You are browsing archives for
This month’s featured tractor photo was submitted by Josiah Waldner and features his Allis Chalmers model CA tractor.
“This tractor was purchased from a neighbor’s estate sale. It had not run for many years but was in good mechanical condition. After a fresh paint job, new decals, and new wiring, it looks like new!” – Josiah Waldner
Check out all of the winning photos from our annual tractor photo contest that were chosen to be featured in our 2019 catalog.
This story is more about a place rather than a tractor. In 1980 a husband and wife decided to have an antique tractor show at their home. Just like any event the first was small but successful. The duo had a unique love and common hobby of antique farm equipment. Together Horrace and Norma Potter owned over 300 pieces! They easily could have shown their own equipment and had an amazing show, but they chose to open it up and share the hobby with other restorers.
The annual tractor show went on for 20 years in Milford, Delaware until the Potters hung up their hats in 2000. Now this is where two lives collide. In 1991 on the 10th annual Hickory Ridge Farm Show a 15 year old named Russell Geyer III started showing his own farm equipment. Russell showed equipment and participated in the tractor pull competition. Russell being a part of a farming family loved Hickory Ridge. Horrace taught him how to compete. Russell competed at Hickory Ridge for 4 years.
After high school graduation he, like most graduates, joined the working class. In 2014 Russell purchased and restored a tractor his family bought new in 1963 which appeared in his wedding to his wife. In 2015 Russell and his wife began purchasing and restoring antique farm equipment. Again a husband and wife team up to rescue these long forgotten power houses. By 2018 the Geyer’s had 18 tractors. Nothing compared to the Potter’s but its a goal to work towards.
After Norma Davis Potter passed away in 2017 the farm was prepared for a new legacy and going up for sale. Friends of the family connected Russell with the Davis/Potter family and in October 2018 Mr. Geyer purchased Hickory Ridge. Vendors, tractors, and exhaust had not filled the show grounds in 20 years. Children had not ran through the property eating hot dogs. People from surrounding states had not taken in Hickory Ridge’s beauty. Russell remembers the smells, the roar of a tractor pulling a load down the track, the American flag whipping in the wind. Russell and his wife vowed to the family the show would come back to Hickory Ridge.
On November 3rd 2018 the first Hickory Ridge Antique Tractor Club held its meeting. Bylaws and rules were formed, positions were filled, and a sense of pride fell over the 5 members and even 2 junior members in attendance. The club is working hard to have the second Annual Hickory Ridge Antique Tractor Show in August 2019. We are looking for more members, including youth members, more vendors, and more sponsors. The family and club want the show to be just like it was. It was a place where history came alive, festivities were affordable, and memories could be made. Hickory Ridge is back and ready to get the show started!
For my tractor stories read on here.
All my life I heard, and often used myself, Thomas Wolfe’s famous phrase “you can’t go home again, you can’t recover the past”. I agree the saying may stand true for many things, but not my grandpa’s tractor.
Grandpa Anthony with 1952 Allis Chalmers CA
For fifty years all I had of grandpa’s tractor was an old black and white picture of him standing in front of his 1952 CA Allis Chalmers tractor. Of course I had a wealth of memories of the tractor from my childhood. As a six year old, nothing was more fun than spending my summer days riding between the seat and fender of the tractor as grandpa cultivated the fields of cotton. A tractor ride to the creek behind his house to fill two 55 gallon drums so we could water the cows and hogs capped off the days. At harvest time, grandpa would climb onto the tractor and I would dive into the trailer full of cotton to begin our two mile trip to the gin. I can still remember the warmth of the cotton as I peered over the edge of the trailer at the glow of the taillight with a mismatched casing (part orange and part black), mesmerized by the man and the machine.
My memories from those times were often the basis of the stories I shared with my son and grandson as we worked on numerous tractor restorations. In fact, both stored a picture of grandpa with his tractor in their cellphones. It always made me hopeful they would share their memories of my stories with future generations. Paired only with the knowledge that grandpa eventually sold the tractor to a man on a nearby farm, I never dreamed our paths would cross again.
Grandpa’s tractor found in woods
However, recovering the past became much more than just a memory or a dream in 2017 when my son happened across an old tractor about three miles from grandpa’s farm. Having been in the woods for years it was in pretty rough shape, but something about the tractor kept telling him he had seen it before somewhere. He knew it was a CA Allis Chalmers from the 50’s with a cultivator, but some unique features were what really caught his eye. He immediately pulled out his phone, pulled up the picture of his great grandpa’s tractor and began to put it all together. The stabilizer bar grandpa hammered into the cultivator, remnants of the steering wheel knob he had added, and the mismatched taillight. There it was, grandpa’s tractor he had heard me talk about for so many years.
When we brought it home to the farm, the tractor was obviously not the beauty it once was as depicted in the picture or my memories. In honor of my grandpa and in hope future generations would come to know stories of years gone by, I set out to rebuild and restore the tractor that had brought me so much joy as a child. It would not be an easy restoration with a stuck engine, rotten tires, and rusted metal. It was a far cry from its glory days. Countless hours of work, numerous orders to and shipments from Steiner, much encouragement from family and friends and ten months later we gathered to hear the sound of grandpa’s tractor running once again. Now, when I hear someone say you can’t go home again, I always think of grandpa’s tractor….back home where it belongs.
Grandpa’s tractor restored
Keith Wood – Centre, Alabama
Weiss Lake Antique Power Association, Inc.
Farmall Cub Before
With the help of Steiner Tractor Parts my Cub has changed to look like a tractor, instead of a bucket of rust. I still have a few touch ups to do, like lights.
Dwight Davis
Farmall Cub After
Story and photos submitted by Dwight Davis of Jackson, Tennessee
This month’s featured photo was submitted by Mike Smith and features his 1960 Oliver 440. One of only 700 produced, the 440 is a very rare and sought after model. They were designed to be used for cultivating tobacco fields in Virginia, Southern Pennsylvania and the Carolina’s.
“This tractor has a set of cultivators which have been removed. It was up-fitted with a 60″ Woods mower that runs off the PTO. The hydraulic lift cylinder and hoses are with it, as well as the original drawbar, front wheel weights and top link. Pretty much a complete unit. This tractor runs smoothly and is a blast to just drive around.” Mike said.
Mike plans on starting a mechanical restoration in the fall and will finish the project off with a fresh coat of paint and new decals. “We plan on keeping it as a very pretty, working tractor.” said Mike.
This photo was chosen as a winner in our annual photo contest and will be featured in the 2019 catalog.
Above are two pictures of my son’s Farmall 350, a before and after. I bought this tractor used from a neighbor almost 50 years ago; he had bought it new in 1957.
My son learned to drive on the 350 and for sentimental reasons, he decided to buy it and have it restored / refurbished. When I retired I sold my farm equipment but I kept the 350 and a six foot mower to mow field edges and road sides. As you can see, it didn’t get a lot of TLC in the last twenty two years.
Mechanically it was sound, with a good engine, transmission and torque amplifier, but cosmetically it was ugly! I chased parts all Summer with some yet to go, but I can see the end is near. I drove it home from the paint shop on October the 18th and it was hard to believe it was the same tractor.
Steiner Tractor was a big part of this transformation.
Thank you,
Dan
Monroeville, Indiana
October’s featured photo was submitted by Jason Anderson and features a 1957 Ford 900 series owned by Rich and Mary Houzner of Elroy, Wisconsin.
About 6 years ago the Houzner’s were in need of a tractor to handle some of the smaller jobs around the dairy farm. When they found this Ford tractor they liked the old style and thought it’s smaller size would make it suitable for their young boys as they started learning to operate farm equipment.
This Ford tractor has done all that and more! It’s become a family favorite to rake hay and corn stalks with and was the perfect edition to the Houzner’s all Ford / New Holland implement fleet.
To view all the 2019 catalog photo contest winning photos, click here.
