Tractor Stories – 1953 Farmall Super H
My Farmall Super H has traveled through several family members and many miles since it was bought in 1953. My mom acquired the tractor when her dad, my Grandpa Don Egger, passed away in 1984. The story from grandpa was that he bought the Super H on his brother Vernard’s farm sale. The owners manual said however, that Delbert Egger, grandpa’s other brother, bought the tractor new in 1953. We now believe that when Great Uncle Delbert passed away suddenly in 1956 and his machinery was sold that Great Uncle Vernard bought the tractor. Subsequently, when Great Uncle Vernard had his farm sale in the early 70’s Grandpa Egger bought the tractor to keep it in the family. The tractor had been used on the farm for an auger and mower tractor and I just remember thinking how “slow” the tractor went down the road when I drove it as a kid.
During the summer of 2004 friends of mine, Roger, Dean, and Norv, and I decided to take a 10 day antique tractor drive from Yankton, SD to the Nebraska-Kansas border. I knew that I wanted to restore Grandpa’s 1953 Farmall Super H for the drive. Because we had been using the Super H we only changed the narrow front end to a wide front end to make it ride better, put on some new tires and gave it a fresh coat of paint. We drove approximately 250 miles traveling gravel roads, pulling a couple of homemade trailers, sleeping at camp grounds and making friends along the way!
In 2005 Dean was unable to join us but the three of us decided that we would travel from the west border of Nebraska to the east border so we started at Pine Bluffs, Wyoming. We stopped to surprise relatives at Sterling Colorado and then traveled around 400 miles to the Iowa border. American flags were an addition to all of our tractors this year which brought additional attention to our travels. We were interviewed by a couple of small town newspapers, a TV station and radio station. Again, we met wonderful people and heard lots of stories.
In 2006 we joined the Iowa tractor drive a day late as we had our CortlandFest Antique tractor show on the day it started. We started at Waterloo Iowa and head across Iowa with over 100 tractors. The ride was very well organized and all stops for food, breaks, and over night stays (in motels) were pre-planned. We had a great time and met a lot of antique tractor enthusiast but decided that we were more cut out for the three of us just traveling by the “seat of our pants”! That year we traveled approximately 330 miles.
In 2007 we decided to start at Cortland and travel across Missouri to Dupo, Illinois to see a friend. We had a large group of tractors join us the first couple of days but by the time we got to Brownville, Nebraska it was just the three of us once again. This was our longest trip yet – 460 miles – and our biggest challenge was getting across the Illinois River, so we hopped the ferry. We spent a few days in Dupo with our friends and then loaded the tractors on our semi flat bed and headed home! Yes, during our travels Mom and Dad would drive the semi and either drop us off so we could drive back home or come pick us up!
During these trips we met a lot of wonderful people who fed us, helped with repairs, let us camp in their driveways, and shared their memories of growing up on the farm and the tractors that they drove. Even though we have not gone on any “long” tractor drives since 2007, we still take the tractors out and drive them to tractors shows in Lincoln, Wilber, Sterling, and of course Cortland. Last summer my three year old granddaughter, JayLeigh, decided she loved going on tractor drives and she likes riding on her great-great grandpa Egger’s tractor!!
Troy Moormeier
Cortland, Nebraska
