Case, Jerome

Case, Jerome (Increase)

(1818–91) manufacturer; born in Williamstown, N.Y. He got his start in the threshing business, running his father's horse-drawn machine. In 1842 he bought six threshers and moved to Racine, Wis., where he sold five and operated the sixth. In 1844 he combined a thresher and a chaff separator and by 1880 had incorporated as the J. I. Case Threshing Machine Company. A founder of two banks, he also served as mayor of Racine and helped found the Wisconsin Academy of Science, Art, and Letters.