Davenport Locomotive Works
The Davenport Locomotive Works, of Davenport, Iowa, USA was formed as the W W Whitehead Company in 1901. In 1902 the company commenced building light locomotives. The Company was renamed the Davenport Locomotive Works in 1904. In late 1930 Davenport was licensed to assemble and market R G LeTourneau Inc products under the Davenport-LeTourneau brand. The agreement is believed to have ended in 1935 when LeTourneau moved to Peoria, Illinois. Davenport also sold Davenport-Winchell three-wheel roller conversions of industrial wheel tractors, Davenport-Frink snow plows, which were built in license from Frink Sno-Plows Inc, and Reynolds patented Mov-Mor rotary scrapers. In 1933 the company was again restructured and renamed the Davenport-Besler Corporation which continued in business until 1956. William George Besler was a Director at the time of the restructuring. The company acquired the locomotive business of H. K. Porter, Inc in 1950 and from then on produced Porter designs as well as its own. The Canadian Locomotive Company acquired Davenport-Besler in 1955, closing it the following year. The company had built small steam locomotives early on; its first gasoline-fueled internal combustion engined locomotive was built in 1924 and first diesel locomotive in 1927, a diesel-electric for the Northern Illinois Coal