Daniel Massey (24 February 1798 – 15 November 1856) was an American-born blacksmith and businessman in what is now

Newcastle, Ontario Newcastle is a community in the municipality of Clarington in Durham Region, Ontario, Canada. The community inherits the former name of the present-day municipality which it belongs to. Newcastle is located about 80 km east of Toronto, and ...

, who began production of

agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating Plant, plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of Sedentism, sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of Domestication, domesticated species created food ...

implements in 1847.

Life and career

Massey was born in

Windsor, Vermont Windsor is a town in Windsor County, Vermont, United States. As the "Birthplace of Vermont", the town is where the Constitution of Vermont was adopted in 1777, thus marking the founding of the Vermont Republic, a sovereign state until 1791, when ...

, to Daniel Massey Sr. and Rebecca Kelley. The

Massey family The Massey family is a Canadian Methodist family that has been prominent since the mid-19th century, known for manufacturing farm equipment and for being patrons of the arts in Canada. Their company, Massey Ferguson, built the family its fortun ...

originated in

Cheshire, England Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county town ...

, and arrived in America around 1630, first in

Essex, Massachusetts Essex is a coastal town in Essex County, Massachusetts, 26 miles (42 km) north of Boston and 13 miles (21 km) southeast of Newburyport. It is known for its former role as a center of shipbuilding. The population was 3,675 at the 2020 ce ...

, and later in

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

and

Watertown, New York Watertown is a city in, and the county seat of, Jefferson County, New York, United States. It is approximately south of the Thousand Islands, along the Black River about east of where it flows into Lake Ontario. The city is bordered by the ...

. His parents, Daniel and Rebecca Massey, moved their family to

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the ...

at some point between 1802 and 1807. He subsequently lived and studied in Watertown, New York, but he later returned to Upper Canada to run his father's business. The business grew and its eventual successor,

Massey Ferguson Massey Ferguson Limited is an American agricultural machinery manufacturer. The company was established in 1953 through the merger of farm equipment makers Massey-Harris of Canada and the Ferguson Company of the United Kingdom. It was based in T ...

, became a multinational farm implement manufacturer. The company's history goes back to 1847, when Massey opened a workshop to build simple farm implements in

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

. A decade later,

Alanson Harris Alanson Harris (April 1, 1816 – October 3, 1894) was a Canadian businessman. He was a sawmill operator and later owner of a farm implement manufacturer in Brantford, Ontario. Alanson Harris was born in Ingersoll, Ontario in 1816 to John Harris ...

established a foundry to make and repair farm machinery. Massey and Harris both became eminent in making harvesting machinery, and eventually the firms they had founded were merged in 1891 to form

Massey-Harris Massey Ferguson Limited is an American agricultural machinery manufacturer. The company was established in 1953 through the merger of farm equipment makers Massey-Harris of Canada and the Ferguson Company of the United Kingdom. It was based in T ...

. The new company was responsible for producing the world's first commercially successful self-propelled

combine harvester The modern combine harvester, or simply combine, is a versatile machine designed to efficiently harvest a variety of grain crops. The name derives from its combining four separate harvesting operations—reaping, threshing, gathering, and winnow ...

in 1938. Massey-Harris merged with the

Ferguson Company The Ferguson-Brown Company was a British agricultural machinery manufacturing company formed by Harry Ferguson in partnership with David Brown. Ferguson-Brown produced the Model A Ferguson-Brown tractor incorporating a Ferguson-designed hydr ...

in 1953 to form what became Massey Ferguson. They brought together their twin skills in harvesting machinery and tractor design to produce one of the world's most prominent companies in farm equipment.

Family

Massey married Lucina Bradley in 1820, and they had three sons and seven daughters. His son

Hart Massey Hart Almerrin Massey (April 29, 1823 – February 20, 1896) was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist who was a member of the prominent Massey family. He was an industrialist who built the agricultural equipment firm that became Massey Fer ...

also joined the family company. Massey died in 1856 and is buried at Bowmanville Cemetery in

Clarington, Ontario Clarington (2021 population 101,427) is a lower-tier municipality in the Regional Municipality of Durham in Ontario, Canada. It was incorporated in 1973 as the town of Newcastle with the merging of the town of Bowmanville, the Village of Newcastl ...

. The actor

Raymond Massey Raymond Hart Massey (August 30, 1896 – July 29, 1983) was a Canadian actor, known for his commanding, stage-trained voice. For his lead role in '' Abe Lincoln in Illinois'' (1940), Massey was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Amo ...

was Daniel Massey's great-grandson (Hart Massey's grandson), and the actors Daniel Massey and

Anna Massey Anna Raymond Massey (11 August 19373 July 2011) was an English actress. She won a BAFTA Award for the role of Edith Hope in the 1986 TV adaptation of Anita Brookner's novel ''Hotel du Lac'', a role that one of her co-stars, Julia McKenzie, ha ...

were Raymond Massey's children.

External links

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''
1798 births 1856 deaths Daniel Massey Canadian blacksmiths Canadian chief executives Canadian manufacturing businesspeople Canadian people of American descent People from Northumberland County, Ontario People from Windsor, Vermont {{Canada-business-bio-stub