Caterpillar Company History

Caterpillar Inc. is a heavy machinery company that was founded in California in 1925 with the merger of Holt Manufacturing Company and C.L. Best Tractor Company to create the Caterpillar Tractor Company. Since its inception it has become the leading provider of heavy machinery equipment in the world. It is considered to be the 44th best company on the Forbes 500 and Caterpillar Inc. stock is part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average which consists of 30 major American companies. The long history of Caterpillar Inc. can be traced all the way to 1884 when Charles Henry Holt and his brothers started up the Stockton Wheel Company. Charles Holt assumed responsibility of the business side of the operation, while his younger brother Benjamin was in charge of the development of new products. It is for this

In the 1890’s they both created steam driven combines that no longer needed animal or human help. This was extremely efficient for farmers and the steam powered tractors were used extensively in hauling freight, plowing fields and harvesting grain.

Benjamin Holt solved another problem with his great ingenuity. The Land in his area was always muddy and became almost impossible to pass when wet. This led to him building the first successful caterpillar style tractor, which was built on tracks instead of wheels. This allowed it to go through almost any kind of terrain imaginable. This allowed farmers to make use of thousands of hectares of land that they would not have been able to use otherwise. This is also said to be where the Caterpillar name comes from because it was thought that the tractor moved like a Caterpillar. After decades of running his company, Daniel Best decided to sell his company to the now named Holt Manufacturing in 1908. His son, C.L. Best went on to work for Holt Manufacturing as a superintendent, but left shortly after to form his own company, C.L. Best Gas Tractor