Kelly Plow. (original) (raw)

Early in the nineteenth century, American farmers broke the soil pretty much the same way as old English grangers or even Biblical tillers did�with wooden plows. Steel points were added in Thomas Jefferson's day, and in the 1830s John Deere introduced the all-metal "prairie breaker" plow.

Not long afterward, John A. Stewart began to make improved plows in a machine shop located near Marshall, Texas, and in doing so launched a major East Texas industry.

Stewart moved his operation to Four Mile Branch, a campsite for wagoners located approximately that distance from Jefferson, Texas. This was a good location for a wagon repair shop, which he operated with this brother-in-law, Zachariah Lockett. They continued to make metal plows as well, making iron in a furnace heated by charcoal. Then George Addison Kelly joined the partnership in 1852, and by 1860 Kelly had acquired complete control of the firm.

Kelly introduced the "Blue Kelly� plow, the most popular such implement in Texas, and also supported the Confederate States of America by manufacturing cannonballs and other iron implements and tools both for military and civilian use. The company continued to provided its own iron by processing ore at a facility near Kellyville.

The arrival of the rails and the subsequent decline in the importance of Jefferson as a shipping point had become a problem for Kelly in the 1870s, and then his manufacturing plant burned in 1880.

Kelly rebuilt his factory in Longview, Texas, in 1882. He expanded his product line from plows to all cultivation implements available at the time until his death in 1909.

Kelly was succeeded by his sons, Robert Marvin Kelly and LeGrand D. Kelly, as president and secretary-treasurer, respectively, of the company and also as co-managers of the manufacturing plant, until 1941, when George A. Kelly Jr. and LeGrand D. Kelly Jr., took over. Eventually, five generations of Kellys kept the plows coming that tilled the fields of East Texans before the company ceased manufacturing them in the 1960s, a victim of the progress it had helped to bring about.

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Archie P. McDonald
All Things Historical September 10, 2007 column
A syndicated column in over 70 East Texas newspapers
This column is provided as a public service by the East Texas Historical Association. Archie P. McDonald is director of the Association and author of more than 20 books on Texas. Related Topics: People | Columns | Texas Towns | Texas