Issue # 2: French & Hecht King of the Wheel

While most of us have heard of French and Hecht, few of us realized what an industrial giant they were. Let’s go back 125 years or so to Davenport, Iowa.

William Bettendorf was born in Mendota, IL in 1857. In 1872 he took a job at the A. L. Shepard hardware store in Peru, IL. Two years later, at the age of 17, William became an apprentice to the machinest trade at the Peru Plow company. It was through this apprenticeship that he honed his natural skills as an inventor. In 1878 he made his first invention which was a power lift sulky plow . This mechanism was adopted by nearly all the plow manufacturing plants in the country.

Later on he left the employ of the Peru Plow company and went to work for the Moline Plow company. He was only there 10 months, then moved on to the P&O (Parlin & Orendorff) company in Canton, IL. In 1882 he returned to the Peru Plow company as the superintendent of the plant where he had passed his apprenticeship.

It was during his time as the superintendent that he invented the Bettendorf metal wheel. This wheel was composed of a malleable iron hub with steel spokes secured in the hub by being “upset” or headed” within the hub. This revolutionized wheels for farm machinery. He entered into a contract with the Peru company to manufacture the wheel and this branch of the business was grew so quick that the company changed its name to the Peru Plow and Wheel company.

The company couldn’t build the wheels quick enough and this bothered William Bettendorf, so he cut loose from the company to look for a bigger factory that could build the wheels on a larger scale.

While looking for a plant, he ran into the president of the Eagle Manufacturing company in Davenport and negotiations resulted in a plant being established in Davenport for wheel production effective September 12, 1886. The contract with Eagle stated that they could manufacture wheels in the plant as part of Eagle, but keep a separate set of books. The company was organized as the Bettendorf Wheel Company. Eagle Manufacturing was later sold and moved to Kansas City.

William and his brother J.W. devoted all of their time to the manufacture of the metal wheels. In 1890, J.W. went to Springfield, Ohio to manage the plant they were building there.

In 1891, William invented the self-oiling hollow steel axle, bolster and stakes for farm wagons. He had also invented a steel gear for farm wagons. When he severered his ties to the Peru Plow works, he concentrated on designing the machines necessary to build the gears. He now had the gears and the machines to make them. William’s interest took a slight turn toward railroad gears and wheels.

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