Category: Greenlee Brothers and Company, Illinois

Categories: Illinois, Manufacturing Companies | Rockford, Illinois | Cook County, Illinois, Companies | Winnebago County, Illinois, Companies

Landing level category for profiles of persons affiliated with this company.

Founded 1862 by identical twins Robert Lemuel and Ralph Stebbins Greenlee. Their father, Edmund Greenlee, had patents for barrel-making machines, which he had developed in response to the discovery of oil in their part of Pennsylvania.

In 1862, Robert and Ralph moved from Summerhill, Pennsylvania to Chicago, Greenlee Brothers & Co. was established in 1866. They invented, a drill surrounded by four chisel blades, used in making the pockets for a mortise and tenon joint, for the furniture industry in Rockford. This tool is the basis for the company logo.

They focused primarily on large, complex machines, such as a rail car outfitted to produce a finished railway tie every 10 seconds. In 1881 they introduced the first self-feed rip saw, which became a top seller. They relocated most of their operations to Rockford, Illinois, in 1904.

Sources

• Vintage Machinery.org
• Greenlee at Wikipedia
• Greenlee Bros. at Davis Town Museum
• Rockford Public Library Historical Images
• Greenlee History
• Images are included at most of the sources listed.

This page was last modified 18:00, 14 June 2019. This page has been accessed 346 times.