Charles Walter Hart was born in 1872 in Charles City, Iowa, in a house (now removed) on east end of what is now Ellis Park on Hart Boulevard. C.W. Hart's parents were Lovira Grover Hart and Oliver W. Hart of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. "C.W.'s" grandfather (also a Charles Hart) was the first settler in Hart's Mills (1835), later changed to Wauwatosa (meaning fire-fly), Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee. Grandfather Charles and his brother, Ben Hart, built a water-powered grist mill and sawmill there.
There were three sons and one daughter in the family. Ada, Winfield and Archie were all born in Wauwatosa and accompanied their parents on a "typical pioneer" horse and buggy trek to Charles City to build a new home.
The Oliver and Lovira Hart family, which includes 'C.W.', is as follows:
Ada Hart (unmarried) was an artist and teacher at Nora Springs, Iowa.
Winfield Hart became a lumberman and farmer in Charles City and Floyd County. He married Ethyl Ayers, an aunt of Dr. Emmet V. Ayers. They had four daughters and three sons. Rose Hart (unmarried) who lived on the Nora Springs, Iowa farm with her mother, Ethyl, until 1927 when they moved to town and she became a teacher. Mable Hart Thiele whose husband is a farmer in Rockford, Iowa. Ruth Hart Stufflebeam of Rockford, Iowa, whose husband is a retired employee of the Rockford Brick and Tile Company. Winifred Hart Shanks of Nora Springs whose husband farms on the old highway to Mason City. Ben Hart (eldest of the three sons) retired in March 1963, from the Oliver Corporation (successor to Hart-Parr Co.) after 21 years of service in shop, experimental, service, assembly and inspection department jobs of responsibility. Oliver Hart is a farmer in Columbia, Missouri. Albert (the youngest) Hart is Superintendent of the Charles City generating plant of the Iowa Public Service Company, located adjacent to his famous uncle's original factory.
Archie Hart, the second son of Oliver and Lovira was married but had no children. He was in various enterprises in Iowa, Illinois, California and Texas. He passed away in about 1944.
"C.W." or Charles Walter Hart was the third son, fourth and last child, born to Lovira and Oliver Hart after their arrival in Charles City in 1871.
Oliver W. Hart set up a lumber business on what is now Riverside Drive and later acquired considerable farming land north of Rudd and Nora Springs, Iowa. One farm, north of Rudd, was later used as an Experimental Farm for the famous Hart-Parr Tractors. During his boyhood, "C.W." and his two brothers helped their father in his lumbering and farming operations in and around Charles City.
Charles graduated from the Charles City High School and enrolled at Iowa State College, Ames, in 1892. In 1893 he entered the University of Madison, Wisconsin, where he met C.H. Parr (from Beloit, Wisconsin) another young engineer.
"C.W." graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1896, and together with his close friend and schoolmate, C.H. Parr, they had formed the Hart-Parr Company in Madison, Wisconsin, before graduation and built a successful oil cooled, valve-in-head stationary engine and produced it commercially. By 1900 the partners and other stockholders decided to re-establish the business in Charles City, Iowa, near C.W. Hart's boyhood home, in the heart of the corn belt country.
They soon developed a successful gasoline engine on wheels and were able to obtain sufficient financial backing in Floyd County, Iowa, to build a modest plant in 1901. They later produced oil cooled, kerosene burning, plowing "tractors" and continued (as partners) to improve and expand their tractor business all over the world.
In 1918 Mr. Hart and Mr. Parr sold their interests in the company to their original backers, the Ellis family of Charles City. Mr. Parr then went to Peoria, Illinois, where he developed an improved street sweeper. After some years with this venture he returned to Charles City to accept a lifetime job in the Engineering Department of the then Oliver Farm Equipment Company, of which his beloved Hart-Parr Company was a part as a result of a merger in 1929 of four large manufacturing companies.
C.W. Hart, together with his chief engineer at Hart-Parr Company, Mr. C.E. (Conrad Erwin) Frudden, then moved to West Allis and Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. Frudden became permanently associated with the Allis-Chalmers Mfg. Company. Hart and Frudden developed a tricycle-type row crop tractor which was later used by Allis-Chalmers and called the Big "U".
Mr. Hart had previously acquired four sections of railroad "checkerboard" wheat land north of Hedgesville, Montana, and three of his Hart-Parr "35" Road King tractors for "horseless" raising of wheat and a place to carry on experimental operation of a 3-cylinder, oil-fuel tractor development he was working on at West Allis and Milwaukee. In the summer of 1918, Warren G. Wheeler and his twin brothers - Lyman E. (Mac) Wheeler and Jefferson G. (Ted) Wheeler of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, who are the three sons of the late Lyman G. Wheeler (cousin of "Charlie" Hart and a brother-in-law of John P. Gregg) were sent from Charles City to Hedgesville, Montana, in a Model "T", canvas covered, Ford truck by Mr. Hart. Mac and Ted had worked at the Hart-Parr Company during the summer of 1915 making shells for the British in the "shell-shop".
Asa Weatherwax, a member of the well-known Weatherwax Quartet of Chautauqua fame, also accompanied the group, together with his wife, Kate, and two daughters, Evenelle and "Pinky". This group had charge of Mr. Hart's ranch, after overcoming the mud and gumbo of the Dakotas to reach Hedgesville. Mr. Hart made frequent trips from Wisconsin to check on operations at the ranch. In Milwaukee after World War I he had developed a three-cylinder fuel oil or distilate engine. He lived on Wauwatosa Ave. north of the cemetery. Parts were made on special order for him both at West Allis and at his own rented area in the then vacant Pabst Brewery Building in Milwaukee. He assembled two of these tractors and had them shipped to Hedgesville for experimental use; parts for a third tractor were kept for repairs. The Wheeler twins worked with Hart the day he first started one of the 3-cylinder tractors and they recall (1965) how Mr. Hart jumped up and down like a boy when it started with the first turn of the crank. Each of the boys drove a tractor from the brewery at 10th and Garfield Streets, Milwaukee out to Hart's residence in Wauwatosa. They were "broken-in" for 3 weeks then shipped via C.M. & St. P.R.R. to Montana.
In Montana Mr. Hart had about four years of good success in raising wheat on the four sections (2,560 acres) of land with the three "35" Road King Hart-Parr tractors he acquired after selling the tractor works in Charles City, along with the 10 ton-3 cylinder experimental tractors from Wisconsin. The winters were hard and there was some drought. Then a catastrophe struck when his machine sheds and equipment were destroyed by fire. An arsonist was suspected because of Mr. Hart's interest in Wheat farming which fenced off the "Free Range" of the cattlemen and deprived them of their range. All of the tractors were lost in the fire. The American Thresherman - a popular trade magazine - had devoted a large double-page spread to Mr. Hart's venture in power farming in Montana. The idea was creating interest for large scale farming in the early 1920's, but now in 1922 he was faced with ruin. He liked Montana in spite of his misfortune because it was best for his health and held great possibilities in the oil fields.
The indomitable Mr. Hart did not give up - instead, he pursued another field in which he had become familiar - oil refining. During his tractor engine experiments he worked with crude oil to obtain the right grade of distilate fuel for best tractor performance. He had previously been successful developing the first kerosene burning tractors. This led to some patents he obtained on cracking crude oil to obtain best fuel oil quality for use not only in tractors, but for road oils and heating. He raised capital by disposing of his interest in the Hart estate in Charles City (mainly through his brother, Winfield) and by obtaining a "silent partner", Mr. Green of Lewiston, Montana. Together they formed the Hart Refinery of Hedgesville. This plant produced gasoline, fuel oils and road oils for many years. Mr. Hart had given up his work back in Wisconsin in favor of his future in "cracking" Montana and Wyoming crude oil. Mr. C.E. Frudden remained with the Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company to become chief engineer from which position he retired in 1960. He is a past president of the industry-wide SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers).
Another refinery was established about 1929 in Missoula, Montana, and the Hedgesville plant was closed. Hart Refineries of Missoula soon created their own dealer, company-owned, and distributor outlets throughout the Flathead and Bitter Root Valleys. John Gregg, formerly of Charles City, Iowa was called in as sales manager. Gregg had been a lawyer for the old Hart-Parr Company, and later president of Oliver Limited in Canada.
In 1935 Mr. Hart was called upon to design and build a refinery at Cody, Wyoming, by a group of businessmen who had formed the Park (County) Refining Company. They were using the "hard-to-crack" Bridger-to-Lovell Basin crudes. He did it and with great success as was noted by the fact that the Texas Oil Company (one of the world's largest) had closed down a million dollar refinery within a few blocks of Mr. Hart's refinery in Cody because they were unable to profitably crack the crude any longer. "C.W.'s" refinery flourished, and today is part of a large chain of refineries. This writer worked for Mr. Hart at Cody in 1936.
Mr. C.W. Hart died in 1937 of a heart attack at the age of 65 while still actively engaged as president of Hart Refineries in Missoula, Montana. The business was later sold to other interests by members of his family and the partner, Mr. Green. The refinery was closed and various outlets no longer carry the Hart name.
* George R. (Jerry) Gregg worked in the Oliver Corporation service department at the same time that I was a technical writer there. He was a fine gentleman and was always friendly, helpful, and kind to me. I thank Howard Shanks of Nora Springs, Iowa for putting me in touch with this history of Jerry's once again. I clearly remember talking to Jerry about the writing of this history back in the 1960's. Jerry was also instrumental in procuring the Hart-Parr tractor which is enclosed in glass and sits, to this day, in front of the Floyd County, Iowa Museum.
Larry Morphew