BUSHTON MANUFACTURING - Key Persons

J. R. Prewitt in Pleasant Hill, Missouri founded J. R. Prewitt and Son Machine shop in the mid 1920s. They went on to develop the Belsaw planer in 1929, the first of a product line that they would expand and continue to this day as the Hawk Wood Working Tool line. J. R. Prewitt and his wife had 14 children, seven boys and seven girls, all of whom were active in the company. After J. R. Prewitt's death in 1951, control of the company passed to his youngest son, Ralph, who managed the company for the next 20 years until its sale to Verle L. Rice in 1972.