R. R. 4, Huntington, Indiana 46750
As to Titans and Moguls being one of the first successful
tractors out, I can remember some of the things as existed at that
time. First, there were very few tractor plows out at that
time…only a few two and three bottom plows in existence. One of
my neighbors bought a ten-twenty Titan tractor but did not have the
cash for the plow. People did not put things on the cuff as they do
today. He hitched it to a two bottom Rock Island horsedrawn gang
plow and hung a section of harrow along side. His wife rode the
plow to let it up and down at the ends until school was out and his
son could take over. They did a lot of real good plowing with that
outfit. Sounds crude but it wasn’t. Rock Island made a lot of
good equipment at that time. They also made some tractor tools,
too.
There were no tandem discs and men used to take two, eight, four
horse discs side by side and in some cases they would make one into
a tandem. They merely made do with what they had. At the time
tractor discs were light weight and very little better than horse
discs. The first tandem disc that I had was a Roderick Lean ten
foot and I used it until they came out with heavier discs later
on.
It is hard to believe today how light and flimsy our first
tractor tools were. I have mentioned how popular the
ten-twenty Titan was in its day. At shows where I have had my
Titan, many a man has come to me and said ‘That was the first
tractor I ever drove,’ or said ‘That’s the first
tractor I bought.’ I can accound for 65 or more still around
yet today. At a museum at Grand Island, Nebraska there is a 15-35
four plow Titan, the only one I know of in the central west.
The enclosed pictures of my Titan show it on rubber, but it has
since been restored to steel. One picture shows it pulling the
sawmill at the Elwood, Indiana show. We were sawing walnut, but we
were surprised how well it handled the saw at that. Nobody need
turn their nose up at a Titan; they did their share in making
history.
