I wish there was a date on this ad for the Pitts traction engine. This is copied from 'Old Time Agriculture in the Ads' by Robert F Karolevitz, 1970, North Plains Press, Aberdeen, SD. The Pitts company was started by John and Hiram Pitts, twins born in 1799. In 1837 they patented a thresher that set the pattern for all successive threshing machines. They moved to Buffalo, New York in 1840, and that is why the company became know as Buffalo-Pitts.
This particular engine is an early one, possibly one of the first traction engines produced by this company. It has a Stephenson reverse gear; the 1896 catalog has engines with a Woolf reverse gear, so we know this ad is before 1896.
More information about the Buffalo-Pitts engines can be found in the Encyclopedia of American Steam Traction Engines by Jack Norbeck, Crestline Publishing, Glen Ellyn, IL, where I found the information about this company.
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