Old Missoula

 

Charles W. Hart – Hart Oil Refinery

 

 

Sometimes credited with inventing the first commercial gasoline powered tractor, Charles Walter Hart is practically unknown in Missoula, the city where he finally settled and died. Hart founded the business Hart Oil Refinery in Missoula in the 1920’s.

 

The little known Hart successfully manufactured tractors long before he came to Missoula. In fact, Hart and his partner, Charles H. Parr, are actually credited with inventing the word ‘tractor.’

 

“The word ‘tractor’ was first used by Hart-Parr in a June 1907 advertisement put together by sales manager W. H. Williams, who wanted to shorten the lengthy phrase ‘gasoline traction engine.’ The new word caught on and was subsequently used by other manufacturers. The word ‘tractor’ had been used prior to that time in an 1870 patent, but Hart-Parr is credited with making the word part of the English language.”[1]

 

Born in 1872, in Charles City, Iowa, Hart attended the University of Wisconsin where he majored in mechanical engineering. There he joined with Charles Parr, his friend and future partner, to design and build several small internal combustion gasoline engines. The two joined to write a thesis on their new gasoline powered designs.

 

By 1896, when he graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Hart and Parr had already set out to build and manufacture new engines that would revolutionize the farming industry. Steam powered implements would soon become relics.

 

By 1901 they built a manufacturing plant in Charles City, Iowa, Hart’s home town. That same year they produced a five ton behemoth – ‘Old Number One’. Although others had earlier built their own version of gasoline powered ‘tractors’, Hart and Parr were manufacturing and selling them by 1903. Hart-Parr dominated the tractor market for several years. “In 1907 about one third of all tractors in the world were manufactured in Charles City.”[2]

 

One Hart-Parr tractor built in 1903 – old #3 – is now housed in the Smithsonian.

 

The groundbreaking technical features of these Hart-Parr tractors included valve-in-head, oil cooled 22-45 horse-powered engines. Kerosene carburetors with water injection (twin injection) were new concepts that improved their new engines and led to Hart’s interest in oil and gas refining.

 

World War 1 had an impact on Hart- Parr when they dallied in the unprofitable manufacturing of weapons and ammunition.

 

By 1917 Hart was in trouble with his investors. He soon left Hart-Parr industries and by 1929 the company was subsequently merged with Oliver Farm Equipment Company. Eventually over 3,000 people were employed at the Charles City tractor works. Oliver later merged with White Motor Corporation. Tractors were still manufactured in Charles City until 1993.

 

Hart’s connection to Montana came about not long after he left Hart-Parr in 1917. Investing in a 2600 acre wheat farm in central Montana, near Hedgesville, Hart next set about developing “experimental” 10 ton -3 cylinder tractors designed for large scale farming. His Hedgesville experiment is still not widely known in Montana history.

 

After successfully farming here for a short time, Hart’s farm operation was soon allegedly the victim of arsonists distraught with the expansion of fenced farming in Montana cattlemen’s ‘Free Range’. The 1920’s drought in Montana also coincided with the end of Hart’s farm experiment.

 

Hart then turned to refining oil, a trade that he had experience with for years. Along with his new partner, a Mr. Green, from Lewistown, Mt., Hart went on to build refineries in Hedgesville, Missoula, and Cody, Wyoming. Hart is credited with ‘cracking’ oil which others had given up on before Hart became involved.

 

The company created and supported several of their own dealer outlets in Western Montana under sales manager John Gregg who followed Hart from Charles City, Iowa.

 

In Missoula Hart Oil refinery was located just south of what is now called the Old Sawmill District. At one time remnants of the plant were scattered in the area where Ram Field is now located. The District has recently been the site of large scale redevelopment.

 

Hart died from a heart attack in Missoula in 1937.

 

 

http://www.gasenginemagazine.com/farm-life/the-hart-parr-story.aspx?PageId=2#ArticleContent

 

 

http://www.oliverheritage.com/history.php

 

 

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