The July/August 2025 issue of Antique Power magazine is available in our gift shop and will be available in subscriber mailboxes and on newsstands soon. For this issue we feature the Rumely 6A. Special thanks go to Dylan Simmons, Keith Jones, and the Keystone Truck & Tractor Museum for enduring one of our editor’s insane pre-dawn photo shoots on a bone-chilling April morning! For more information about this enormous collection of amazing tractors and trucks, visit KeystoneTractorWorks.com.

The Last-Ditch Effort

The Rumely 6A could have saved the company!

Story by Chad Elmore, Photos by Carrie Nickerson

Does any antique tractor stand out in the collecting hobby like the Advance-Rumely Co. OilPull? Some may see the OilPull as no different from others of the era, but few brands that went out of business in 1931 attract as much attention among modern enthusiasts as Rumely.

For that reason, every museum and tractor show must have a Rumely model on display. Rumely made innovations in the early 20th century that were years ahead of the competition. The company ensured its products were based on quality, dependability, and innovation. Rumely stayed with its popular designs, some would argue, for too long. When lagging sales convinced Rumely executives the brand was falling behind the competition, it proved to be too late.

Rumely’s last-ditch effort, the 6A, was just not enough to save a company whose name had for so long been synonymous with the tractor industry.

M. Rumely
The story of the 6A can be traced to 1823, when Meinrad Rumely was born in Germany. As a young man, while attending military school, Rumely made the error of stepping past the company line. The captain in charge saw the minor mistake and struck him with his pistol. Rumely decided that German military life was not for him and emigrated to the United States in 1848.

In 1852, Rumely, along with his brother, John, opened a foundry and machine shop in Portland, Indiana. The business served the railway industry and made railroad car and drive wheels, locomotive cylinders, and machinery for sugar cane crushing and processing sorghum molasses. By 1855, the Rumely brothers employed more than 20 people and produced more than one ton of castings per day. They produced agriculture machines while working to meet the demands of the railroad. The Rumelys built a corn sheller that could shell 1,500 bushels per day. This path led to a threshing machine that could be driven by a horse treadmill or sweep. In 1861, M&J Rumely threshers took first place at the Illinois State Fair in Chicago.

To expand the successful business and make threshers more efficient, Rumely developed a steam engine to power the machines. Meinrad Rumely bought out his brother’s share in the business in 1882 and reincorporated as M. Rumely Co. in 1887 in La Porte. He ran the company until his death in 1904, after which his sons took over the firm. Joseph Rumely was given control of the sales and finance side of the business, while William Rumely oversaw the firm’s mechanical division.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the July/August 2025 issue of Antique Power magazine!

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July/August 2025 Antique Power

The Last-Ditch Effort

The Rumely 6A could have saved the company!

Story by Chad Elmore, Photos by Carrie Nickerson

Other articles in this issue include:

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