Ummo Luebben of Sutton Invented the Round Baler

 Ummo Luebben, Sutton Inventor

Ummo Luebben of Sutton invented the round baler. The initial purpose was to wrap straw into tight bundles useful to burn in stoves where wood was scarce. When the design was used on hay, the stems were parallel to the ground repelling water better than square bales (actually rectangular but we called ‘em square). 

Ummo and his brother Melchior began working on the machine in the 1890’s. Ummo was the engineer, and Melchior was the businessman (also president of a Sutton bank). After differences in opinion about the design, Ummo continued on his own and is generally given credit for the invention. Ummo sold the rights to the baler to Allis-Chalmers in 1943. Allis built about 77,700 Roto-Balers in production runs from 1947-1964 and 1972-1974. 

In a 2017 article at agupdate.com, Melchior’s great-grandson Eric Luebben of Fullerton, California said he had found six Luebben balers in the U.S. and Canada, in museums and fields. He managed to buy two of them and wanted to get one working and find a vintage tractor to pull it.

 

Ummo Luebben, inventor of the round baler, was born August 15, 1867, in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and died April 19, 1953, in Omaha. He manufactured his baler in Beatrice where he continued modifying it, eventually selling the rights to the patent to Allis-Chalmers in 1943.

Ummo Luebben of Sutton used this drawing for his patent of the round baler issued on Oct. 18, 1910. (Personal note: my memory crutch to remember the date of Luebben’s patent is that it was issued on the day my father was born.)

Price comparisons - 1913 and 1922

The Sutton News and other county newspapers carried this story in January 1922 describing wholesale and retail price trends between 1913 and 1922. The story was a grim one for area farmers. 

1946 Expansion of Phone Service to Farmers

This item in the February 14, 1946 issue of The Sutton News announced the expansion of phone services to Clay County farms.

 

1910 Manure Spreader Ad

A valuable farm implement, this. It was refreshing to get out in the field, going upwind after being cooped up in the barn throwing product out the door into the machine.

Or did you have the misfortune of missing this experience.

Or, as my Pappy used to say, "This is the one product that neither the manufacturer nor the distributor will stand behind."

1918 County Poultry Show in Fairfield

Poultry was a big part of the economic stability of the early area farms. There was an annual poultry show in Clay County. Fairfield hosted the early 1919 version.

1943 -The Wartime Farmer - Milk & Cream Production

Advice about wartime food production was almost an industry of its own. The October 21, 1943 issue of the Sutton News carried this eight-page supplement about milk and cream production.

Winning WWI with Chickens

This Harvard business aimed to win the war with chickens.

The major incubator business in Clay County was the Old Trusty Company in Clay Center where M. M. Johnson employed more than 200 people sending incubators and other poultry products across the country.

Emil Ochsner manufactured a smaller number of incubators in Sutton and we've found evidence that the wife of Sutton tavern owner Tim Hartnett made a few of them.

And we found a newspaper item that the B & H Incubator Company in Fairfield had shipped a 120-egg incubator to Greece. B & H were fellows named Bayles and Hayes.

Here we have the ad of Higgins Hardware in Harvard though there is no indication that this product was also manufactured in Clay County.