I am the second owner of this tractor. I purchased it from a neighbor in July 1985 and had known the tractor since I was a young boy. I restored it in 1986 and had it in our Labor Day parade at West Liberty, Ohio that year.
A unique story goes with this tractor. It was owned by the Clarence Myers family of rural Bellefontaine, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Myers had passed away and I purchased the Silver King from their daughter, Peg Wilkins. I think she wanted me to have it because she knew it would be restored. After I had bought the Silver King, she told me that her mother, Mrs. Myers, had kept a daily diary which dated back a lot of years and she had found some information about the tractor which was interesting. So she sent me a photostatic copy of some pages from the diary.
On Wednesday, March 9, 1938, Mr. Myers, Mrs. Myers’ brother Herman, and a Mr. Ware went to Plymouth, Ohio (where the Silver King was manufactured) to see the Silver King. It had snowed a lot that day and on the way home they had an accident. Herman (Peg’s uncle and Mrs. Myers’ brother) was hurt badly and later died.
On Monday, March 21, 1938, Mr. Ware came by and told Clarence his tractor would be coming that night. It came about 11:00 p.m.
‘If Herman were only here.. .he wanted a Silver King so bad…’. This was taken from Mrs. Myers’ diary. So, no doubt the Silver King had a lot of sentimental value to Mrs. Myers.
Back in the middle and late forties, the Myers family did custom baling with a Case hand tie wire baler and used the Silver King to pull it. They had an oversized front tire filled with fluid for extra weight. The Silver King had a fast road gear and would move from farm to farm in a hurry.
With a few new seals, new parts in the magneto and a paint job, she runs and looks new again.