This thresher, near the old Rexford railway depot, was manufactured by Nichols & Shepard Co. of Battle Creek, Mich. Its logo is pretty faded but is still readable, if not in its entirety. This is a fairly large thresher with at least a 36" cylinder. Many larger threshers, such as this one, were owned by custom threshers which traveled about the country doing custom threshing threshing for farmers.
The
Nichols & Shepard Company was organized in 1848 by John Nichols, a practical moulder, and David Shepard, a machinist, in Battle Creek, Michigan. At one point Nichols & Shepard held about 10% of the threshing machine market. The company went on to build traction engines, threshers and their attachments, including stackers, self-feeders, grain weighers, etc. It became part of the Oliver Farm Equipment Company in 1929, which, in turn, became part of the White Motor Company of Cleveland, Ohio.
We notice that this unit was on rubber, with wooden spoke wheels, which were likely original. This indicates that this was a recent machine, possibly built in the '20s or '30s.