Within six years, the company founded by Brothers Clarence and Rollin White in 1911, the Cleveland Tractor Company brought to market two crawler tractors adopting historic and contemporary design technologies enhanced with their own patented improvements.
Similarities
History relates whilst visiting the 1915 World’s Fair in San Francisco, Rollin, who took the lead in the development of Cletrac, was intrigued by the crawlers exhibited on the Best Company stand. He noted the striking similarities with those sold by the Holt Company. Not surprising because Daniel Best, the founder of Best Company, sold out in 1908 to the Holt Brothers, but his son Leo disagreed with his strategy and set up a new company under the Best name, hence the similarities.
Holt and the revitalised Best became great business rivals, but the economic conditions of the Twenties Depression made it wise for them to merge in 1925 to form The Caterpillar Tractor Company. Holt had registered the name as a trademark in 1910, an iconic name and brand in
