Agricultural Memories Museum 1110 Townline Road Penn Yan, New
York 14527
I have wanted to tell you our story for a long time. This is how
it all began: My parents, Vern and Hannah Johncox, started
collecting in the early 1960s. They collected horse-drawn carriages
and sleighs, all makes of tractors and gasoline engines. We
participated in the local parades, fairs, and gasoline engine shows
in New York and Pennsylvania. Up to 1981 we bought and sold, and
the collection grew by leaps and bounds. Then the worst possible
thing happened. My father became very ill, and in two weeks passed
away in 1981.
In 1987, I married to Hilbert (Jeff) Jensen. In 1989, my mother,
my husband and I decided it was time to sell the farm at auction.
We sorted through over two hundred gasoline engines, seventy
tractors, and over two hundred carriages and sleighs. We kept the
John Deere line of two-cylinder tractors, and sold over forty
tractors at the auction consisting of Oliver, Case,
McCormick-Deering, and Fordson. We sold some miscellaneous farm
items, and kept eighty-three gasoline engines. The horse-drawn
carriages and sleighs have been sold off gradually.
In 1990 a building 48′ x 128′ was built at 1110 Townline
Road, Penn Yan, and the remaining collection was moved. In 1992 we
built our two-story home. In 1994, we built a 40′ x 40′
insulated workshop to do all our own restoration work in.
It was always the wish of my parents to open a museum one day to
show the public their collection. On May 21, 1998, that dream came
true. We have over 40 horse-drawn carriages and sleighs, over
thirty John Deere two-cylinder tractors, and over eighty gasoline
engines. We also have a small display of our toy collection. The
museum was dedicated to my parents on May 23, 1998, with a small
ceremony. My mother is still very active in our lives.
My parents helped save part of our heritage, and we thank them.
For more information on museum, call us at (315)536-1206. Come see
us!
