THE GREAT AMERICAN DREAM of fame and fortune is grasped by many in many different ways. For six men in Evansville, Wisconsin, it was to take the shape of the A. S. Baker Company. Their vision of one hundred twenty years ago became the forerunner of the Baker Manufacturing Company which through the years has marketed such a diversity and variety of products as water systems components, gasoline engines, walking and acrobatic toys, hydrofoil boats, an anti-aircraft lead computing sight, an average protractor for matching aircraft propeller blades and scientific instruments.

There is a rich and exciting history at Baker. The company has always played an important role in the City of Evansville and several other Midwestern cities. It has progressed from being a rotary steam engine manufacturer through the production of gold medal winning windmills on to design contracts for the United States Department of Defense. Baker currently ranks as the 60th largest wholesaler in the country; holds a strong position in the water well supply market; operates a widely recognized quality iron foundry; and produces gear pumps for the fast food industry and heavy viscous fluids. The company has been, and is, involved in a wide variety of marketplaces which illustrates the diverse and intriguing culture the organization possesses. This heritage has instilled a feeling of pride in all those who are or ever have been employed by Baker.

It all began in 1872 with the designing of a rotary steam engine by Allen S. Baker and Levi Shaw. Mr. Baker took the design to a Milwaukee firm to be built and the tests looked promising. In April of 1873, Caleb Snashall and L. M. Mygatt from the hardware store and Almeron Eager and W. S. Smith from the general store, proposed to Baker and Shaw that the six of them each subscribe $1,000 to organize a company to build rotary steam engines and also run a machine shop repair business. Some stories say that Mr. Eager and Mr. Baker formulated the idea while going for a buggy ride and having a picnic together at Liberty Pole Hill. In any case, the organization was formed and the following officers elected: President, Caleb Snashall; Treasurer, Almeron Eager; Secretary, W. S.Smith. Allen Baker was made Foreman and General Superintendent. The company was named the A. S. Baker Company. These six were very enterprising men but very different from each other in their talents and aspirations. Some were primarily interested in making money and some just loved to build things; but all had a great love for Evansville and wanted to see the city grow and thrive.

Machinery was ordered and a two story frame building was erected at what is now the corner of Enterprise and Church Streets. The "Shop" was opened for business in July of 1873. They made two or three rotary steam engines but soon discontinued them because they proved uneconomical to operate. The only other activity carried on during that summer was the repair of reapers and mowers.

In its first two or three years of operation the A. S. Baker Company experienced difficulties in organization and sales which necessitated further assessments on the original partners. These problems resulted in the withdrawal of Mr. Shaw from the company. From 1873 to 1876 the Company increased its capital from $6,000 to $12,500. During this period a new foundry was built and the company began the manufacture of iron pumps and wooden windmills, designed and tested by Allen Baker. By 1876, newspapers carried ads for "Monitor" windmills, a trade name still used today.

The product switch plus difficulties in internal organization made it necessary to invest additional money, a burden on the original investors to a point where the closing down of the company became a serious consideration. Instead Allen Baker, one of the original steam engine designers, assumed full responsibility for both manufacturing and sales.

By March 12, 1879, the company recovered and was incorporated as "The Baker Manufacturing Company" under Wisconsin law, with a liquid capital of twenty thousand dollars.

The 1880's saw a growth in physical facilities so that by 1882, the Baker Company consisted of a machine shop, a foundry, a wood department, a paint department and a blacksmith shop. There were forty men on the payroll. In addition to producing and shipping windmills at the rate of seventy per month, rotary feed grinders and wood saws were manufactured. Local newspapers advertised "all kinds" of foundry and machine work done. By January 1883 the net worth exceeded $60,000. Shortly thereafter its capital was increased to $100,000.

On April 16, 1884 most of the plant was destroyed by fire. Although there was no insurance, it was almost immediately replaced. First by a temporary workshop and later by a one-story brick building with new and improved machinery.

By the 1890's, large cylinder pumps, pine water tanks and a triangle-drive rotary windmill patented by Allen Baker, were added to the manufacturing line. In 1893, at the Columbian Exposition, in Chicago, the Baker Manufacturing Company was awarded gold medals for design efficiency and ingenuity of its windmills.

Experimentation paid off with new products that added to the company's advancement and success. The company added a steam generator to supply electrical power for the company's own buildings and from 1887 until 1901 The Baker Manufacturing Company supplied steam-generated electricity for the village of Evansville street lights and the residences of Evansville until the city's own generator was built. The plant was operated only from dusk to eleven P. M. After it closed down for the night, residents were either obligated to retire or get out their kerosene lamps which were always kept at hand for emergencies. A flat monthly rate of seventy-five cents for each sixteen candlepower lamp used was charged.

In January, 1891, the Baker Company declared its first dividend of one percent. In December of 1891 the Company's Articles were amended to declare the stock fully paid up through retention of earnings.

The depression of 1893 led to a reduction in wages and the omission of dividends for two years. However, business recovered sharply during 1895 giving the company its best year to date with sales averaging better than two hundred windmills a month. The facilities were again enlarged with the addition of an office building, a larger woodworking shop and a steel-working department.

Business continued to expand so that by 1899, after years of persuasion by Allen Baker's son, John S. Baker, the company pioneered another innovation, profit sharing. John Baker, during his last year at the University, received a very bad eye injury as the result of being bitten by a dog and was required to spend nearly a year in a darkened room, forbidden to strain his eyes. During this year, he spent long hours thinking about the need for cooperation between Capital and labor. He was deeply convinced that profits arose through the efforts of the workers and that those workers should share in those profits. It was during these days of solitude that he formulated what was to become the unique profit sharing plan of Baker Manufacturing Company. One of the first such plans, it is still in effect today.

The preamble of the profit sharing plan reflected the views of John Baker:

"Whereas the Baker Manufacturing Company recognizes that the earnings of Capital and labor are determined by competition and believes that after both have been paid the price so determined, all surplus earnings should be divided between capital and Labor in proportion to the amounts received by each. .."

In 1904, a local newspaper examined the profit sharing plan and reported that a man who earned six-hundred dollars for his year's wages received an additional four-hundred-fifteen dollars and two cents in profit sharing, fifteen percent of which was in cash and the rest in common stock.

John Baker's views on profit sharing were widely publicized and he became a popular speaker. His new philosophy brought wide recognition for him and the company.

The first decade of the twentieth century was another period of marked expansion. What is now called the old foundry was erected about 1900, and over a ten year period the floor space of the plant doubled. Despite a proportionate increase in employment, sales approximately tripled and the company found itself hard pressed to meet the demand for its products. In 1906 a three-story fireproof warehouse was built and later a three-story machine and paint shop. The warehouse and machine shop were the first two poured concrete buildings in Wisconsin. By 1911 there were seven buildings, all built of stone or brick to minimize the fire hazard.

Under the able and inventive leadership of Allen Baker the company enjoyed unprecedented success. The dream had become a thriving reality. By 1910, one hundred and fifty men were employed and there were additional new products: steel windmills and a gasoline engine. As in the case of the windmills, the engines were solidly constructed, bringing the company numerous awards for quality workmanship.

In 1916, the last of the original dreamers, Allen S. Baker died. His son, John S. Baker, famed for the company's profit sharing plan, succeeded him. Allen Baker had ten patents issued in his name and three more in partnership with Levi Shaw, Caleb Snashall and John Baker. These all became the property of the company. The earliest was the rotary steam engine in 1873 and the latest was a skeleton tower in 1893. The others covered windmills, pumps, mechanical movements, millstone-dress, and a mechanism for transmitting power from windmill shafts. He ended his career back working as a pattern maker - his first love.

Continuing the course spirited by his father, John Baker directed the company in its search for new methods and products. The results were many successful additions: self-oiling windmills and a wider range of horsepower for the gasoline engines. Some experiments were never to reach the production line - a farm tractor partially designed by John Baker and a windmill to generate electricity. Still others were to extend the horizon of the original vision, as the windmill did after the rotary steam engine failed.

The Baker company manufactured the airplane beacons that first lighted the airways between New York and San Francisco and even furnished a crew from its factory in Evansville to install the towers. By the 1930's the product line included electric water systems, pump jacks, engine jacks, gasoline engines, pumps, cylinders, windmill towers, well supplies of every description, galvanized steel flag poles, and airplane and radio towers.

John Baker was in great demand as a speaker on the subject of profit sharing, a topic he was always willing to discuss. His views on the subject were widely publicized throughout the country. He was remembered by plant workers affectionately with admiration for his intellect and thoroughly honest character, yet they considered him somewhat eccentric and an enigma. In northern Wisconsin where he had to spend the ragweed season each summer because of allergies, he was called "Mr. Windmill". Like his father before him, he served in the Wisconsin Assembly for two terms.

In 1938, John S. Baker died suddenly at the age of sixty-nine. He was succeeded in the presidency by his son, Cleland S. Baker, who continued in that position while acting also as treasurer and general manager. Cleland S. Baker began his career with the company working in the warehouse of the Omaha, Nebraska branch. Unlike his predecessors, he was not an engineer or designer, however he was highly skilled in marketing and finance. He did much to strengthen the branches and introduced new and effective methods of inventory control. It was during his presidency, in 1940, that a new brick office building was erected with expanded space for engineers, draftsmen, secretarial staff and management personnel.

Ill health forced the resignation of Cleland Baker in 1947. After a long illness, he died in 1952.

Cleland S. Baker was succeeded by his brother, J. G. Baker, who had joined the company in 1938 as vice president and chief engineer after a successful ten year career with Westinghouse Research Laboratories in East Pittsburgh. At the time he came to Evansville he was widely known for his expertise on dynamics problems and on the development of high-speed machinery and dynamic balancing machines. He designed the mounting for the first automatic washing machine made by Bendix. He engaged in consulting research, and development work for such well-known firms as Westinghouse, Hamilton Standard Propellers, Chrysler Corporation, Allis Chalmers and North American Aviation

When Gordon joined the company it was with the understanding that he would be permitted to manufacture toys which he had designed and patented. The agreement was made that any equipment needed and not generally useful for other purposes in the company would be purchased by Mr. Baker. The new division was named LIVE TOYS. Su Panda, the first toy manufactured, was ready for sale in August 1939. In 1940 LIVE TOYS were nationally advertised and were exhibited at the New York Toy Fair. The manufacture of Annie Elephant began in 1940 and about 9,000 toys were sold. Soon World War II put an end to this activity because the toys contained more metal than the government allowed for such uses. By the time the restrictions were lifted the company was involved with more pressing matters and the toy manufacture was never resumed.

Gearing to the war effort, Baker designed and produced a course variant sight for anti-aircraft guns. The company also was instrumental in the development of a mobile combat vehicle designed to jump over trenches and other obstacles. It could jump to a height of four feet and a lateral distance of forty seven feet. Later it developed and manufactured two aircraft propeller blade balancing mechanisms.

Shortly after World War II the company decided upon a long term plan to develop a line of hydrofoil systems for boats. It designed, built and successfully operated a 16-foot, three V-hydrofoil experimental sailboat and a 14-foot three V-hydrofoil outboard motor boat. The company also designed and constructed the Monitor which is believed to be the world's fastest sailboat. The 26-foot Monitor with three ladder-like hydrofoils has a top speed of about 35 miles per hour. During the Korean War, the Company was awarded a contract by the Office of Navel Research under which a 23-foot, V-hydrofoil research board known as High Pockets and a 24-foot, fully submerged, automatically controlled hydrofoil boat known as High Tail were designed and constructed. High Pockets was one of the boats taken by the U. S. Navy to the 1960 International Symposium on High Performance Ships in Holland. High Tail was successfully operated on the Potomac River with the Secretary of the Navy on board and was the basis for proposed designs of operational Navy boats. Under Office of Naval Research and Navy Bureau of Ships contracts, Baker designed and constructed a hydrofoil landing craft called High Lander in 1961, which was expected to be the first Navy hydrofoil designed for operational use.

By the end of the war, sales reached a yearly volume of six hundred thousand dollars. Then, after almost seventy-five years of designing and manufacturing windmills as the main product, sales declined drastically. This setback marked the beginning of a new era of research and development which has continued to this day.

In 1946, a new pump was introduced to provide an automatic deep well water system and this has become a staple product in the line. During that same year, the drinking fountain pump was produced for the first time. These were slow to sell at first, but now they are spread across the country at parks, highway rest stops, golf courses and campsites where city water is not available.

In 1948 a new pump jack was successfully brought out, followed by television towers (an ideal substitute for the windmill tower) and towers for fire watchers. For many years there was one of these look-out towers overlooking Lake Mendota in Madison. In 1950 pitless well units were first offered. These are prefabricated well heads and pitless units which eliminate the unsanitary well pit and the well house. Baker makes them for wells ranging from 4" to 24" and with bury depths from 2 feet to 20 feet for jet, submersible, reciprocating and line shaft turbine pumps.

In 1954 a deep well pump of a type greatly in demand in the South was placed on the market and in 1956 the first pitless jet pumps were produced. This type of pump is unique and is patented by the Company. There has been continual improvement in the design of these products and in the techniques of their manufacture. The Baker branches sell a complete line of pumps but the Company does not manufacture all of them.

In 1970 a decision was made to replace the old foundry with it's coke fired cupola in order to meet the pollution abatement requirements set by the Environmental Protection Agency and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The new 27,500 square foot foundry was placed into operation July 15, 1974. The foundry, built at a cost of 1.75 million dollars, has the capability of changing air completely in the foundry every six minutes.

The office expansion, completed in 1971 approximately doubled the available space in the office building. A modern computer system was installed at this time.

On October 20, 1973, Baker Manufacturing Company celebrated its 100th year with an open house in Evansville, attended by stockholders, employees, suppliers and interested townspeople. Tours were conducted and a buffet luncheon was served to over 800 guests. Wisconsin's Governor Patrick J. Lucey proclaimed the week of October 14 through 20, 1973 as BAKER WEEK. In a ceremony held during the open house, Evansville's Mayor presented a bronze plaque on behalf of the Evansville City Council and the citizens of Evansville in commemoration of the company's role in the city's history. This plaque is now affixed to the front of the office building.

In 1977, the company purchased the Haight Pump Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Haight Division is a major source of rotary gear pumps for the fast food and restaurant industry, fire protection and process manufacturing industries. Haight pumps are assembled in Evansville and a sales office is maintained in Brookfield, Wisconsin.

The end of the "Baker Presidency" era occurred when J. G. Baker resigned as president and chairman of the board March 10, 1975 due to ill health. He died on February 15, 1976.