the Case Equipment Corporation. Case Equipment became Case Corporation and later Case LLC. In 1999, Case LLC merged with New Holland Agriculture to form CNH Global, a Fiat Group division, which has since been demerged into a corporation that is majority-owned by Fiat Industrial. The name Case lives on in two CNH brands: Case CE (from "Construction Equipment"), which is the world's third largest brand of construction equipment, and Case IH, which is the world's second largest brand of agricultural equipment. History Founder Jerome Increase Case (1819–1891) was born to a farming family in Williamstown, New York. As a young child, Case read about a machine that could cut wheat without people needing to use their hands. He developed an interest in agriculture at that point. Case took small, hand-powered threshing machines to Wisconsin in 1842, where he improved the design and established a company to manufacture them. In 1843, Case moved the business to Racine, Wisconsin, in order to have better access to water power, and opened the Racine Threshing Machine Works. In 1863, Case partnered with three of his top employees, Massena Erskine, Robert Baker and Stephen Bull. Case was also involved in politics and horseracing. Over time, the company grew. Competition in the farm business J. I. Case introduced an eagle logo for the first time in 1865 based on Old Abe, a Wisconsin Civil War Regiment's mascot. Case constructed his first portable steam engine in 1869, an engine used to power wheat threshers. This engine is in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. Case won first place at the 1878 Paris Exposition in France for his thresher. This was the first thresher sent abroad by the Case company and was the first of thousands which would later be exported internationally. It is at this time that Case created his first self-propelled traction engine, with a drive mechanism on one of his portable engines. Meanwhile, in 1871 the Great Chicago Fire destroyed the McCormick factory. Despite Case's offer to help McCormick with the manufacturing of their machines, McCormick Company refused the offer and a new facility, called the McCormick Works was built, in southwest Chicago. The McCormick company introduced the first of many twine binder machines in 1881, leading to the so-called "Harvester Wars" that gained the attention of the farm industry during the 1880s. In 1884, Case made a visit to a farm named after him