This web page is dedicated to the documentation of the Groton Traction engine, the history of this particular engine and of the company that manufactured it.

The history of This Engine

I am attempting to assemble a history of this particular traction engine. This is what I have found so far. It will change as I find new stuff.

This threshing engine has been in the Rogers family for (at least) the last 38 years. (I suppose that it is now in the Erhart family.) Roger's family lore states that this particular engine is the same engine that was purchase by Mel Easterday (William Mellville Easterday 1861-1954). Mel is the great-great-grandfather of my wife, Diana Rogers. The claim is based on an apparent blacksmith weld of a retaining ring on one of the bull gears on the right hand side. No one in the family knows when Mel might have purchase the engine originally, or when it was sold. For the most recent ownership period, the engine was re-purchase by Harry Rogers (1889-1978?). From various sources, it was believe that the engine was purchase from someone in Maryland in 1961. However, I found a newspaper clipping from 1961 that was in a Lunkenheimer Valves catalog in some of the material from Fred Rogers estate. The newspaper article gives the details of a threshing event held on the Rogers farm some time in 1961. (The date is a guess from the fact that the ad on the back of the page is for a '62 Chevrolet Jobmaster Truck.) The clipping states that Harry bought a Frick from someone in Maryland. The article mentions a Baker being purchased the previous year, but does not mention the Groton. There is a family photo of the Groton with a date of 1963. The engine appears to be freshly painted and the canopy does not have a fringe yet. The next evidence of the Groton in the Rogers family comes from the May-June 1966 Iron Men Album, on page 44 has a picture of the Groton with a caption indicating that it was at the Dover, Ohio show in 1965. Since the Groton is not mention in the newspaper article in 1961, I am assuming that  it was repurchased between 1961 and 1963. The Jan/Feb 1959 issue of Iron Men Album contains a picture on page 15 of the Groton pictured at the Maryland Reunion in 1958. The caption states that it was owned by Howell Leppo. Howell Leppo apparently was holding a Reunion of the Maryland Steam Historical Society at his farm. If anyone has more history of the Groton, Howell Leppo or the Maryland reunions, I would appreciate knowing. My father-in-law believes that Homer Rogers saw the Frick in Maryland on one of his long distance trucking jobs. When they went back to buy the Frick and haul it back, they found the Groton and eventually went back and bought it too.

The Easterday and Rogers families had a rich history in the Sawmill, Custom Threshing and Trucking industries in and around Columbiana County, Ohio. Assuming that this is the original engine, it most likely spent some of its time sawing lumber and threshing grain. The boiler appears to have been replaced in 1924 with an ASME code boiler. I have found an S stamp on the back head. The interior of the boiler appears to be in good shape. The stay bolts at the crown sheet still show all of their threads. I have not had it ultrasound tested and the last known hydro was in 1972.

  The Groton has made appearances at the Tuscarawrus Power Show in Dover, Ohio and Stumptown near New Athens, Ohio. It was the engine of the year in 1972 at Stumptown and appeared on a plate that year. The engine was stored in Fred Rogers (1915-2000) garage from the late 1980's until a steam up was held in 1999, a few months before Fred passed away. I purchase the engine from David Rogers (my father-in-law) because I am very interested in steam and I did not want to see the engine go out of the family. The Baker and a Frick had gone to Homer Rogers after Harry's death and were sold shortly after Homer's estate settled.

Timeline for my Groton Engine

1891	Engine constructed by Conger Mfg. a.k.a. Groton Bridge & Manufacturing Co. in Tompkins County, Groton N.Y.
1924	Appears to have had the boiler replaced by American Road Machinery Co., Groton N.Y.
~1958	Engine is owned by Howell Leppo of Maryland.
~1961-63?	Engine purchased by Harry Rogers, of Columbiana County, Ohio. (Possibly purchased by Fred or Homer Rogers, Harry's sons.)
2000	Groton purchased by me (George Erhart) from David Rogers after Fred Rogers passes away.
2005	The Groton moves to Colorado

Pictures of the Groton

	This is a picture of the Groton when it was owned by Howell Leppo of Maryland.
	This is Fred Rogers Sr. standing next to the Groton in 1963. It is freshly painted and has a canopy. The fringe for the canopy has not been applied yet
	Harry Rogers standing by the Groton engine at the 1972 Stumptown Steam Threshers Reunion. The engine is belted up to a grist mill and is grinding corn meal.
	The Groton at the 1976 Dover power show. This is taken as the engine passes in front of the parade grounds.
	Unloading the Groton in Colorado.

Details of the Groton Engine

	Smokebox door:  top - "Monarch Road Roller Co.", Bottom - "Groton Tompkins CO N.Y." Note the difference in “Co” for Monarch Road Roller and “CO” for Groton Tompkins. I am assuming that the latter means “County” and the former seems to mean “Company”.
	Toolbox: “Tool and water box”, “Water” This is another strange feature … I can understand that the box would contain tools, but how can it contain enough water to be useful?
	Cylinder Plaque: "Groton Engine”, "10 HP”, ” No. 2076", "1891" It is from this plaque that the name “Groton Engine” comes from. The family has always called it the Groton Engine. I don’t recall them calling the Baker or Frick that were also part of the family collection as the Baker Engine or the Frick Engine. They were always just the Baker or the Frick.
	Cylinder Head Cover: Star motif.
	Valve Cover:  The star motif appears here, on the smoke box door and the cylinder head.
	Left side gear cover: "Conger Mfg CO.”, “Groton Tompkins Co. N. Y." Two interesting things here, the “CO” and “Co” seem to have reversed their meaning.  According to all of the historical information I have been able to dig up, Conger Manufacturing does not come into being until 1901, but this engine was built in 1891.
	Idler Gear Spring: I have not seen this feature on any other traction engine, but the Groton has the idler mounted on a spring device that appears to absorb some of the "bouncing" that might occur on rough terrain.
	This is part if the boiler stampings on the back head. If you click on the picture, it will take you to a page that has more picture of what the boiler stampings look like.

Who Built Groton Engines

I have been working on building a history of the company that manufactured this engine. Here is a summary of my findings to date:

1849	Charles Perrigo & Company, C & L Co., Perrigo & Avery,  or Groton Iron Works - Starts as an iron foundry building threshing machines.  The Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI. has an 1884 Groton portable engine. The name plate on this engine is states that it is number 175.
1885	Groton Bridge & Manufacturing - Branches into iron bridges, steam engines, grain separators, and steam/hot air heaters. By the 1890's, the company is building Groton Engines (Traction) and Monarch Road Rollers (Eventually) . (The biography of Frank Conger, Who's who in New York (city and state)., Volume 4  By Lewis Randolph Hamersly, John William Leonard, Frank R. Holmes)
1899	Groton Manufacturing Company? - The bridge building component is spun out as American Bridge Co. and the remaining parts continue to build the other items.
1901	Conger Manufacturing Company - building Groton Engines and Monarch Road Rollers (The Engineering Record, Volume 43, No. 10. March 9, 1901, reports that Conger Manufacturing has been incorporated.)
1904	Conger Manufacturing becomes American Road Roller Company. (Municipal Engineering, Volume 26. January-June 1904, Page 64.)
1905	American Road Roller Company is sold at bancruptcy and evidently becomes the Monarch Road Roller Company (Engineering Magazine, Volume 29, April 1905)
1913	Monarch Road Roller Company, Groton NY purchased by American Road Machinery Company out of Kennett Square, PA. (The American City, Volume VII, No. 4, April 1913)
1925	The Groton, New York manufacturing site closes.
1927	Good Roads Machinery Company of Kennett Square, PA moves all equipment from the old American Road Machinery plant in Groton. (Highway engineer & contractor, Volume 17‎ - Page 90)
1932	The Good Roads Machinery Company purchases or absorbs the American Road Machinery Company. (Roads and Streets, Volume 75, page 157.)

Some of the information for the above table comes from the book "Classic American Steamrollers  1871-1935 Photo Archive", by Judge Raymond L. Drake and Dr. Robert T. Rhode. I highly recommend this book to those interested in the development of steam road rollers in America!

Other Groton/Monarch Engines

To see a bigger version, click on the picture. These are generally ordered by age:

	This is a photocopy of a picture that was sent to me by the Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI. It is an 1884 portable engine with wood wheels. The specifications can be viewed here.
	This image is from Floyd Clymer's Album of Historical Steam Traction Engines and Threshing Equipment No. 1. I wish I could read the plaque on the side of the engine. It seems to say "Groton Engine", then underneath, "No 4??", but that is a guess. The book appears for sale regularly on E-bay and is a great reference!
	This image is from the cover of the July/August 1969 issue of Iron Men Album. The caption reads: "This is a picture of my father, Frank A. Brown of Groton, New York and a 12 Hp. Groton engine build in 1895 by Conger Mfg. at Groton, New York. It is filling silo with an Ohio ensilage cutter on the farm of Billy Hare, the local magistrate, just west of Groton. This picture was taken about 1900. On the engine  is Frank A. Brown, owner. In front of the engine with long whiskers is Aaron Howser, next Billy Hare and fartherest one is Ball Clark, owner of the silo filler." Based on the wooden front wheels, I would think that this would be an engine from the 1880's. My engine is 1891 and has metal front wheels. Perhaps metal was an option? The stack is different and seems to be much closer to the stack that is on the Ford Museum Groton.
	This picture is from the March 2003 Steam Traction Magazine (formerly Iron Men Album). The photo was submitted by Brad Vosburg of Farmersville Station, NY. The engine has wooden front wheels. If you compare this engine to the one in the Floyd Clymer book, it looks to be almost identical, so it is probably from around 1887.
	This is also an image from Floyd Clymer's book. It depicts a later Monarch model. While the construction of the engine has changed a lot by this time, the front wheels seem to match the front wheels of my Groton.