The Wallis Tractor Company, of Racine, was organized about 1912, with H. M. Wallis as president and treasurer; H. M. Wallis, Jr., secretary, and Oliver P. Conger, director. Later there were added to the directorate W. C. Quarles, of Milwaukee, and P. H. Batten, of Racine. The company manufactures farm and road tractors which were designed by R. O. Hendrickson. The factory was at first located at Cleveland. Ohio, but was later moved to Racine to be closer to the J. I. Case Plow Works, who are the distributors of its product in the United States. The chief distinctive characteristic of its tractors is the frame construction, which consists of steel plate rolled up into a U shaped boiler construction in which all of the working parts of the tractor are mounted and run in a constant oil bath. Thus the frame of the tractor serves the dual purpose of being a frame and also the housing for the motor base, transmission and differential. The company has been fortunate enough to obtain a basic pattern on this original construction. By reason of its box girder frame construction the machine is unusually light for its strength and develops more horse power than any other tractor in the world. Its motor burns either kerosene or gasoline successfully, and the tractor can turn in a radius of its own wheel base, which is eight feet four inches. The tractor is today being sold all over the United States, for its value and efficiency are at once recognized by both the experienced and the inexperienced in the use of such machines. The factory contains seventy-five thousand square feet of floor space, is supplied with the best labor-saving machinery and devices and employs two hundred people, all skilled mechanics. The plant has a sprinkler system and there is every convenience for the development of the work, while the business management constitutes a splendid basis for the development of the trade.
Source: Stone, Fanny S. Racine, Belle City of the lakes, and Racine County, Wisconsin : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement; Chicago: S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1916.