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It was in the year 1892 that Steve Hunter organized the first industrial
enterprise that came to Bidwell. It was called the Bidwell Plant-Setting
Machine Company, and in the end it turned out to be a failure. A large
factory was built on the river bank facing the New York Central tracks. It
is now occupied by an enterprise called the Hunter Bicycle Company and is
what in industrial parlance is called a live, going concern.
For two years Hugh worked faithfully trying to perfect the first of his
inventions. After the working models of the plant-setter were brought from
Cleveland, two trained mechanics were employed to come to Bidwell and work
with him. In the old pickle factory an engine was installed and lathes and
other tool-making machines were set up. For a long time Steve, John Clark,
Tom Butterworth, and the other enthusiastic promoters of the enterprise had
no doubt as to the final outcome. Hugh wanted to perfect the machine, had
his heart set on doing the job he had set out to do, but he had then and,
for that matter, he continued during his whole life to have but little
conception of the import in the lives of the people about him of the things
he did. Day after day, with two city mechanics and Allie Mulberry to drive
the team of horses Steve had provided, he went into a rented field north of
the factory. Weak places developed in the complicated mechanism, and new
and stronger parts were made.
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