Servis was incorporated on December 18, 1930 in Texas as Servis Equipment Company, a wholly owned subsidiary corporation of Austin Bridge Company. Servis was organized to maintain equipment for the Austin construction companies and gradually started designing and manufacturing construction equipment such as rollers, packers, and road graders from the middle to late thirties. The first semi-mount, hand-adjustable road grader blade was produced in 1934.
During World War II, Servis began making magnesium incendiary bombs. Part of the plant burned on December 15, 1943, stopping production until January 1944. Production was ceased on August 14, 1945.
Production of farm equipment began in late 1945. In 1947 Servis produced the first tractor-mounted, rotary stalk shredder. The shredder was mounted on the front of the tractor and allowed the farmer to shred and plow in one pass through the field. The first pull-type mower/shredder was produced in 1948.
Other products included the "Whirlwind Terracer", Gyro 84 in 1953 (still in production today), Lone Star blade, box scrapers, and the Gyro 140 in 1959. The Lone Star blade, and later the Little Rhino blade, were the first tractor rear mounted blades having mainframe swing, moldboard pivot, and moldboard tilt adjustment capabilities built in.
In 1969 Servis patented the first four-gearbox flex-wing rotary cutter, the Flex 15. Until then, all flex-wing cutters featured only three gearboxes. The four gearbox design of the Flex 15 enabled the wings to be raised without damaging the wing drivelines. After the FL15 patent expired, the four gearbox design was copied by many competitors. Today, the four-gearbox design is still used by the majority of competitors.
On September 6, 1973 Austin Industries was chartered as the parent company of all Austin Companies including Servis. Athens Plow Company located in Athens, Tennessee was purchased in October 1973. In April 1974 Austin Products, Inc. was chartered as the manufacturing arm of Austin Industries consisting of Servis as the Dallas Division and Athens Plow as the Athens Division. Effective July 1, 1981 Austin Products, Inc. became Rhino Products, Inc.
On June 26, 1986 Alamo Group Inc., based in Seguin, Texas, purchased all the assets of Rhino Products, Inc., including name and trademarks. Rhino Products, Inc. had the charter amended to change the name to Servis-Rhino, Inc. on January, 30, 1987. Servis-Rhino, Inc. was then merged with and absorbed the assets of Terrain King, Inc. a wholly-owned subsidiary Corporation of Alamo Group (USA) Inc. In March 1990 Servis-Rhino, Inc.'s name was changed to Alamo Group (TX) Inc., to match the style of other Alamo Group (USA) Inc.'s corporate names.
In 1986 Alamo Group Inc. purchased BMB, Inc. in Holton, KS to provide much needed manufacturing capacity for the Rhino product line. Also in 1986, Alamo Group Inc. purchased Temple Manufacturing Company to provide a line of posthole diggers to the Rhino product line. The Athens Tillage line was sold in 1987.
Today Rhino products are sold throughout the world and are well respected for their dependability and performance. The product line includes rotary and flail mowers and cutters, rear blades, posthole diggers, pasture renovators, tillers, disc mowers, and box blades.
Rhino, Servis, Twister, Flex Flail, FL15, Lumberjack, and Turf Flex are registered trademarks of Alamo Group Inc.
