This here 1949 44 Massey Harris was built from the ground up from a tractor that went through the Mississippi River Flood of 1993 over in Mier Illinois. I bought it out of a newspaper ad, it was in pieces in a shed. Some of the tractor was still packed full of river sand.
I was thinking about going into stock car racing as a hobby. But my Dad had another dream for me instead. He worked for a Massey Dealership for nearly 25 years and the love of tractor pulling was always a dream of his. So we took this tractor home and started building the pulling tractor. I pulled it for a few years until I moved away from home then sold it to my Dad and he pulled it up until his passing in May of 2013. Then us kids sold it at his estate sale.
But my younger sisters grew up going to pulls with this tractor and Dad, so we bought it back and I still pull it in our Dad’s memory each and every pull we go to. I still hear a lot of stories from pullers about how my dad could make the Massey Walk The Dog down the track. He always pulled 4500 lb – 6500 lb weight classes with it.
We have also started doing a tractor pull each year in his name for all of the love for
tractors he did over the years plus a Scholarship in his name for at least 1 FFA Student each year.
James Harmon
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
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