J. I. CASE'S "OLD ABE"

"Old Abe" was the name of the eagle used in the Case trademark. He was a real American Bald Eagle that served as the mascot of Company C of the Eight Wisconsin during the Civil War. He survived 38 battles during the war and for years appeared with his fellow veterans in numerous parades after it had ended.

MASSEY - HARRIS

Both Daniel Massey and Alanson Harris were Canadians who had established successful farm implement companies in the mid 1800s. In 1891, the Massey Manufacturing Company and A. Harris Son & Company Ltd. merged to form Massey-Harris. However it wouldn't be until 1917 that the company began selling tractors. Their first attempt was a marketing agreement for the Bull tractor that ended in failure. In 1919, they formed another agreement, this time with the Parrett Tractor company of Chicago, Parrett went out of business in 1922. M-H tried again in 1928 with the acquisition of J.I. Case Plow Works and the Wallis tractor line. The Wallis was a success and established M-H in the tractor business. In 1953, Massey-Harris merged with Ferguson to become Massey-Ferguson.

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Henry Wallis started the Wallis Tractor Company in Cleveland, Ohio in 1912 but he soon moved to Racine, Wisconsin where his firm merged with the J.I. Case Plow Works. Wallis tractors were known for their fuel efficiency and U-shaped steel frame. When Massey-Harris bought the J.I. Case Plow Works Company they sold the Case name back to the J.I. Case Threshing Machine Company. In 1929, the Wallis 12-20 was introduced, it was also sold as the Massey-Harris 12-20, Certified 12-20 and provided the base on which the later Massey-Harris Pacemaker and Challenger tractors would be built.

MINNEAPOLIS-MOLINE

Minneapolis Steel & Machinery Company was formed in 1902, first they built steam engines then later a line of tractors under the Twin City name.

They introduced the Twin City 12/20 in the year 1919, it was a major move by the company toward lighter tractors. It featured unit construction and a novel engine that had four valves per cylinder. Based on the 12/20 concept the 21/32 was introduced in 1929. That same year, M.S.& M merged with the Minneapolis Threshing Machine Company and the Moline Implement Company to form Minneapolis-Moline Power Implement Company.

THE JOHN DEERE MODEL D

Leon Clausen, head of Deere manufacturing, knew that the company needed something more modern than the Waterloo Boy. In 1923, the Model D, the first tractor to carry the name John Deere was introduced. Although the D lacked many features of some of its competitors it was simple and reliable and remained in production for 30 years with over 160,000 having been sold. The styled version of the D was introduced in 1936. The distinctive sound produced by its’ twin horizontal cylinders gave rise to the name “Johnny Popper”. Looking back, the D has to be considered as the most important tractor in John Deere’s history as it, more than any other, was responsible for the Company becoming a major tractor manufacturer.

THE FORDSON

The son of a farmer, for many years Henry Ford experimented with prototype tractors such as his 1907 “Autoplow”.

Even though several companies were producing kits to convert Model Ts into light farm tractors the Ford Motor Company’s corporate board was opposed to putting a Ford tractor into production. Henry didn’t much care for having to abide by board decisions so he started a separate company. There was already a firm in Minneapolis, Minnesota that was named the Ford Tractor Company. The tractor they produced was of poor design and it was said that their main reason for being was to hold the Ford name in hopes of a buy out. Instead Henry called his new venture the “Henry Ford and Son Company” and when production started in 1917 the tractor would be called the “Fordson Model F”. By 1923, 77% of the tractors being sold in the U.S. were Fordsons. It has been called the most important design in the history of tractor manufacturing. Approximately 750,000 were sold in ten years and its success provided Ford with the money he needed to buy complete control of the Ford Motor Company. With no board opposition to contend with the two companies were then merged.

The Fordson Model F was produced in the United States from 1917 to 1928 and in Cork, Ireland from 1919 to 1932 before production was consolidated to Dagenham, England. The Fordson more than any other tractor introduced farmers to power equipment and is given credit for saving the people of Great Britain from food shortages in both world wars.

INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER

International Harvester had been formed in 1902 with the merger between the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, Deering Harvester Company, and three smaller agricultural equipment firms: Milwaukee Harvester Company, Plano Manufacturing Company, and the Warder, Bushnell, and Glessner Company of Springfield, Ohio which had formerly been the Lagonda Agricultural Works of Warder, Brokaw & Child.

Both McCormick and Deering had their network of dealers and loyal customers so IH produced separate lines of tractors to keep both happy.

International had introduced the Mogul 8-16 for the McCormick buyers in 1914 and then replaced it with the smaller, more advanced Junior 8-16 in 1917. The Junior 8-16 featured an engine enclosed under a hood and the first commercially successful PTO.

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For the Deering customers, IH produced the Titan 10-20. As was common at the time, the Titan’s engine was started on gasoline and then when warm it would be switched over to kerosene. Water injection was used to prevent pre-ignition.

THE UNHAPPY FARMER

In the mid 19-teens, smaller lightweight tractors began to appear in the market. Many of these manufactures were less than honest and made claims that to say the least were exaggerated. Many of the machines were unstable, others were prone to rapid wear and mechanical failure or just didn’t have enough power.

The Happy Farmer was one of these early smaller tractors. It was built in La Crosse, Wisconsin by the La Crosse Implement Company for the Happy Farmer Tractor Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Most farmers who bought Happy Farmers were not and the make soon disappeared.

A Nebraska teacher and farmer Wilmot Crozier had bought a couple of lightweight tractors and found them to be so poor that he sponsored a bill which, when passed by the State Legislature in 1920, required that every model tractor sold in the State be tested to insure that farmers would have impartial data on which they could compare performance between makes and models. The University of Nebraska took on the task of performing these tests which are still the standard used today.