The Hussey Plow Company was established in 1835 by William Hussey, a farmer and native of North Berwick, Maine, who had designed a more efficient plow blade. A simple Quaker farmer, William had been introduced at age 35 to the cast iron plow recently invented by Jethro Wood of New York. By redesigning and lengthening the mould board, he developed a plow that became locally popular, with foundry work done in Newmarket, New Hampshire, and wooden components fabricated and assembled in North Berwick. His son, Timothy B. Hussey, established the T.B. Hussey Plow Co., which carried on all manufacturing operations in North Berwick, expanding the product line to include items such as a newly patented stone boat, iron pipe hangers, cast iron sled shoes, sewer grates, manhole covers, and a cord wood sawing machine. After a fire destroyed the plow factory in 1895, the company was rebuilt by William Hussey’s grandsons to focus on steel products — such as fire escapes, bridge supports, ski lifts, and other sought-after products.
This spirit of reinvention led the company directly into the world of winter sports. As the Hussey Manufacturing Company, the firm produced a variety of items including ski jumps and chairlifts, making it a recognized regional innovator in ski infrastructure. When the Bauneg Beg Outing Club formed in January 1937 in North Berwick and began developing a ski area on the slopes of the 860-foot Bauneg Beg Mountain, Philip Hussey of the Hussey Manufacturing Company played an important role, as the company was a regional leader in building ski jumps and chairlifts across the country and beyond. The club had carved out a trail on land donated by Bernard Quint near the mountain, featuring a 500-foot rope tow powered by an 85-horsepower Ford flathead gasoline engine, with members hand-grooming the 250-foot vertical drop. The connection between the Hussey company and Bauneg Beg Mountain stands as a remarkable local story — a North Berwick manufacturer that began forging iron plow blades for New England farmers ultimately helped shape the skiing landscape of southern Maine and far beyond.
