A Christmas Tractor Memorial

Our son Jeff had a passion for restoring old John Deere tractors. He took on a massive project to restore a 1952 John Deere MT, which is featured in this photo. The tractor arrived to us in a pile of rusty parts, and we had to travel to various shows to learn how to put it back together. It took us four long years to finally complete the restoration. After that, Jeff sandblasted and painted every part of the tractor multiple times. He also went above and beyond and restored a small round fender John Deere 110H, which is shown on the left side of the photo.

Sadly, Jeff passed away in 2023, but we wanted to honor his memory by displaying most of his equipment every Christmas. This photo is from 2024, and it shows off his incredible work. You can also see his Farmall Super MD-TA, which he was planning to restore. He had also restored the frame of a farm wagon and built the entire wagon out of downed trees, cut into timbers and lumber at an Amish Mill in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He even built the small wagon in the foreground.

Tractor info: John Deere 110H, which was a variant of the original John Deere 110 “lawn/garden” tractor, featuring a hydraulic lift system. The “H” signified the addition of hydraulics, making it a sought-after model among collectors and enthusiasts of the early “round fender” series, which was produced from 1963 to 1967 before changing to the square fender design. Farmall Super MD-TA is MD with Torque Amplifier transmission it is a row crop tractor

Jake Boekhout
Cranbury, New Jersey

If you would like to send in 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!