The Awakening of Louis Jr’s Tractor

Daddy’s little beat up Ferguson was a bit of an embarrassment because it had dents, rust and a rough paint job. The body was an oily brownish color with clods of dirt packed in every nook and cranny. Its fenders and hood were rusty grey with filler and rust holes. The rims were blue. My brother and I thought she was so ugly back then. It was always there in the background of our lives. It was nothing more than an asset that was needed on our farm. 

My parents passed away, and in 2024 we sold off the homeplace. My brother-in-law let me put Daddy’s Fergie at his place. It stayed in his barn for over two years until 2025 when we got it here to Eastern North Carolina. 

I was motivated to fix her up and ordered everything that fit a 1951 Ferguson TO-20. I kept myself busy working on her, so eating and sleeping could wait. I went through sandpaper, grinding disks, acetone and paint to make her look great again. I welded new steel on her too. It worked better when I completely replaced all of her electrical system, filters and fluids. I know that my wife was biting her tongue with every crank up of the old girl. The exhaust filled our garage and neighborhood. Many nights I was locked up from working on her, my hands hurt so badly but I pushed through. It was great even though it sounds terrible.

Upon completion of the remodeling of Louis Jr’s tractor, I recalled the first time I ever drove it. I was about eleven years old when Daddy taught me how to drive it. I was so scared back then. Now that I was going to test drive her, I felt scared again. What if something breaks as I drive it or the engine fails? It was too late to worry about it. I drove her around the neighborhood and felt so proud to have something this great passed down to me. This was our moment to shine. For 75 years old, it’s fantastic to have it running and looking beautiful again. She’s just for riding around now.

We never gave her a name growing up, she was just “The Tractor”. My father gave a cypress stump and some cash for her. The cypress stump came from the Pocotaligo River in Clarendon County, South Carolina. I used an anagram of Pocotaligo to get a name. One name that stood out was Pogo. There was comic strip called Pogo Opossum when I was a kid. She was bought with a stump from a swamp and Pogo was from a swamp. So it will be known as Pogo from this moment on. 

Thank you for allowing me to tell the story about bringing Louis Jr’s Tractor back to glory.
Jeffrey Holliday
1951 Ferguson TO-20 Owner

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