International Harvester

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Wisconsin was a leading producer of farm implements.[1] One of the major contributors to this growing industry was International Harvester, which was active in Milwaukee for nearly a century. Long before the Milwaukee plant became a part of an international conglomerate, it was Milwaukee Harvester—a local operation specializing in twine binders, mowers and harvesters.[2] The company enjoyed financial success through much of the 1880s and 1890s. It was courted by a number of other states hoping to entice the growing business into relocating but remained a Milwaukee institution from 1881 to 1971.[3] As market competition increased, however, Milwaukee Harvester joined with four other “principal manufacturers of harvesting machines in the United States” to form International Harvester in 1902.[4] The new entity dominated this market, producing approximately ninety percent of the country’s grain binders and eighty percent of its mowers.[5]

Over time, the Milwaukee Works branch of International Harvester developed an expansive production site at the south end of the Menomonee Valley. It included numerous three- and four-story buildings, and employed several hundred workers in its early years.[6] Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, production diversified and the Milwaukee plant eventually came to specialize in the manufacture of engines and cream separators, in addition to other agricultural implements.[7]

Like most other local businesses, International Harvester shifted its focus to war production once America entered World War II. Milwaukee workers produced torpedo parts, gun carriages, and other war materiel.[8] Operations expanded exponentially, and at the height of war the company employed over 8,000 men and women. (To accommodate such a workforce, by the time it closed the Milwaukee Works covered over 35 acres.)[9] The war’s end, however, brought drastic cutbacks in production which forced the company to lay off 2,000 workers.[10]

Unlike other local manufacturing giants, International Harvester failed to weather the postwar storm. The workforce continued to decline throughout the 1950s and by 1961 had dipped to 3,000.[11] In that year, the company began moving various parts of its operations, including the forge shop and sheet metal manufacture away from Milwaukee. Just four years later the machine shop closed, and all that remained was the foundry. Like many factories that relocated to the non-union Sunbelt states, the International Harvester foundry in Milwaukee finalized what had been an on-going process by moving the remaining production to its Louisville, Kentucky works in 1971. Company officials emphasized that the move was a result of the modern facilities available at the Louisville Works rather than wages. While the International Harvester foundry in Waukesha was able to accommodate some of the employees, the plant closure in Milwaukee led to the elimination of nearly 700 jobs in the city.[12]