Rt. 1, Box 139, Le Center, Minnesota 56057
The National Ford/Fordson Col-lectors Association (F/FCA) will
hold their 8th annual meeting and show in Le Sueur, Minnesota, in
conjunction with the Le Sueur County Pioneer Power Show, August 27,
28, 29, 1999.
When Ford/Fordson enthusiasts first got together in 1991 and
talked about organizing a club, it was thought that maybe they
couldn’t get enough tractors together to warrant a national
club. The decision was made to go ahead and form a national club,
and no one has looked back since. At Le Sueur, Minnesota, this
summer they are expecting nearly 200 tractors, ranging from the
1917 Fordson up to the modern day 1960s Ford tractors. Many pieces
of Ford farm machinery will be on display and working in the
fields. One of the items of machinery on display will be a one row
Nichols and Shepard corn picker mounted on a Fordson tractor owned
by Dan Zilm. Pioneer Power is a working show with non-stop field
activities. Don’t be surprised if you see two Fordsons belted
to the sawmill at once, or even see two more Fordsons belted to a
36 x 60 Avery Yellow Fellow separator at one time blowing the straw
out of the blower as easily as a large steam engine. The ‘dirt
crew’ might even let some of Henry Ford’s products play
around in the 10-acre dirt pile, along with a variety of other
earth moving equipment, such as the Minnesota mucker, shovels,
cranes, dirt wagons, crawlers of all sizes and much more. The 60 x
130 ft. ‘Feature Building’ will be packed full of Ford
displays, vendors, and demonstrations. On Friday of the show, Dan
Zilm will be heating and pouring babbitt bearings in a Fordson
engine block. And then on Saturday, Dan will show everyone how the
process of line-boring the main bearings in the engine block is
done. This will be a very interesting demonstration to anyone who
works on older engines, no matter what brand of tractor it is.
Two early Fordson tractors show at the LeSueur
County Pioneer Power Show
As soon as the names Fordson or Ford are mentioned, it brings to
mind a compact little gray tractor. Hundreds of thousands of these
little tractors were produced working in a variety of environments,
such as light industrial work, airports, golf courses, and the most
important task of working on the American farm. These little
tractors seemed to be everywhere.
The three Ford models, the 9N, the 2N, and the 8N, were built
from 1939 through 1952, and are the most prevalent tractors of the
Ford family. Various refinements have been done to these tractors,
even to the extent of repowering it with a V8 engine, putting out
95 horsepower. A multitude of implements were built for these small
Ford tractors, both by Ford and by after-market companies. The Ford
tractor became one of the most versatile small tractors on the
market.
The Ford/Fordson Collectors and the Le Sueur County Pioneer
Power will try to show everyone in attendance the story of the
little gray tractors and the impact they had on American
agriculture and industry. Come meet some of the
collectors/restorers that keep alive the heritage of the little
gray tractor. The ‘Minnesota Connection’ of the
Ford/Fordson Collectors will all be getting their collections ready
for the show. Some of them are Dan Zilm (Fordson), 9224 S.E. 48th
Street, Claremont, MN 55924, 507-528-2117; Glen Birk (Fordson),
Mankato, MN; Palmer Fossum (Ford), 10201 E. 100th Street,
Northfield, MN 55057, 507-645-8095; and Doug Norman (Ford), 1035
Highway 7 SW, Montevideo, MN 56265, 320-269-7015, just to mention a
few.
A pair of Ford tractors: an early 1939 9N on
left, and late ’50s model 600 on the right.
For more information about F/FCA write to Ford/Fordson
Collectors Association Inc., 645 Loveland-Miamiville Road,
Loveland, OH 45150.
