The world honors its great men by building to them monuments of marble, stone and bronze, but a man's best monument is the record of his own achievements and the institutions of his own building.

In the city of La Porte, Indiana, Meinrad Rumely who so recently passed away, built himself an enduring monument in the form of a great threshing machinery plant, which is the manufacturing pride of the city and upon which his name is impressed doubtless for all time.

Few states, if any, in the West have as many pretty small cities as Indiana, which has none prettier than La Porte, commonly known as the Maple City; the name is derived from the great number and size of the maple trees. At this season of the year its broad brickpaved streets and miles of cement sidewalk are gratefully shaded by a variety of maples, while its handsome homes are almost hidden by the luxuriant foliage.

The city itself is fifty miles distant from Chicago and twelve miles from the south shore of Lake Michigan, with an elevation of about three hundred feet above the lake, which can be seen on a clear day. It is on a divide which separates the waters that flow to the Mississippi from those that flow to the great lakes. The entire surrounding country is beautified by orchards, vineyards and groves. North of the city is a beautiful chain of small lakes, stretching for a distance of five miles and connected by clear channels, which constitute a beautiful and attractive summer resort feature.

In the way of modern improvement, La Porte has everything that distinguishes a modern, progressive American city. Its buildings, public and private, are in keeping with their handsome surroundings. The most conspicuous building and the one which the visitor sees upon first entering the town is the County Court House, La Porte being the seat of government of the La Porte county. This magnificent structure, built entirely of Lake Superior brownstone, cost upwards of three hundred thousand dollars and has been occupied about ten years.

A block distant is the next most important institution in the county, the plant of the M. Rumely Company, established way back in 1853, when La Porte was scarcely large enough to merit the designation of a village. Because this plant was established at La Porte and because it was the nucleus around which a town with other manufactories sprung up, the three hundred thousand dollar court house was made possible.

The exact location of the plant is at Madison and Main streets, although its buildings now extend over several blocks and its principal warehouse is located some distance away from the main factory buildings. In one of the views shown herewith a number of frame buildings are to be seen on the original site where Meinrad and John Rumely located their machine repair shop in 1853, where some years later they began the manufacture of horse powers and sugar cane crushers and in 1857 built their first thresher.

In place of the little frame buildings, modern brick structures, mostly three stories in height, have been built, enlarged and extended to meet the ever increasing demands of the company's business. The woodworking department is now in a building 100x40 feet, and three stories in height; the machine shop in another brick building 235x60 feet, and two stories in height; the oiler shop in a one-story brick building 50x200 feet; the warehouse, immediately across the street from the main factory building, is a new three-story brick structure 130x115 feet, and the brick warehouse, with loading platforms in the Lake Shore track, is 60x380 feet, two stories and a basement.

The plant is operated throughout by steam generated in Rumely boilers and supplied through a 160 horsepower E. P. Allis engine. An electric light plant furnishes the lighting facilities.

The foundry, dimensions of which have been given, is a model of what a foundry building should be, roomy, light and well ventilated. It is equipped with a Rumely boiler, which runs the blower and the elevator. In one corner, divided off from the main room, is a core room, and in back of the foundry building is a new two-story brick building containing pattern vaults.

The blacksmith shop is equipped with the most modern machinery in boiler making, including a huge hydraulic riveter and air hoists and cranes. For traction engines the company builds a locomotive style of boiler, either direct or return flue, as required, both coal or wood burners, together with straw burners for the northwest trade. The company also builds stationary boilers and many of the large manufactories in that section of the state are equipped with Rumely boilers.

The engine machine shop is a separate department from the separator machine shop and is equipped with comparatively new machinery, some of which has been specially invented to perform special work required in the construction of Rumely separators and engines. Wherever compressed air can be used to advantage the various departments have been equipped with it and it is in operation from the rooms where rough castings are placed to be worked on by the sand blast and in the machine shops where it is used to drive in cylinder teeth and other service required in great pressure. Adjoining engine machine shops is the engine erecting room and test house.

The separator department, as has been stated, is in a building by itself and is so conveniently arranged that the work is continuously progressive from the room which the raw lumber is sawed and planed to the finished separator. One may get an adequate idea of the size from the fact that in the separator erecting department ten machines can be erected side by side at the same time. The clover hullers are also built in this department, and the storage facilities on the third floor of the building are so arranged that the separators are stored immediately above the separator department and the hullers immediately above the huller department. There are entirely separate departments for wind stackers and self-feeders. This company now builds the Ruth feeder. The separator department is equipped with a collector, which gathers the dust and shavings and deposits them in the boiler room. The patternmaking department is also in the building where the separators are constructed, as is the drafting department.

The storage and loading facilities of the M. Rumely Company are excellent. In the new three-story brick building immediately across the street from the main factory building the two upper floors will hold seventy separators each. On the lower floor the wheels are put on, together with attachments, etc. This building is equipped with an immense hydraulic elevator, which handles a fully equipped separator and room to spare. Not far from this warehouse is a loading platform for the Lake Shore and Erie roads. The largest storing warehouse is on the line of the Lake Shore tracks. The two upper floors are used for storing separators, feeders and other attachments, and the engines are stored in the basement. The company ships on its own cars for the most part. These cars are specially constructed for M. Rumely Co. They are sixty feet long and will hold an engine, separator, clover huller, with wind stackers and self-feeders.

When the plant is running full force, as it is practically all the year, about three hundred and fifty men are employed.

Until this year the M. Rumely Co. has confined its business entirely to the domestic field, which it has covered thoroughly. There is no wheat-growing section in the United States where Rumely machinery is not to be found. Accompanying this article are views of their principal branch houses in St. Louis, Toledo, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Des Moines and Cairo. In addition to these the company has branch offices at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin; Logansport, Indiana; Lincoln, Nebraska; Grand Forks, North Dakota; El Reno, Oklahoma Territory, and Chicago, Illinois. This year the company has made a shipment abroad and is preparing to establish an export business.

Until the death of Meinrad Rumely, in March last, he was and had been president and general manager of the company since it incorporation in 1887, previous to which time he had been at the head since its foundation.

Of late years a great deal of the active work has devolved upon his sons, William N. Rumely, the vice- president and superintendent, and Joseph J. Rumely, the secretary and treasurer. Both of these gentlemen were born in La Porte, and have been brought up, so to speak, in the threshing machinery business.

Another valuable official of the company is Mr. S. H. Patterson, the sales manager, who has had a wide and varied experience in that line of work.

Neither the M. Rumely Company or the machinery it manufactures, needs any word of feulity. While the company's plant is not the largest in the world, it is by no means the smallest. Within and without it has an air of extreme neatness and prosperity and the visitor cannot fail to be impressed with the excellent management, which prevails throughout. To complete the physical appearance of the plant and also to provide commodious office room the company is now planning a fine brick office building on the exact site of the original plant, on the corner of Madison and Main streets. When this shall have been completed, the plant will have a symmetrical appearance physically equal to that of its product.

It would be idle to speak in detail in commendation of machinery that has been on the market since 1857. It is enough to say that it has been the mixed policy of Meinrad Rumely ever since he engaged in the threshing machinery business to manufacture dependable machinery that was each year abreast of the times. That purpose he fulfilled throughout his entire life, and it is not to be doubted that his sons will follow in the footsteps of their worthy father.

Originally printed in the May, 1904 issue of Thresher World and Farmers' Magazine.