Jerome Increase Case (December 11, 1819December 22, 1891) was an early American manufacturer of
threshing machine
A threshing machine or a thresher is a piece of farm equipment that threshes grain, that is, it removes the seeds from the stalks and husks. It does so by beating the plant to make the seeds fall out.
Before such machines were developed, threshi ...
s. He founded the J. I. Case Company which has gone through many mergers and name changes to today's
Case Corporation
The Case Corporation was a manufacturer of agricultural machinery and construction equipment. Founded, in 1842, by Jerome Increase Case as the J. I. Case Threshing Machine Company, it operated under that name for most of a century. For ano ...
.
He served three terms as mayor of
Racine, Wisconsin
Racine ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. It is located on the shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Root River. Racine is situated 22 miles (35 km) south of Milwaukee and approximately 60 ...
, and represented Racine County in the
Wisconsin State Senate
The Wisconsin Senate is the upper house of the Wisconsin State Legislature. Together with the larger Wisconsin State Assembly they constitute the legislative branch of the state of Wisconsin. The powers of the Wisconsin Senate are modeled after t ...
in
1865
Events
January–March
* January 4 – The New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters at Broad Street (Manhattan), 10-12 Broad near Wall Street, in New York City.
* January 13 – American Civil War : Sec ...
and
1866
Events January–March
* January 1
** Fisk University, a historically black university, is established in Nashville, Tennessee.
** The last issue of the abolitionist magazine '' The Liberator'' is published.
* January 6 – Ottoman tr ...
. He also raised champion race horses.
Early life
Jerome Increase Case was born December 11, 1819, in
Williamstown in
Oswego County, New York
Oswego County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 117,525. The county seat is Oswego. The county name is from a Mohawk-language word meaning "the pouring out place", referring to the point at ...
.
His father was Caleb Case (1787–1874) and mother Deborah Jackson (1789–1833). He was one of seven children.
Through his mother he claimed to be related to
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...
.
His father sold some primitive "ground hog" machines (imported from England) that helped speed up the separation of grain after it was harvested. In 1840, Jerome started a small business threshing his neighbors' crops with the horse-powered devices. In the summer of 1842, he bought six of the machines on credit and traveled first to Chicago by ship. On his way north to
Rochester, Wisconsin
Rochester is a village in Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 3,785 at the 2020 census. The village is located within the former Town of Rochester. On November 4, 2008, the village of Rochester voted to consolidate with t ...
he sold five and kept one for his own business.
Through the winter he worked on improvements to the thresher, but the new model was not ready for the 1843 harvest.
By May 1844 the new model which did a better job of fully separating the grain was working. Since Rochester did not have water power available, he moved to
Racine, Wisconsin
Racine ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. It is located on the shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Root River. Racine is situated 22 miles (35 km) south of Milwaukee and approximately 60 ...
.
Racine
![Case Residence, Racine, Wisconsin](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Case_Residence%2C_Racine%2C_Wisconsin.jpg)
He first manufactured the machines in a small shop in Racine, and then built a three-story brick factory in 1847 on the
Root River.
A new vibrator process introduced in 1852 was so successful he was selling throughout
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
,
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
, and
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
by 1853.
By 1855 the plant covered several acres, including a private boat dock on
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...
.
In 1856 he was elected mayor of Racine, declined the re-nomination the next year, but was elected again in 1858 and 1860.
He often financed the machines with high interest rates. This worked until the
panic of 1857
The Panic of 1857 was a financial panic in the United States caused by the declining international economy and over-expansion of the domestic economy. Because of the invention of the telegraph by Samuel F. Morse in 1844, the Panic of 1857 was ...
and unreliable state-issued paper money caused many customers to default. Case accepted animals, supplies, and land instead of cash. At the start of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, farmers would often walk away from their debts to enlist, sometimes not returning.
The labor shortage combined with increased demand for food (with no imports from the south) resulted in a growing business in the 1860s.
Massena B. Erskine,
Robert H. Baker, and Stephen Bull (his brother-in-law) became partners when J. I. Case Company was officially organized in 1863.
Case was elected to the
Wisconsin State Senate
The Wisconsin Senate is the upper house of the Wisconsin State Legislature. Together with the larger Wisconsin State Assembly they constitute the legislative branch of the state of Wisconsin. The powers of the Wisconsin Senate are modeled after t ...
in 1865 and served one two-year term.
Also in 1865 he happened to meet up with a company of the
8th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment
The 8th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The 8th Wisconsin's mascot was Old Abe, a bald eagle that accompanied the regiment into battle.
Service
The 8th Wisconsin w ...
returning from the war. He adopted the mascot of the regiment, an eagle named
Old Abe
Old Abe (May 27, 1861 – March 26, 1881), a bald eagle, was the mascot of the 8th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment in the American Civil War. Later, his image was adopted as the eagle appearing on a globe in Case Corporation's logo an ...
, as company symbol.
In 1871 he was a founder of Manufacturers' National Bank of Racine and the First National Bank of Burlington. He was an early investor in the
Northwestern Life Insurance Company in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...
. In 1876 he started another company to make plows, licensing the "center draft" technology from Ebenezer G. Whiting.
Initially called Case, Whitney & Company, when he became sole owner in 1878 it became the J. I. Case Plow Company, and J. I. Case Plow Works in 1884.
He was a founder of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, and president of the Racine County Agricultural Society. Some time in the 1870s he had one of the rare two-story houses built on Main Street in Racine.
Horses
![Jay-Eye-See](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Jay-Eye-See.jpg)
As he turned over the business to other partners, he spent more time on breeding race horses on his Hickory Grove Farm.
Harness racing
Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait (a trot or a pace). They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, or spider, or chariot occupied by a driver. In Europe, and less frequently in Australi ...
was the sport of choice among the wealthy in the 1880s.
One of his favorite horses was named
Jay-Eye-See, a pun on Case's initials.
The black
gelding
A gelding is a castrated male horse or other equine, such as a pony, donkey or a mule. Castration, as well as the elimination of hormonally driven behavior associated with a stallion, allows a male equine to be calmer and better-behaved, makin ...
, foaled in 1878, broke the mile
trotting
The trot is a ten-beat diagonal horse gait where the diagonal pairs of legs move forward at the same time with a moment of suspension between each beat. It has a wide variation in possible speeds, but averages about . A very slow trot is someti ...
record of 2:10 at
Narragansett Park
Narragansett Park was an American race track for Thoroughbred horse racing in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
Beginnings
On May 18, 1934, Rhode Island voters approved a measure legalizing parimutuel betting by an almost 3 to 1 margin. The following day, ...
in 1884.
After winning many other races, the horse was injured and retired in August 1889.
However, Jay-Eye-See was retrained by Edwin D. Blither to race with a new gait, and three years later set a
pacing record of 2:06.25 in 1892 at
Independence, Iowa
Independence is a city in, and the county seat of, Buchanan County, Iowa, United States. The population was 6,064 in the 2020 census, an increase from 6,014 in 2000.
History
Independence was founded in 1847 near the center of present-day Buch ...
. Both records were quickly broken; the trotting mark on the next day, and the pacing mark in a subsequent heat of the same race.
However, the feat of two records was unique enough that the horse became a celebrity.
Currier and Ives
Currier and Ives was a New York City printmaking business that operated between 1835 and 1907. Founded by Nathaniel Currier, the company designed and sold inexpensive, hand painted lithographic works based on news events, views of popular cultu ...
did a series of prints and the horse's image was used to advertise products by the Case company for years. The horse outlived Case and died in 1909 at the age of 31.
The horse "known the country over" had its obituary printed in national newspapers such as the ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''. Jay-Eye-See was inducted into the
Harness Racing Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Wisconsin Harness Racing Hall of Fame in 1996.
Death and legacy
Case also owned some
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...
ships, a winter home in California, a ranch in
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
, and a stock farm in
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
.
In 1849 he married Lydia Ann Bull, daughter of DeGrove Bull of
Yorkville, Wisconsin
Yorkville is a village in Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 3,246 at the 2020 census. The unincorporated communities of Ives Grove, Sylvania, and Yorkville are located in the town.
History
The town was founded primaril ...
. He died on December 22, 1891, in Racine, less than a year before the comeback of his favorite horse.
His widow, born August 6, 1826, died December 9, 1909.
They had four children live to adulthood: one son and three daughters.
Henrietta Case was born March 3, 1858, and married Percival Strong Fuller (1858–1896).
Jessie Fremont Case was born April 17, 1861, and married Mitchell Wallis.
Amanda Case was born October 1, 1862, and married Jonathan James Crooks of San Francisco. Following in the footsteps of her horse-loving father, in 1926 she was instrumental in the survival and then success of the Pendleton Round-Up, the huge and still thriving Pendleton, Oregon rodeo.
Jackson Irving Case was born October 23, 1865, married Henrietta May Roy on May 25, 1886, and had four sons. He was elected mayor of Racine when he was only 26, but died January 8, 1903, before he was 38.
![Louis DIsbrow in Jay-Eye-See, 1912](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Louis_DIsbrow_in_Jay-Eye-See%2C_1912.jpg)
Three other children died young.
The family continued its interest in racing, but times had changed. The company sponsored a team of racing cars, led by driver
Lewis Strang
Lewis Strang (7 August 1884 – 20 July 1911) was an American racecar driver.
Biography
He was born on August 7, 1884 in Amsterdam, New York. As the first entrant for the race, which predated modern on-track qualifications, Strang was pole si ...
until he died in 1911.
Around 1912, they named a car after Jay-Eye-See, driven by
Louis Disbrow
Louis Disbrow (1876–1939) was an American racecar driver.
Life
He was born on September 23, 1876, in Richmond Hill, Queens, New York. Disbrow came from a wealthy family.
He was indicted for the 1902 murders of Sarah "Dimples" Lawrence an ...
. One of the largest at the time, it had a 290-horsepower engine, and a streamlined shape that looked like an upside-down
canoe
A canoe is a lightweight narrow water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using a single-bladed paddle.
In British English, the term ...
.
A popular, easy to read biography of Case in the context of his company and his times is Stewart H. Holbrook, ''Machines of Plenty, Pioneering in American Agriculture'' (New York: Macmillan, 1955).
Jerome I. Case High School
Jerome I. Case High School (also known as Case, J. I. Case or Racine Case High School) is located in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, a suburb of Racine in the United States. It is a public school for grades 9 to 12 with an estimated student enrollment ...
, located in
Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin :''There is also the Town of Mount Pleasant in Green County.''
Mount Pleasant is a village in Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. It is located approximately south of Milwaukee and north of Chicago. As of the 2020 census, the village's p ...
, is named in his honor.
It is in what is now suburban Racine, near the site of his farm. Most of Hickory Grove Farm is now developed, except for a small open space at named Case-Harmon Field.
Jay-Eye-See Avenue at was named for his horse, a block away from Case Avenue which intersects Jerome Boulevard.
A planned marble monument to Jay Eye See was never erected, and the horse's grave site neglected for almost a century. After a developer planned to build a parking lot over the suspected grave, local historians located and removed the bones in July 1997.
The remains were proposed to be re-interred in the Case family mausoleum at Mound Cemetery.
However, by 2003 the bones were still stored in a box at the historian's home waiting for funding for the memorial.
The J. I. Case Wetland Wildlife Refuge in Terre Haute, Indiana is also named in his honor.
In 2008, Case was inducted into the
Association of Equipment Manufacturers
The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) is a North American-based trade association representing off-road equipment manufacturers and suppliers, with more than 1,000 companies and more than 200 product lines in the agriculture and constr ...
Hall of fame.
References
External links
*
*
*
* Depiction of Jay-Eye-See and two other horses by
Currier & Ives
* 1915 photo of Jay-Eye-See racecar
Article on Case's involvement with an 1870s experimental automobile
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Case, Jerome
1819 births
1891 deaths
Wisconsin state senators
People from Williamstown, New York
Businesspeople from Racine, Wisconsin
Mayors of Racine, Wisconsin
19th-century American politicians
People from Rochester, Wisconsin
United States Harness Racing Hall of Fame inductees
19th-century American businesspeople