PART ONE:
In a two-part series, author Robert Pripps drills deep to uncover the entrepreneurial and fiercely competitive spirit that propelled Daniel Best and Benjamin Holt to an eventual consolidation launching Caterpillar. In the first part presented in this issue, the rise of two young businessmen is presented against the backdrop of a rapidly evolving nation. Two family names – Holt and Best – are inexorably linked to the great name of Caterpillar, the Caterpillar tractor and Caterpillar Inc. of Peoria, Illinois. As the Industrial Revolution developed around the world, the Holts and Bests took their places alongside other great men of ingenuity, ambition and charismatic leadership who launched great industries: Deere, McCormick, Deering, Oliver, Ford, Massey and Harris. These visionary leaders mechanized American agriculture and, in the process, they…
