When President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, Rose’s company was ordered to take part in the 10,000-federal troop search for John Wilkes Booth. Educated in New York and Pennsylvania, he enlisted in Company B, 15th New York Cavalry in 1863, serving under General George A. According to the 1914 History of Cherokee County, Iowa, by Thomas McClulla, Rose was born in Portville, New York, May 25, 1843. “This press has parts that are very similar to those on presses known to have been made by Superior Drill,” Joe says.

Some collectors believe Joe’s press may have been made by Superior Drill Co., Springfield, Ohio. Recently, a fellow collector sent Joe a photo of a very similar no-name press that was stenciled Montgomery Ward, Chicago, Ill. They often sold these brandless items through the catalogs of companies like Sears, Roebuck & Co. “However, to add to their overall sales, they produced cider presses that were just like the higher-price model but with no identifying marks. “Buckeye made one of the most expensive cider presses,” Joe says. That allowed them to capture a portion of the market that was unwilling to pay for a higher-priced brand name. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, manufacturers sometimes stripped the company name and identifying marks from products and sold them at a lower price. I never found any advertisement about a press with a grinder housing like this one.” This kind of press is often referred to by collectors as a ‘no-name’ press.

“But there are no patent dates engraved on any of the castings, and no company name or place of manufacture. Joe searched for advertisements showing a similar press in numerous vintage catalogs. “When you’re making cider, this is a very nice feature and I’ve never seen it on any other cider press.” “It can be easily pivoted back, exposing the cutter cylinder and the two squeeze cylinders for cleaning,” Joe says. One unique feature of Joe’s antique fruit press is the way in which the grinder housing is secured to the press frame. No-name antique fruit press might be a Superior

Initially, Fred used the press on his farm to process apples from the family orchards. “But his son offered to write down whatever Fred knew and get as much information as he could.”įred bought the press for $5 in the mid-1950s from Henning Nestor, the man who bought Ed Rose’s farm in about 1920, when Rose and his wife quit farming and moved into Marcus. “By then, Fred sometimes had difficulty remembering things,” Joe says. As pleased as he was to buy the press, he wanted to know more about its history. Just as Fred had said, Joe found the wooden apple press to be in working condition, even though it was probably manufactured some 140 years ago. “The family was cleaning out the barn,” Joe says, “and wanted to sell the cider press.” In the spring of 2018, after Fred and his wife moved to a nursing home, Fred’s son called Joe. When he ran into Fred at a gas station, “I asked him if he remembered telling me about the press, and if I could come and see it.” Fred said he would have a difficult time getting to the press because of all the things stored in his barn. Making a $5 investment in the 1950sįor two years, Joe wondered if he would ever have an opportunity to see the press. “Maybe someday we can do that,” Fred answered. “Do you know anything about it?” Joe asked. Fred told Joe that he had a vintage apple press that was well preserved. Joe first learned about the press from retired Marcus postmaster Fred Wilkens, who admired Joe’s display of restored apple presses at The Barns Museum in Marcus. Having served in the Civil War under General George Armstrong Custer, Rose came to Iowa after being discharged from the service. Rose was the first homesteader in Marcus Township in Cherokee County and, in 1869, the first homesteader in the township to build a dwelling. Rich details found in the local newspaper and Marcus historic publications revealed that William “Ed” Rose originally owned this no-name antique fruit press. When retired high school teacher Joe Wurth learned of a vintage cider press tucked away in a barn in his hometown of Marcus, Iowa, he couldn’t have imagined where the history of the piece would take him. A junior-size press like this would have been capable of producing up to 150 gallons of apple juice per day.

Antique large number press