Pennsylvanian preserves remnant of Bucher & Gibbs Plow Co.

Ken Recker found a decades-old horse-drawn plow, the embossed "B&G Plow Co." still visible on its corroded metal, last fall in an appropriate place in Pennsylvania.

Tucked in weeds and forgotten, the farm implement – manufactured by Bucher & Gibbs Plow Co. in Canton – was discovered near Everett, Pennsylvania, in Bedford County, which is at the edge of the Allegheny Mountains.

Bucher & Gibbs Plow Co. of Canton – founded in 1836 as the Joshua Gibbs Plow Co. by inventor and manufacturer Joshua Gibbs, who later partnered with John Rex Bucher – was the first plow company west of the Alleghenies.

"I saw it in some brush," said Recker, who had been cleaning up a neighbor's property for sale. "I didn't know if it was valuable. I didn't know if it was worth anything to anyone. I didn't know if a museum would want it."

Reckert asked his neighbor if she wanted to keep the ancient farm implement, and she said, "No, just take it."

So, Reckert, who "didn't want an antique to go to the scrap heap," moved the plow to a corner of his garage where it could be more easily inspected.

"We dragged it out, me and my wife," he said, "and when we got it to our garage, we cleaned it up, brushed off the dirt from around the 'B&G', and got rid of all the ants that had been living in the crevices. The wood (handles) had rotted away over the years.

"I just thought it was very interesting. I knew it was old and I wanted to know the history of it."

Consulting with a neighbor

Not long after the plow's removal, Reckert contacted another neighbor, Allen Boyd, who collects vintage tractors and has knowledge of old farm equipment.

"My dad, my brother, and I all have old tractors," Boyd said, noting that the family specialty is John Deere. "My sister has tractors, too."

Boyd also owns three old plows. "One of them would actually work,” he said.

So, with his reputation in his region of Pennsylvania as the "plow guy," Boyd was an understandable authority with whom Reckert was wise to consult.

"Al said he had never seen one like it before," Reckert recalled. "But, he told me it was a flip plow."

According to farmanddairy.com, in an article by Sam Moore who grew up in western Pennsylvania, "some horse-drawn plows throw the furrow to the left, while others (most in fact) throw them to the right."

Left- or right-hand plows dig a furrow in one direction. A walk-behind "flip plow" or "swivel plow" or "reversible plow" turns its blades so farmers can plow a return furrow.

Boyd did some research and learned that B&G stood for Bucher & Gibbs.

"There were a lot of articles about B&G plows and about Mr. Gibbs," Boyd recalled. "I saw pictures of what people said were B&G plows. I was hoping to find some sort of brochure to see what they look like to compare it to what Ken found."

History of the company

A "Stark's Famous" piece in The Canton Repository on Jan. 16, 2016, relates how Joshua Gibbs, who was born in 1803 and died in 1875, founded the Joshua Gibbs Plow Co. in 1836.

"His plow company made Canton the first center of plow manufacturing west of the Alleghenies," the article reported.

Gibbs contributed to the growth of Canton in more ways than with his farm implement manufacturing company, the 2016 mention also said.

"Joshua Gibbs' farmland became one of the first of several additions to the original city of Canton in the northeast."

A page at the City of Canton website notes that Gibbs was trained as a blacksmith, cooper and woodworker where he was born in Trenton, New Jersey. When he came to Canton he toiled in William Fogle's cooperage, then worked as a blacksmith in a shop on Fourth Street NE, where he "began developing plows, first of wood and then of metal."

"In 1836 he received a patent for the bar share plow. He had the metal portion made by the Laird Company. Gibbs then developed a process for manufacturing the metal part in-house and in 1854 he received a patent for the new plow," documented the city's posting. "His plant after his commercial success extended 100 feet on Fourth Street and was 40 feet wide and two stories high. At his retirement at fifty-three years, his sons continued the business at times merging with other manufacturers. The company Bucher and Gibbs in 1880 had 70 employees and sold $120,000 worth of plows."

John Rex Bucher, eventually a named partner in the firm, was born in Canton in 1827 in a house at the corner of Tuscarawas Street E and Cherry Street.

Bucher manufactured heating and cooking stoves with John Danner before he became a partner in the Bucher & Gibbs Plow Co. in 1864.

"The most notable product that was made while Bucher was president was the 'Gibbs Imperial Plow,'" noted a history website for Canton Woman's Club – an organization based in the Victorian Gothic structure on Market Avenue N which Bucher built as a residence for his family. "The company would be an exhibitor at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago in the agricultural center."

What to do with the plow

So, by any manner of estimating the time of the manufacture of the plow found in Pennsylvania, it quite obviously old. And, the farm implement arguably is historically significant. B&G Plows of any kind appear to have been well respected.

An ad for the "Imperial Plow" of Bucher & Gibbs, for example, calls it "The Best Plow In The World."

"Manufactured in steel for loam and prairie," the ad claims, "chilled for sandy land, combination for mixed soil."

The ad dates the "Imperial" from 1864 to 1893 and argues that "twenty-nine years of success thoroughly established the 'Imperial' superior to all other plows.

Both Recker and Boyd remain avid in their search for information about the plow found in Pennsylvania, bits of history they would gladly accept from those with knowledge of B&G horse-drawn plows. And, they seem in agreement about what eventually should happen to the aged soil-turner.

"I would like to work with him (Recker) to get it fixed up and displayed in a museum," said Boyd. "What I'd like to have is some information about the company. I love history, so I'd be interested in anything I can find out."

Reckert also can see uses for the plow that are both historical and decorative in nature.

"In south-central Pennsylvania, a lot of people like to decorate their yards with old farm equipment," Recker said. "I may put it up for sale and see if anybody wants it."

Still, placing the plow in a museum is an idea that intrigues him. There is much to learn about the history of early agriculture in America from this old and suddenly rediscovered earth-turning instrument.

"I don't have any plans for it," he said. "But, I like to preserve this kind of stuff and put it somewhere that people can see it."

Reach Gary at gary.brown.rep@gmail.com. On "X" (formerly Twitter): @gbrownREP.

This article originally appeared on The Alliance Review: Pennsylvanian rescues plow from Canton's Bucher & Gibbs Plow Co.