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“ I can, if I will. “

In 1887, Kate Gleason assumes the role of Chief Sales
Representative for US and Europe, three years later
she becomes Secretary/Treasurer of the Gleason Tool
Company. She will become a driving force for the
company’s success.

The First Lady of Gearing

In the earliest years of the company, elected to membership in the ASME create affordable homes for workers
three of William Gleason’s children (American Society of Mechanical and designs the houses to be
work in the shop. The oldest, Kate, Engineers). In 1915, Kate shifts from constructed using poured concrete.
begins helping her father with the machine tools to trailer manufacturing. These European style structures are
bookkeeping at the age of eleven. She works with George Hiller to create built to last 100 years – indeed they
Kate later enters Cornell University patents for draft-bars and draft-gears remain even today.
to study engineering, the first woman to enable cars to carry 1,200 pounds
in that institution’s history to do so. and travel at 30 mph. Her “Hi-Speed
She serves as Secretary-Treasurer of Trailercar” is a luxurious camper,
the Company and becomes the chief offering the comforts of home on
salesperson from the age of twenty- wheels. In the 1920’s, Kate develops
five and for many years thereafter. In the “Concrest” neighborhood in East
1917, she was the first woman to be Rochester, New York. Kate aims to

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