Although there was no corporate relationship between Sawyer-Massey and the Massey-Harris Company, the two firms cooperated in the distribution of threshing machinery in Canada. By 1910, Sawyer-Massey had become one of Canada’s leading builders of steam engines and threshers. In view of this market, Sawyer-Massey decided to double their steam engine production. The Massey’s objected, and subsequently withdrew their interest.
John Fisher set up a blacksmith shop at Hamilton, Ontario in 1835. In 1836, he built his first crude grain thresher. L. D. Sawyer went to work for Fisher in the 1840s. When John Fisher died in 1856, Sawyer and two brothers took over the firm and renamed it L. D Sawyer & Company. In the 1860s portable steam engines were introduced and horsedrawn machinery broadened the operations in 1887.j H. A., C. D., and W.E.H. Massey purchased 40% of L. D. Sawyer Company in 1892. As a result, the firm was reorganized as Sawyer-Massey Company. Gas tractors were added to the Sawyer-Massey line in 1910, and early advertising called attention to the Sawyer-Massey “made in Canada” tractor. Various models were built into the early 1920s. At that time, production shifted to road-building machinery.
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