Tractors

I've always had a strong like for antique farm equipment, mostly stuff owned by my Grandfather when I was young.

History

I don't know the date, but the first tractor in the Wells family was a John Deere L purchased by my Great-Grandfather W.F. Wells when my Grandfather was young. In addition to being used for every task on the family farm, my Grandfather would also plow victory gardens for neighbors with it throughout the war. When he got married and moved to what I think of as the family farm, the L came with him. He told me that it took so long to plow his 60 tillable acres with the one-bottom plow that by the time he'd finished, weeds were growing on the ground where he'd started. He continued this way for several years before deciding to improve his life.

Around the 1950s, inspired by his father's tales of old Hart-Parr machines in Colorado, he bought a Hart-Parr Oliver 70 and plow for which he paid $950. I believe this was the best $950 ever spent in the history of mankind as the tractor never required rebuilding and always lent itself to whatever adaptation was required to make life work on the farm. Life wasn't all sunshine and rainbows and it needed repair often. He even showed me a tool he made to replace the valve guides without removing the head. My dad and uncles occasional remember performing field work with this tractor.

The next working tractor purchased was an Oliver 77 which amused Grandpa because his 70 seemed to have an advantage in the transmission because "I could walk right up to it while plowing with that old 70." The shop where Grandpa worked had a Ford 9N for lawn maintenance purposes that eventually found its way to the farm. At some point, another 77 was purchased that was assumed to be "supered" because it out-pulled the earlier 77. Eventually, a Minneapolis Moline R was brought to the farm, then a Farmall Cub. I remember playing on the derlict 70 and R as though they were jungle gyms with my brothers as kids.

Eventually, in trade for work restoring my Great Uncle's Allis Chalmers WD45, my Grandfather received an Oliver 88. It was in rough shape thanks to my Great Uncle's driving it home from auction and the engine setting up in the process. Grandpa restored it, supered it, and modified it to have the hydraulic system from a later series tractor. He also added a hydraulic hitch and front-end loader from the first 77 which had inherited the loader from the 70. The 88 truly replaced the old 70, I remember harvesting oats for my aunt using the 88 and a pull-behind combine that my grandfather hated.

Grandpa added an Oliver 60 row crop, standard 60, styled 70 row crop, an OC-6, Super 55 and Super 77 row crop, and a John Deere LA and B to his collection. A Minneapolis Moline UTU came from an old employee and the R was traded to my uncle for a ZTU. My grandfather was able to fully restore the row crop 60 fully, the two John Deere Ls, and the styled 70 mechanically before becoming to ill to continue. I inherited the 88, all three 77s, both 60s, the OC-6, the ZTU, the Cub, and the LA in 2021.

Oliver 88 Oliver 77 Super Diesel Oliver 77 "Super" Oliver 77 "Old Smokey" Oliver OC-6 Oliver 60 Row Crop Oliver 60 Standard Minneapolis Moline ZTU John Deere 40C John Deere LA Farmall Cub