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 F.E. Myers Orchard Sprayer - Keremeos, BC Posted by:  T0SHEA
N 49° 12.322 W 119° 50.123
11U E 293479 N 5454155
As one passes through Keremeos on Highway 3 they will, hopefully, spy a dozen old tractors along the north side of the Highway. This will be Parson's Orchard & Fruit Stand.
Waymark Code: WMN8P2
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 01/20/2015
Views: 3
Parsons' Orchard and Fruit Stand is on the north side of Highway 3 immediately west of Second Street.
Hiding in the orchard behind the tractors is this old wooden tanked orchard sprayer, manufactured by the F.E. Myers & Bros. Company of Ashland OH. Difficult to say how old it is, probably made sometime between 1900 and 1920. This orchard was begun in 1908, so the sprayer would likely be of that general vintage.
That said, we'll now add that the first production tractor to offer a PTO was the IHC model 8-16, introduced in 1918. The eagle eyed viewer will have noticed that this sprayer is PTO driven, so that pretty much gives us the earliest possible date of manufacture. There are some pretty old tractors here, as well, the oldest likely being a Case Crossmotor, but it's devoid of PTO. The same goes for the three McCormick 10-20s, no PTO to be found on any one of them. Oh well, we'll just say that this sprayer was likely made in the early 1920s.
The Myers Family
George and Elizabeth Myers settled in Ashland in 1874. They had nine children. At the time of their settling here, they were working with the Studebaker family making wagons. The Historical Society has one of those wagons on campus.
Their oldest son, F.E., and next oldest son, P.A., worked together making products for use in barns and homes. P.A. had some talent in design and they decided to go into business for themselves. F.E. Myers and Bro. was born. They started out with hay tools, carriers, forks, winnowers and various other tools. F.E. noticed on his sales runs that the thing farmers were most in need of was water delivery systems. They needed pumps for inside the home, but also for the livestock and in the fields. They began working on this and eventually came up with a design that was so unique and so much more efficient than what went before, that they went like hotcakes.
Patents were filed, and the company set off the Industrial Boom here in Ashland County. Their products encompassed many avenues of water delivery, from sprayers that fit on 55 gallon drums, to orchard sprayers that could be operated from a tank on the user's back. They had small pitcher pumps meant for sinks in homes, and huge pumps meant to fill the huge storage tanks many homes of that time had in the attic.
From the 1870s till the 1960s, the family ran the business. The other two brothers in the family, A.N. and G.D., were eventually brought in and served on the board.
From Ashland, Ohio History
Use or Purpose of Equipment: Orchard/Fruit Sprayer
Approximate age: 90 years
Manufacturer and model: F.E.Myers & Bros. Company - model uncertain
Still in Use?: No
Location:
Parson's Orchard & Fruit Stand
Fee for Access: no
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