Even before electricity came to rural Missouri, Max Swisher was busy at work, producing "handmade" lawn mowers from inside his mother's chicken coop.

The truth is, Max never cared for mowing grass.  What he did enjoy was using his creativity to invent easier ways to do things.

Max cleverly installed a gearbox on the family lawn mower creating a self-propelled mower.  He then went about tying one end of a long rope to his new self-propelled mower, and the other end to a tree growing in the center of the yard that needed mowing.

Eureka! Max's new mower circled the tree, shortening the rope with each pass and guiding the mower in perfectly concentric circles.

Meanwhile, Max enjoyed his afternoon relaxing under a nearby shade tree while his invention did all the work!

Max had designed the first self-propelled rotary lawn mower.  Neighbors noticed his new invention and began asking him to make more self-propelled mowers.  That was the humble beginning of the Swisher brand that has been in business since 1945!