Honorable Mention – Family B
|This story is about my 1940 John Deere B that has been in my wife's family since it was purchased new by her great-grandfather in Pleasanton, KS. We got it from her grandfather, who is still living at 93 years old, who had purchased it from his father in 1944. We consider it a 5th generation family tractor since one of our daughters will own it someday.
It is also a great barn find story as it sat in the barn for about 25 years before I got it. It came up in conversation one day at my in-laws that something needed to be done with that old rusty tractor so the rest of the barn could be used for cows. I immediately asked what they were talking about and found out there was an old B that had been in the family since new that none of the kids wanted. I spoke right up and claimed that tractor and went down to the barn to see it for the first time. I had been within 200 yards of the tractor many times over 2 years and never knew it was there. We pulled it out in April 2009 and finished a complete restoration in April of 2011. It needed everything from new tires to a new cylinder head. Now it stays in the garage and just completed its first parade this month.
Jay Pruett
Shawnee, Kansas