Ox Bows and Ox Yokes For Sale (circa 1890-1899)

Ox Bows, $7.50/dozen
Undated illustration from
Hibbard Spencer Bartlett and Co. Catalog
Chicago, Illinois

The Iowa Farming Tool Co. of Fort Madison, Iowa, USA, was producing 1200 ox yokes a year in 1891, according to the Iowa Bureau of Labor Statistics of that year. The company also made pitch forks, hoes, rakes, scythe snaths, and grain cradles. The ox yokes and other items were manufactured by convicts who were leased from the Iowa Penitentiary of Fort Madison for fifty cents an hour. The workshops were located in the prison.

The two inch diameter ox bows were sold by a Chicago distributor, Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co., for $7.50/ dozen (sixty-two cents each). Heavy lumberman’s bows were $16.00 a dozen.


Ox Yokes, $6.60 each
Undated illustration from
Hibbard Spencer Bartlett and Co.Catalog
Chicago, Illinois

A complete medium sized ox yoke (ironed and bowed) sold for $6.60. If you wanted that in the large size it was $6.75.