Caterpillar is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives. The company was officially founded in 1925 but its roots date back to the late 1800s when one of the brothers behind a successful wagon wheel company began experimenting with tractor designs.
Benjamin Leroy Holt was born to William Knox Holt and Eliza Jane Virgin in Concord, New Hampshire, in 1849. Benjamin was one of eleven siblings, and the youngest of four brothers. His father owned a sawmill that made hardwood for wagon and coach construction. In 1864, Benjamin’s brother Charles H. Holt arrived in San Francisco, California where he founded C. H. Holt and Co. The company produced wooden wheels for wagons and, later on, steel streetcar wheels. Brothers William Harrison Holt and Ames Frank Holt arrived in 1871.
The brothers used wood from their father’s sawmill in New Hampshire, which they transported by ship to San Francisco. Benjamin went to work at the sawmill in 1869 and eventually managed the lumber shipments to his brothers on the west coast. After the Holts brothers’ father died in 1883, Benjamin left for California as well.
Once Benjamin arrived in California, the Holt brothers formed the Stockton Wheel Company to season woods in a way that would prepare them for use in the arid valleys of California and deserts of the West. They based their new venture in the warm Central Valley town of Stockton, California, where the climate was suitable for drying wooden wheels.
Benjamin, by all accounts, was an entrepreneurial and mechanical genius. He spent a good amount of time in a shop across the street from the Stockton Wheel Company headquarters. The space was outfitted with some machine tools, a pattern shop, and half a dozen people who worked solely for him. Known as “Uncle Ben” around town, Benjamin would eventually own over 45 different patents.
Most of the land in and around Stockton was recovered from the delta of the San Joaquin River. Much of the surrounding fields were planted to wheat, which inspired Benjamin to work on tractor designs. After producing a horse-drawn “Link-Belt Combined Harvester,” Benjamin was convinced that mechanical traction engines would replace horse-drawn machinery.
In 1890, Holt built his first experimental steam traction engine, nicknamed “Old Betsy”. It could run on wood, coal, or oil as a source of energy, and rode on huge metal wheels. Holt’s tractors could harvest big fields for a fraction of what a traditional horse-drawn combine would cost. Unfortunately, the behemoth machine weighed some 48,000 pounds and stretched 24 feet, which posed significant challenges in soft farmland. However, foresters soon adapted them to haul Redwood logs out of road-less forests.
Despite the fact that over 100 patents for crawler-type tractor treads had already been issued around the world, none of them had worked in the field. So in 1903, Holt went to England, the hub of invention at the time, to learn more about the latest innovations. He left empty handed.
Back in Stockton, Benjamin returned to his own experiments, applying his knowledge and the metallurgical capabilities of his company. In November 1904, he successfully exhibited the first effective track-type tractor in the fields of Stockton, California.
During a routine test run, company photographer Charles Clements observed the tractor’s tracks moving in a manner reminiscent of a crawling caterpillar. This simple observation inspired the “Caterpillar” name that would become synonymous with heavy machinery worldwide
By 1916, the British had utilized around a thousand of Holt’s Caterpillar tractors in World War I. These tractors weighed roughly 18,000 pounds (8,200 kg) and had 120 horsepower, according to Holt vice president Murray M. Baker (89 kW). 10,000 Holt vehicles were utilized in the Allied war effort by the end of the war.
After the war, Holt shifted its concentration away from agricultural machinery and toward road-building equipment. Benjamin Holt, 71, died on December 5, 1920, after a month-long illness. The Holt Caterpillar Corporation combined with its fiercest competitor, the C. L. Best Company, five years later to establish Caterpillar Inc. The company reported sales of nearly $64 billion in 2024.
Benjamin Holt’s great-grandson Peter Holt operates HOLT CAT of San Antonio, Texas, the largest Caterpillar dealership in the U.S. and one of the largest dealerships in the world. He is also former chairman, CEO, and owner of Spurs Sports & Entertainment, which owns the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs, the USL’s San Antonio FC, the AHL’s San Antonio Rampage, and the NBA G League’s Austin Spurs. (Sources: Money Tent, Caterpillar, Wikipedia)
