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By Sally Ryman
Rushford Area
Historical Society
Rushford became an industrial center in southeastern Minnesota with the arrival of the railroad. The Rushford Wagon, widely acclaimed throughout the Midwest, was perhaps most representative of the many significant and diversified manufacturers in the early years. Thanks to Dr. Alden Droivold’s History of Rushford, we know how the Rushford Wagon evolved.
In 1869, H.W. Holmes opened a wagon and carriage factory in Rushford. In 1871, A.J. Stevens joined him in the Rushford Wagon and Carriage Manufactory. By 1872, they had completed six sleighs that sold for $125.00 to $150.00, e.g. rich velvet lining and elaborate painting. By the spring of 1873, Stevens and Holmes merged with Albertson and Laugen and formed the Rushford Wagon Factory Company.
In 1874, the editor of the Rushford Star toured the wagon factory. Following is a summary of that tour.
The three-story drying house held the finest Michigan and Indiana hickory and hard maple and Wisconsin oak lumber. The main wagon factory was across the alley and built with limestone with a fireproof roof. The engine room contained a 30-horsepower engine to run the machines. Every wheel is soaked in hot linseed oil to fill the wood pores and prevent any absorption of water to keep the iron rim tight for eight to ten years. From the machine shop, the assembled woodwork was sent to the blacksmith shop. The room over the blacksmith shop was devoted to painting – three heavy coats of paint, trimmings and a coat of varnish.
By 1878, the Rushford Wagon Factory was the largest manufacturing concern of its kind in the state. In the first half of that year, they sold 502 wagons and expected to sell 1000 by year’s end, plus many light wagons and bobsleds. They employed 37 people. It had become the most important business in the city and had a nationwide reputation for quality products.
FIRE! RUSHFORD WAGON FACTORY IN RUINS was the headline on September 7, 1879. The fire was noticed about 2 a.m. by local women awakened by the light. They ran through the streets yelling “fire!” and a crowd ran to the Rushford Wagon Factory. The heat was so intense that few went in.
Without fire equipment, little could be done. Although the cause wasn’t not positively known, spontaneous combustion due to the quantity of paints and varnishes was suspected. The owners had $8,000 of insurance. However, the total loss was estimated at about $30,000, and the Rushford Wagon Factory was not rebuilt. The fire was a great calamity to the owners and employees – and an economic blow to the community.
Following the fire, the Stevens family moved to Winona where Mr. Stevens formed the Winona Wagon Factory with local investors. They continued to make Rushford Wagons under the logo: “Good timber, bone dry.”
In Rushford, wagon production resumed in 1892 with a new Rushford Wagon Company when three Miller brothers rebuilt the interior of the wagon factory building. Auto and farm implement sales gradually supplanted wagon production, which stopped in 1939.
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