Dealers plate

[Catd8man]

Hi,I have a dealers plate on our old D8 8R saying "Wortham Machinery Co." of Billings Montana. Can anyone tell me something about this (presumebly defunked!) company?

[Catd8man]

Somebody from Montana must of heard of this company!.Can not find anything on the web

[bruce oz]

hello Catd8man , i found a few pages with there name ,looks like they spent sometime fighting caterpillar for copyright infringements after building some equipment ,other page was with the tax man . .but not anything about the machinery they sold ,bruce oz

[SJ]

I remember years ago when I worked For Cleveland Bros. here in Wilkes Barre Pa.I would see plates on older tractors that come in with Beckwith Machinary on them. Cleveland bought out the eastern part of Pa.dealerships from Beckwith back in 1948 and now about two years ago Cleveland bought out the western part of Pa. from Beckwith and I think there is one in W.Virginia and another or two in Maryland. Cleveland now has around 28 dealerships all toll.

[Kelly]

Catd8man,

Very interesting having found a old dealer name plate from Wortham Machinery Company, (Cat Dealer.) Yes there are out of business, for how long I don’t know. I do know there were still in business in 1958, as a salesmen I knew sold a electric generator plant to the Wyoming Paving Company, early in the year. I think there main office was in Cheyenne Wyo., and there deal ship covered the state of Montana as well. But, I do stand to be corrected on that. I’m sure I knew at one time hearing about them going out of business, but I dont recall when. A company, (Eskridge Construction.) I work for in the mid and late 50’s bought two new DW-15’s and a new D8 14-A with an angle dozer and ripper from them in the summer 1956 while we were working in Wyo., the equipment salesmen (who’s name I have since forgot) for that sale was in Rock Springs, Wyo. I sure someone will come up with a little more.
Kelly

[D4Doug]

My D47u was purchased from Wortham Machinery Company at Casper, Wyoming where they had a dealership. I think they also had a dealership in Cheyenne and Billings, Montana. They sold the Casper dealership to Wyoming Machinery, which is one of the largest Cat dealers.

[Fat Cat]

Wortham had an office and sales here in Sheridan Wy. Closed in the early to mid 70's. Pretty busy place as Kewiets had a big shop and was deeply involved in Big Horn Coal, they mined coal after freeze up and would use construction crews to mine through winter, close down operations and go to construction in the spring.had three uncles and some old friends that done that for years. Sad as everything is now gone. I did buy parts as early as mid 80's in Cheyenne from the old guy that ran it all alone, he passed and that was all she wrote for Cheyenne.

[WyoCat]

Wortham was a dealer group here in Wyoming and surrounding states back the the day. Eventually they were bought out by the Wheeler family who is the owner of Wyoming Machinery now. Wyoming Machinery has a store in Cheyenne, Casper and Gillette. I have heard that a store over in Rock Springs might be on the horizon. All of the other Wortham locations such as a few in Utah and Montana were sold off at the same time. I am not sure of the name of the dealers in Montana, but over in Utah they are still called Wheeler Cat. Yes for obvious reasons, but Wheeler Cat and Wyoming Machinery are not affiliated in any way. Wyoming Machinery was somewhat limited in size by Cat inc. As indicated in an earlier post Wyoming Machinery is one of the larger dealers so that is why their area was limited. With all of the Coal, Coal gasification, Oil and Natural gas in this state Caterpillar sure seems to be holding their own in this tough time. I just hope it stays that way.

[D4Doug]

I checked some old CAT literature that I have and it shows Wortham Machinery having dealerships in Sheridan,Cheyenne,Rock springs, Casper and Greybull, Wyoming as well as Billings, Montana.

[naylorbros]

Wheelers are not longer in control of Wheeler Machinery. Several years ago when Don Wheeler was forced into retirement by Cat, you can only be so old and still run a dealership, he sold his interest in Wheeler to his partner. Bought my 8C Twenty from Don.
Thanks
Ken