MacKISSIC HISTORY
60 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE</p
In early 1947 Elton MacKissic, postmaster of Parker Ford, Pennsylvania, had an idea that he could manufacture bale hooks and plow trip rope releases in the cellar of his home and sell them to farmers. And that’s what he did. They were sold through agricultural catalogs like Herschal’s of Peoria, Illinois and McLeods of Canada.
In 1952 Mac started building farm grain wagons, which, eventually, evolved into the Farm Caterer, a mobile-on-the-farm hammermill and molasses blender. By 1959 Mac had outgrown his facilities at his home and purchased an old building at the current location. Business began to prosper. In 1961 Elton was already building and selling leaf shredders.
Meanwhile a young explosives engineer needed a manufacturing site and an office to run a fledgling company called Amerind Inc. This engineer was George F. Knotts. So from 1964 to 1967, the two companies (Amerind Inc. and MacKissic Inc.) had a joint manufacturing agreement and shared the same facility.
Mac introduced his first lawn and garden sprayer in 1966. This one unit was the beginning of the Mighty Mac® lawn and garden line of outdoor power equipment.
Mac and George decided to merge the two businesses in 1967 because it made economic sense. Thus Amerind-MacKissic Inc. was formed.
Mac retired in 1977 and George Knotts was the sole owner and operator until February 1982, at which time Amerind-MacKissic was purchased by Inductotherm Inc. of Rancocas, New Jersey.
In 1990 the AN/FO manufacturing division was sold, the company’s name was changed to MacKissic, Inc. and the business focus was concentrated on producing the quality Mighty Mac® line of lawn and garden equipment.
In April of 1991 MacKissic purchased the Merry Tiller® front tine tiller line of products which was designed by Clayton Merry and produced in the state of Washington since 1947. All manufacturing is now done at the MacKissic plant in Parker Ford, PA.
MacKissic announced their acquisition of the Easy Auger® product line manufactured by E-Z Industries Inc. of Alexandria, MN, in November 2001. The Easy Auger® was the first auger of this design type and was originally introduced in 1991; in 1996 the first self-propelled model was developed.
With the latest addition, the complete MacKissic line includes leaf shredders, leafcyclers, leaf blowers, chipper-shredders, vacuum-chipper-baggers, powered sprayers, mid-tine® and rear-tine tillers, stump cutters, rough terrain mowers, and augers. MacKissic sells throughout the U.S. and the world under the Mighty Mac®, Merry Tiller®, Merry Mac®, Merry Commercial, and Easy Auger® brand names.