One thing to take into consideration is that there were 2 Avery companies. One was plain Avery Co. and the other was B. F. Avery & Sons Co.
Benjamin Franklin [B. F.] Avery started out about 1825 with a blacksmith shop at Clarksville, Virgina. Though the company started very small, it experienced several major expansions. The firm ended up being absorbed by Minneapolis-Moline Co. in 1951, but the Avery name lasted a bit longer as a product line.
Avery Co. started out as the Avery Planter company in Galesburg, Ill. in 1874 and was formed by Robert H. and Cyrus M. Avery. Building planters, Cultivators, and stalk cutters turned out to be an excellent business. The company experienced growth and the brothers relocated to Peoria, Ill. in 1884. In 1891 the firm began building sream traction engines and threshers which were to be the mainstay of the Avery business for many years. In early 1924, Avery Co. went into bankruptcy. They reorganized as the Avery Power Machinery Company. The company did fairly well until 1931- the darkest days of the Great Depression. They reorganized and once again the company did fairly well, until the intervention of WW 2.