J.I.Case Company

There are many like me here,remember how huge the company was,,tell your stories,,my Dad never second guess the Case company,,that was when....solid meant,,ok he was a Patton man

Dad said parts were high priced, he said if you could get something that was the same for example a belt from some other company it was usually cheaper, in reading books on the company history it appears as the company was completely mis- managed at the upper levels

IMHO todays sentiment has evolved to , Everyone Loves the tractor,, But would nt give a hoot in hidlyville for the brass at the company

I have to say my friend,,I disagree,as people ran the company,,,they gave a d__.They did.I watched.

Doug,you know it was all out there,Case was trying to make money,and a belt,,well you know
Case had belts that were high above what the little guys had.No question in my mind.

I agree. Even when Tenneco took over no one cared about the ag side of the company. Tenneco was always looking for a rich buyer.

Doug,
Before becoming President of Case co.Clausen was a High ranking superentendant of the Milwaukee Rail Road in charge of the Chicago division. In 1912 he resigned, saying that the Fed gov. was making" a political invasion of the railroad business" After his resignation he went to work for Major Andrus, (John Deere) and sent to manage the factory in Ottumwa Iowa. He moved up the JD ladder to become the Vise President of Mfg. In 1924 he accepted an offer to become president of the J.I. Case Threshing Machine Co. He was a bit of a tyrant in his convictions on how a business should be run,to become a leader. He singlhandedly Built the company's manufacturing baseby aquiring Emerson-Brantingham, (The Rock Island Plow Company) in Ill. and also aquired plants in Bettendorf, Io, Annison, Al.,and Stockton, Cal.
He was also instrumental in the Bold new Flambeau colored Case tractors and equipment and the world recognized Case Logo "OLD ABE" on top of the world, replacing the eagle on a limb. In 1948 Clausen was replaced by a new president, Theodore Johnson, who had been a long time employee who started with Case co. in 1902. When Clausen stepped down, Case Co. had millions of $$ on the books owed by independent distributers, branch houses and dealers, and farmers, and faced financial ruin.
It is my opinion that the lack of financial control of wholesale and retail sales under his regiem on the sales side,resulted in the eventual demise of the Case Co. that we here remember.
For more info about the history of Case Co., see if you can find the book written by Stewart Holbrook and RG Charlton titled, Machines Of Plenty.
Loren

Ande,

It is a dirty shame that Case was once king of the ag machinery world, just like the Eagle on top of the globe. And then it was one stupid decision after another and they were broke. Maybe worse, they were broke and 3/4 step behind the competition. If we are honest with ourselves there are really no Case tractors or machinery at all anymore, it is all a fading memory. You are correct, there were many good, dedicated people at Case. But there was rampant corruption, juggling the books, and other sordid goings on as well. It is a classic example of a company going downhill and it is a miracle that it survives in name only today. Don

Same thing happened at AC and they were way bigger than Case overall with a huge presence in mining, power production, etc.. Same for most companies and Deere has made it's mistakes too. I suppose it just came down to who had the guts and money to hang on until the other guy fell off the cliff.

Case had a good reputation with steam and threshers, the C and L series were adequate for the 30's but was obsolete by the 40's yet Case continued to sell an updated cc as a dc, almost everyone owned an A6 combine, at each of these times of opportunity for Case they failed to capitalize on them, if their tractors wouldn't have had good engines they wouldn't have sold diddly squat

Great to hear an educated answer and a book of facts to back it up.Everyone has an "opinion",I like the educated ones.

Case had much more to offer than their engines, yes they stayed with the same design too long, held out putting 3pt/Eagle hitch on the larger tractors too long, like Ande/Loren and others here we too were a dealer starting in the 60's and we out sold the competion here hands down, some years it was the industrial side others the ag, but we had a very good product and were proud to sell them and could compete in a demo against any one, as to dealing with Case, top management the Pres. ect we had no dealings, the R&D department, service reps and sales reps ect was our main line of communication and they were very good to work with, warrenty claims were taken seriously and delt with in the time we were a dealer, in the 80's that was not always the case but then we sold out in 76 so we missed that bullet, yes Case had isses as stated all companys do/did, all companys have made some thing that may not have been their "best" but the tractors/backhoes and implements we sold here we very accepted and sold well, we stood behind them and at that time Case stood behind us, out time selling Case was a very proud time for us the only thing I remember us not having great luck with was the first year run of the 330 baler as they at first was not up to the name, we did do the updates and they ended up being OK but not earth shattering which in turn led to us getting NH a few years later, many here do not deal with construction like we did and I can say case still leads in loader backhoe's in terms of productivity and resale, even today the Case dealership still keeps on hand 20 plus 580's alone more than double what the Cator JD dealer has on hand they just sell and are that good period!, I know most here are Ag and could care less about what I am saying here and thats fine, like Ande Loren and others we were there back in the day when Case was in my mind at its glory days and it was a fine company and was very proud of the products that were made/designed on a very slim budget, if I ruffle a few feather's with my statements so be it no one seems to mind ruffing mine with statements I know are not true, as Dan said we were there on all fronts ordering, selling, dealing with customers, warrentys all of it and they were not all grand day's but i would not trade any of it to have been selling a different brand Case was our lives it was what put food on our tables and was a good life, I do not own anything that has CIH or CNH on it or that is red or blue that is not my thing, not that they are bad or anything its just not what I want, they are liked by others and that is fine by me I just like what I like

i believe that to be factual ..to be on top and melt away is very sad .