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Enter our tractor photo contest for your chance to appear on our 2025 Calendar or 2025 Catalog, and receive a Steiner Tractor Parts gift card!
Contest runs April 2nd through July 2nd, 2024
My story is about a little 1951 Harry Ferguson TO-20. We had three farms in my family with two tractors. One was an Allis Chalmers for the heavy work on the largest farm. It was a work horse and went with the farm when my father and his siblings sold it. Somehow my father worked all three farms and held a full time job. The second biggest farm we had was 125 miles away from the other two and it was solely my parents farm. That is where the Ferguson held its own and performed miracles every weekend. Daddy cleared the woods that became beautiful pastures that feed the nine horses and one brama bull that lived there. Small gardens and light upkeep kept the little Fergie busy.
In 1969 my parents moved from Columbia, South Carolina to Beaufort, South Carolina and needed a piece of land to put their two horses on. It was about a year later they bought a parcel and it was deemed “The Farm”. Throughout the years my brother and I grew up helping Daddy work and maintain the three farms. When we were old enough by his standards we would drive the Fergie from the Farm to our house. It was about four miles away and we loved driving it. We would bushhog the pastures and learn to drive a vehicle before we were twelve years old.
He got the Fergie in 1970 for $200 and a cypress stump. It sounds strange to some about the stump. The older man that he bought it from ran a junk yard in Columbia and used the tractor to move cars around. My dad brought the stump to him and hauled the Fergie to Beaufort the next day. So much work to get a 19 year old tractor.
The status of the Fergie didn’t change much over the years. When my father was ready to stop working the Farm in 2002 he split it between my brother and me. My brother lived on his half until he sold it in 2015. There was nothing on my part so we had the Fergie and all the equipment stored on it. My father started going down in his health and was unable to perform hard labor any longer. He wanted me to go and get her and bring her home. I had been retired from the Marine Corps by then and traveled home to move her.
She had been sitting about two years without being cranked. The fuel system was gummy. It took around six cans of starter fluid and fresh gas to get her started. I got her to the trailer and brought her home. Since I wasn’t living there I would make trips home and work to get her back to normal. During this time my father fell and injured himself very badly. He hit a table, broke his ribs and punctured a lung. This started a down hill slide for him. He had been diagnosed with COPD and his accident aggravated it. The tractor sat still during this time but I finally had ample time to get her started. Daddy wanted a huge azalea bush cut down and I decided the Fergie and its bushhog would make quick work of it. He demanded to be outside to watch me drive his tractor. I remember while I was cutting it up looking at him and that was the first time I’d seen him smile since his accident.
His health declined more and more until he passed in 2020. The tractor was always right there in the shed behind their house. I remember one night when I was visiting my mom telling her that I had to get his tractor working again. She told me that she agreed and that it was my tractor now. I took that as the start of a new life for the Fergie and me. Today I am actively restoring her a little bit at a time. One day she will shine better than she ever did while my Dad had her. One day I’ll post a picture on here when it is completed.
Jeffrey Holliday
Jacksonville, North Carolina
If you would like to submit a story with photo(s) about an experience with your tractor, interesting facts about its history, or a restoration project, please go to Tractor Story Submissions. If your story is picked to appear on the blog you will receive a FREE Steiner hat. Some stories will also go on to be published in our quarterly magazine. We look forward to hearing your story!
She was in sad shape when I brought her home, an old Farmall F20, my first tractor. I bought her from a local boy scout leader when I was 18 in trade for an old outboard motor and $200.00. I had never seen one like it but the price was right. My father expressed his doubts and told me to park her behind the garden. I took stock of my prize and made a list of what I needed, several pages. Radiator shot, transmission gears broken, bearings smoked, governor worn out, cylinders scored, head cracked, sheet metal torn and bent, generator burned up, axle wishbone and cradle broken, tie rod bent, all bushings and pins worn out, rims rusted through, tires rotted, lights gone, control rods missing steering wheel falling apart.
The biggest challenge was finding parts. I started with the local IH Dealer who advised me to go to a salvage yard for any parts I would need. I learned to ask for a lead from anyone who would listen. I attended local farm shows and spoke with anyone who might help. I met many who had one part or another and a few showed me vast collections of hundreds of old tractors. I drove hundreds of miles to salvage yards and shows, always one goal in mind, further my old F20’s restoration. I was rewarded with many finds. NOS pistons rings and sleeves, valves, and radiator core
But the years rolled by and I grew discouraged working on her. In time I found parts new and old. I paid machine shops to make and repair parts. One by one the machine shops went out of business. Crowley Boiler Works, Miller Tool and Die, and others all gone. I would move on to another shop farther away. In time 4 decades passed and more. With my 9 children mostly grown I still struggled to make ends meet but I never lost sight of my goal. I left no stone unturned, the Job is Done. The old gal runs strong and true no smoke or leaks. The PTO Dyno says 28 HP.
My Grampa would have loved her, he was 39 when this F20 was shiny and new in 1936.
Edward Prestin
Jackson, Michigan
If you would like to submit a story with photo(s) about an experience with your tractor, interesting facts about its history, or a restoration project, please go to Tractor Story Submissions. If your story is picked to appear on the blog you will receive a FREE Steiner hat. Some stories will also go on to be published in our quarterly magazine. We look forward to hearing your story!
This is my Grandfather’s 1940 Farmall A. He bought it new and made beautiful gardens to feed his 9 children and wife. Then my Daddy inherited it and I can remember riding on the back behind daddy to the garden with him. He loved this old tractor. He never was able to restore it and usually just pieced things back together if anything went wrong with it, but he always had beautiful gardens.
After my daddy passed in 2007 my brother inherited it but he never used it and it just sat in an old barn. Then my brother said I could take it and restore it. I got a wrecker to pick her up and as you can see she was in pretty bad shape. New tires, and lots of work and now she’s parade ready. I think it is the most beautiful tractor in the world. There is no amount of money that could buy this jewel, and I sure hope my daddy and grandpa can see her from heaven ❤️❤️❤️❤️. Old Red don’t plow fields anymore, now she is just showed off in parades and used in photos of family.
Thank you for letting me show her off, and thanks to Steiner for great parts and great service.
Regina Stedman
Ramer, Tennessee
If you would like to submit a story with photo(s) about an experience with your tractor, interesting facts about its history, or a restoration project, please go to Tractor Story Submissions. If your story is picked to appear on the blog you will receive a FREE Steiner hat. Some stories will also go on to be published in our quarterly magazine. We look forward to hearing your story!