Gerald and Russell McKee

Formal schooling ceased at grade eight for twins Gerald (right) and Russell McKee (left) when their father died in a farm accident in 1933, leaving his widow with nine children to raise. Being among the eldest in the family, much of the responsibility for hand-milking 20 Holsteins and working the farm fell on their shoulders. By 1939, their five younger siblings were able to take over, freeing the twins to leave and learn new skills. Russell pursued machining, while Gerald became a welder. In 1945, Russell opened a repair shop for farm machinery in Elmira. Gerald soon joined him in this venture.

When a local farmer approached them about designing a forage blower, similar to one he had seen in the United States, their inventiveness came to the fore. By 1949, they had designed and tested two blowers, which made it possible to handle a hay crop pneumatically instead of the labour-intensive method of baling. The success of the McKee suction blower led them to experiment with several forage harvester designs. The result was the McKee One Man Harvester, which made it possible for a farmer with one tractor to single-handedly harvest and store a variety of forage crops at very low cost. This was at a time when there existed a critical labour shortage on the farm, as young sons left for more lucrative factory jobs.

In total, more than 10,000 harvesting systems were manufactured. A new factory was built in 1952 and expanded in 1958, and a dealer network was established across Canada and into the United States. Other products included an affordable tractor-mounted snow blower, livestock water bowls, the McKee Harvester and Stacker, a cornhead, a chisel plow and the “Insta-Hitch”.

The McKee name disappeared when investors merged with other companies and the brothers sold their shares. However, the entrepreneurial twins were not content to retire. Gerald purchased Gil-Wal Machine Ltd. of Waterloo and Russell joined him soon after to again form a partnership. The machine shop was moved to Elmira and renamed Elmira Machine Industries Inc. The business did custom machining, as well as making pumps for milking machines and liquid waste removal systems. In 1978, the twins purchased the Link Belt Foundry in Elmira and renamed it Procast. The foundry produced custom castings for a wide variety of customers. Procast was eventually sold to an outside buyer. However, the McKee name lives on in McKee Farm Technologies Inc., a business operated by Russell’s son, Phillip, who purchased Elmira Machine from the twins upon their retirement.

Community involvement followed their interest in education. Their taffy making demonstration, a popular feature of the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival since 1968, was one such endeavour. It continues to this day, now in the capable hands of Optimist Club members mentored by Gerald to take on the task. Another was the rebuilding of a model of the McKee Harvester by Russell some years ago, now housed at Country Heritage Park in Milton, Ontario.

Photographs Calla Studio, Elmira