Another
branch of industry that has taken root in Maybole is that of agricultural
implements. For this we are indebted to the late Mr Alexander Jack, his
successor, Mr Marshall, and Mr Thomas Hunter. Mr Jack began business with a ten
pound note, as a maker of mason's "mells," and ended as owner of
Townhead Works, erected at a cost of £6000, employing upwards of 100 persons,
and producing yearly a large assortment of reapers, carts, waggons, and other
requirements of the farming trade. Mr Jack was much respected as an ingenious
mechanic, and a kindly obliging man. His humble days were spent at Auchendrane
Mill, but when he came to Maybole in 1852
his
fame spread, and continued spreading till his death in 1877. While many
implement works have succumbed to the wave of depression which has recently
passed over the farming interest, these works have not only kept the field, but
extended the sphere of their operations, until now their manufactures are found
everywhere.
Another
of our captains of industry is Mr Thomas Hunter, who has turned his attention
chiefly to such implements as ploughs, grubbers, turnip-sowers, &c., and
these are well-known from John o' Groat's to Land's End. At every Agricultural
Show, no figure is better known than Mr Hunter's, and no "stand" of
implements more successful in securing customers or winning medals.
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