history

Daniel C. Stover was born in Greencastle, Franklin County, Pennsylvania in 1840. He drifted westward and established the Stover Experimental Works at Freeport, Illinois in 1866. Stover’s factory-built wire working machinery eventually included windmills and feed grinders. About 1900, a gasoline engine was built and it was so sturdy that gas engines soon became the mainstay of the Stove operations. Tractors using the Morton traction trucks were sold as early as 1906. Canadian Stover Company was advertising these tractors as late as 1912. An experimental tractor emerged in 1915 but was never marketed. In 1916 the Stover estate was sold by the trustees to a Chicago-based firm that owned it until 1929. In 1930, several Freeport men bought the company and operated it until 1941 when it was sold. On April 15, 1942, the old Stover nameplate on the office lawn was removed and over the door was installed a sign which read “Fairbanks, Morse & Company, Freeport Works”.