I have always been told that my Grandfather,Elizah Saltsman had invented the Potato Digger, and its quit interesting that someone in my family invented something,that was quit a big deal. In some of these other pictures I have it is fully restored back into the original condition, the wood I used to restore it was oak, and looks real pretty,it has been varnished, someone would have to look real close to see the prick punch marks, these marks are what was used to bend metal while in the forge, some of the parts were welded in a forge. I have been told that there are one or two casting places in Bath and one in Corning, Allen Foundry. Also there were Ross and Hastings. I don't know if they were a place to make castings or machine work. I have been told that as Saltsmans themselves put them together, as far as I know there are no records telling how many of these diggers they made, but this particular one that I have here was used a lot of years this is told by the wear, also they didn't plant many acres but did raise a lot of potatoes. In 1884 this potato digger went to the Steuben County Agricultural Society known as the Steuben County Fair, Erwin Saltsman was awarded a large diploma, as far as we know 1884 is the only backup and proof of the Saltsman Potato Digger.