14 YEAR OLD COLLECTOR

By Staff
Published on January 1, 1983

170-E Poplar Ridge Road, Alexandria, Kentucky 41001

Your article in the January-February 1982 magazine on page 30
entitled ‘My Collection’, which was written by a
14-year-old named Chris Barth, prompted me to write. I, too, am 14
years old and I’ve been going to engine shows since I was five
years old. By the time I was six or seven, my dad purchased a 2 HP
‘Hired Hand’ engine manufactured by Associated, which I
quickly set claim to. To this date my family and I have 16 engines,
two pumps, seven antique cars and five tractors.

In my own collection I have a 1943 Toro tractor, the Hired Hand
mentioned above, a 3 HP Witte engine, a 4 HP Famous IHC, and I am
half owner of a 1935 B John Deere with my dad. Of course, my dad
and grandpa help me with my machinery all the time, but I decide
which engines to take to the shows.

The newest addition to my collection is the half of the John
Deere that I own, which my dad, my grandpa and I restored last
winter. It has already been driven in one parade, been to one show
and is being prepared to go to its second.

My favorite of all the tractors isn’t even mine. It’s my
brother’s. It’s a 1938 number 3 CO-OP tractor which has
been in six parades and three shows. It is a mighty powerful
tractor though. It has a six cylinder Chrysler Industrial engine.
We bought it from its original owner who used it until 1976.
We’ve used it to run a shingle mill and a thresher. My brother
and I are very proud of it, but not near as proud as my dad is of
our John Deere.

That about wraps it up except for the dedication to my
grandparents and the rest of my family-especially my mom, who has
had to put up with all the stories about the engines and all the
oily and greasy engine parts sitting on the kitchen waiting to be
cleaned.

Thanks for the idea, Chris!

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