EARLY TRACTOR EXPERIENCES

By Staff
Published on July 1, 1973
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Courtesy of Earl Olsen, Concrete, North Dakota 58221
Courtesy of Earl Olsen, Concrete, North Dakota 58221
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Concrete, North Dakota 58221

I was born in Milton N.D. in June 1900. We lived in Milton until
1907 when we moved to a farm two miles south of town, where we
farmed and did custom threshing with steam until 1917, when we
bought land near Concrete, N.D. In the winter of 1918 and 1919 I
went to Fargo and took a short course on Tractor and Automobile
repair. These schools were well attended and were very helpful, as
both cars and tractors were new experiences to most of us at that
time.

The big steam threshing outfits were beginning to fade out and
were being replaced by smaller gas rigs. Many farmers were wanting
smaller tractors for farm use and a small separator to go with
it.

In 1919 my father, brother Carl and myself bought a new 15-30
Hart Parr tractor which was one of the first small tractors that
Hart Parr manufactured. Along with this came a Case 28 Inch
separator with a 20 bar cyclinder. We soon found out we had too
much separator for the Hart Parr, so in the fall of 1920 we traded
the Hart Parr in on a new Gray tractor made in Minneapolis.

I still have this Gray tractor and it is in very nice shape yet.
This was an excellent outfit and was used until the combine took
over. One year we threshed fifty days and ended up twenty miles
from where we started. Starting at home in the valley where the
grain ripened earlier than on the higher land enabled us to make
such long runs. This old tractor saw a lot of service on farm work,
threshing, road work and has broken several hundred acres of raw
brush land using a 24 in heavy duty brush plow, turning anything in
its way. I always operated this old Gray tractor myself.

In 1922 we bought a used two speed Waterloo Boy for on the grain
binder and other farming jobs. Later I got a Wallis Cub Model J
with one wheel in front and later a Model K that had two wheels in
front. These Wallis tractors were a great improvement in speed and
ease in handling.

Their weakness was in the governor and connecting rod bearings.
The governor had a rubber diaphram bolted to the block and water
pressure held the RPM’s where you set it. If the pressure of
the water was not up to par, it affected the governor and it would
run wild. The connecting rod bearings were kept from turning in the
rods by shims and when they were worn, you soon knew it. I overcame
that by putting a very thin layer of solder on the bearing which
clamped the bearing to the rod and stopped that. I believe the
Wallis was one of the first tractors to have removable cylinder
sleeves. They were a good tractor in their day. In 1941 I put the
Model K on rubber.

Top picture is of the Gray Tractor threshing on the Lein Farm,
north of Concrete, North Dakota in 1924. Center photo shows the
sturdy Gray breaking brush in 1920s. Bottom shot gives a better
view of tractor as it is plowing brush. Harry Carlson standing on
the tractor.

Several pages could be filled with some of the experiences we
had in those early days in making homemade repairs in the fields.
There were very few local dealers, no branch houses and the
quickest source of repairs was the factory several hundred miles
away. No socket wrenches, electric drills, nor welding of any kind
were even thought of then. Some men became mechanics by pure
necessity, in order to keep the tractor of those days going.

All of the earlier tractors were subject to more bearing
troubles because the bearing materials of today were unknown in
those days. It is surprising the number of old models of all makes
that can still be found at shows and in the hands of collectors
today. Some of us older men have watched the industry grow from the
start to what it is today and it has been a big jump. But don’t
forget while crude as they may seem today, they did their share in
making this great agricultural country.

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