New Idea may be gone but the memories still alive for many

COLDWATER - New Idea Farm Equipment has been shut down for almost 20 years, but many older residents and former employees still hold fond memories of the homegrown company and its innovative creations.

They gathered on Wednesday morning at Briarwood Village to hear about the history of the company and shift through memorabilia and photos.

Virgil Muhlenkamp joined New Idea in 1956 for what would become a 40-year-career. When he started, everything was done by hand, but he remembers working during the introduction of the computer age. He was voted president of the union in 1983, a position he held for 12 years.

The company hit many historic milestones during his tenure, yet New Idea was changing the farming industry decades before he came onboard.

Joe Oppenheim founded the company at the end of the 19th century with a revolutionary idea. Oppenheim had noticed that farmers were spending an inordinate amount of time spreading manure in their fields by hand, with some boys missing work because they were helping their families with the task, Muhlenkamp said.

As a teacher in Maria Stein, Oppenheim came up with the idea for a new manure spreader while watching children play "tom ball," a variation of baseball played with a paddle instead of a bat.

He noticed the ball could be hit in any direction depending on the angle of the paddle and saw a solution to the manure spreading problem. A series of paddles attached to the rear of a manure spreader would spread fertilizer in a wide pattern several times the length of the spreader.

The company got its start in Maria Stein making the new manure spreaders in 1899. Some neighbors initially were skeptical of the spreaders. However, they eventually came around and referred to Oppenheim's invention as "Joe's new idea" - giving birth to the company's name, Muhlenkamp said.

When Oppenheim died of typhoid fever a few short years after the company's founding, his wife invested his life insurance policy back into the business, Muhlenkamp said. The company continued to produce new manure spreaders with improved designs in Maria Stein until it moved to Coldwater in 1910.

With direct access to the railroad tracks that ran through Coldwater, New Idea was ready for growth and added more farming equipment to its manufacturing line. Corn shredders, transplanters and the first successful corn picker to be put to market were all created by New Idea in those early days. Even as the beginning of the Great Depression started to hinder other agriculture businesses in the nation, New Idea enjoyed great sales.

"I think anybody that worked at New Idea knows that for years, there wasn't a better corn picker out there," Muhlenkamp said.
  To continue expanding their line of products, New Idea bought the Sandwich Company of Sandwich, Illinois, whose EasyFlow manure spreader quickly became one of the most popular products. At this point, the business had also become an incorporated entity, ending its run under the Oppenheims.
The company would add numerous products during the 1950s and 1960s, including hay harvesting equipment, superpickers, mow conditioners, combination corn picker-and-shellers and a three-row corn picker.
From 1974 onward, however, Muhlenkamp recalled mounting difficulties. During his first year as union president in 1983, he was called into a room by management and told the owners were considering selling the business: New Idea wasn't making enough money anymore.
The company managed to hang on for another decade, but shortly after it celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1999, the announcement came that New Idea was to be closed and its assets liquidated. By the time the new millennia rolled around, the large Coldwater factory stood empty.
After the New Idea facility shuttered its doors, developer Bob Bruns eventually entered the picture. Rather than letting the facility sit empty and grow weeds, Bruns renovated the building and began leasing space out to new businesses, Muhlenkamp said, calling it the best thing that could have happened for Coldwater.

While many of New Idea's products are now collectors items, some parts of the company still live on in the community. The credit union originally formed by New Idea is still technically in operation, though it goes by a different name after its recent merger with Superior Credit Union, Muhlenkamp noted.