Cockshutt dealerships. While potential profits from a strategy of purchasing equipment from other firms were less, the risks involved were less as well.

Cockshutt concentrated on building plows, tillage and seeding equipment and sourced implements from other Ontario manufacturers to fill out its line of equipment. Cockshutt purchased equipment such as threshing machines, balers, grinding mills and potato diggers from Ontario manufacturers such as the Waterloo Separator Co., Admiral, Goold, Shapley and Muir, and Apinwall. The Cockshutt Co. also owned an interest in the Frost and Wood Co., which built haying and harvesting equipment, including binders. Cockshutt sold this line of equipment through their dealership network. Cockshutt purchased the Frost and Wood company outright in the 1930s.

Cockshutt sold tractors in Canada for U.S. tractor companies: Hart Parr thorough the 1920s, Allis-Chalmers 1928 to 1932, and Oliver from 1932 onward. While the first Olivers sold by Cockshutt were in Oliver colours, later tractors were repainted into Cockshutt colours of red and yellow. When the Model 60 and 70 were introduced in Canada, not only were they painted in Cockshutt colours, The Cockshutt brand was embossed into the nose tin, plus Cockshutt was cast into the rear axle.

Cockshutt developed its own line of tractors and combines during the Second World War and began selling them after the war. Cockshutt tractors introduced the "live" PTO, an innovation very welcomed by farmers.

The Cockshutt Company also owned the Adams Wagon Company and Brantford Carriage Company which were rolled into the Brantford Coach and Body Co. Cockshutt wound up as the last survivor of the Canadian carriage industry, which may sound like an unenviable position, but carriage builders also built auto bodies. With the automotive industry taking off, Brantford Coach and Body proved to be a consistently profitable venture for Cockshutt by building truck cabs and boxes for the auto companies.

In 1958, Cockshutt was recognized as a company whose share price did not reflect the true value of the company. Enough shares had slipped out of the hands of the Cockshutt family that outside interests were able to buy sufficient shares to gain seats on the board of directors and put their own person in as president. However, it soon became apparent that the newcomers were not terribly interested in running a farm machinery company, but were interested in extracting the maximum value out of Cockshutt — even if meant breaking up the company.

In 1962 the farm equipment side of Cockshutt was sold to the White Motor Co., which had just recently purchased Oliver. Brantford Coach and Body was sold to Trailmobile in 1965. Probably the shareholders through these sales earned double the share value in 1958. The dark side was that the Cockshutt pensioners lost their pensions with the demise of Cockshutt.

William began in the marketing department of Cockshutt in 1950 and worked in various locations in Western Canada. From 1960 to 1962 William was the manager of the Kansas City branch. In 1962 Oliver, having purchased Cockshutt, terminated most of the Cockshutt employees including William. William continued his career in the farm machinery business as a senior officer with Allied Farm Equipment until that company was sold in the 1980s.