Biographical Sketch of O. Rust, St. Joseph, Buchanan County, MO

>From "History of Buchanan County, Missouri, Published 1881, St. Joseph
Steam Printing Company, Printers, Binders, Etc., St. Joseph, Missouri.
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O. Rust, manufacturer of well augers and drills, is a native of Oakland
County, Michigan, and was born November 21, 1828.  Was there reared,
educated, learned, and afterwards conducted the marble trade for a num-
ber of years.  He operated the same business in Wisconsin, Illinois,
Indiana and in 1870, came to Macon County, Missouri, where he engaged
in business.  In 1873, he commenced operating a well auger.  Being a 
man possessed of a large amount of inventiveness, he set to work to 
produce an auger that would economize on time and labor, and the result
of his ideas was in placing before the world the Old Reliable Rust
Auger.  He continued still in sinking wells, and, in 1876, commenced to
manufacture at Macon City, Missouri.  The merits of this good article
soon became known, and the demand was so great that, in the spring of
1880, he commenced to manufacture in St. Joseph, where better facilities
were offered.  Also, for one and one-half years his manufacturing was 
done at Fort Wayne, Indiana.  Some estimate of his business may be in-
ferred from the fact, that his sales, in 1880, footed upwards of 
$25,000.  His trade extends into nearly every state in America.  The
Eagle Drilling Machine, another of his patents, although but recently
placed on the market, is rapidly becoming popular in the mining regions
of the West, as well as Eastern States.  Mr. Rust's father, Clement
Porter Rust, was a prominent citizen, and figured conspicuously and
successfully in Michigan politics.  Our subject was married, in 1855,
to Miss Helen Porter, of Vermont.  They have four children: Ida M.,
Kittie, Clara and Frank.

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