Buffalo Pitts Threshing Machine Company

The Pitts Agricultural Works was incorporated in Buffalo, New York in 1877. The Fargo branch was established in 1880 and was located at 420-424 N.P. Avenue, along "Machinery Row." The company sustained a loss of $50,000 in the great fire of 1893. Their new warehouse was built over the ruins of the old building. It was 75x170 feet. A spur track of the Northern Pacific railroad ran to the rear of the warehouse where there was a 30x75 foot platform with a 24-ton traveling crane to assist in unloading machinery. The offices were in the front of the building.

In addition to this building, Buffalo Pitts had a 50x75 foot warehouse on the banks of the Red River.

From 1880 to 1894, the company had sold 1800 threshers and 1300 engines. The manager of the Fargo operation, in 1894, was S.G. Wright.

The company went through difficult times in the early 1910s, and closed the Fargo branch around 1914. By 1915, the Emerson-Brantingham Implement Company was located in the Buffalo Pitts building.

Although the two advertising posters shown above (from 1900 and 1905) show a native American chasing a Buffalo, the firm was named for the city in which it was founded, Buffalo, NY.

The firm produced very popular models of traction engines and threshers. Shown to the left is one their models in use in North Dakota.