21432 S. Lindsay Road, Chandler, Arizona 85249.
It was spring of 1953 and I was farming in Colorado. I had just
bought a brand new Super M from the local International dealer. I
used it to harvest that season’s crops and in the fall I moved
to Arizona, taking it with me.
In Arizona I started a tillage business, but soon found the
Super M too light for the work I was trying to do. I traded it in
on a crawler and it wasn’t long before a farmer bought it from
the dealer with whom I had traded.
Twenty-five years later, I sold my tillage business and retired,
only to find myself busier than ever collecting and restoring old
tractors. After a while I began to think it would be nice if I
could get the old Super M back. I knew the farmer who had bought
it, as I had done some of his tillage work over the years, and knew
that he still had it but rarely used it any more.
I began trying to buy it from him and for a long time the answer
was always ‘no,’ but finally he agreed to sell it to me. I
was excited over buying it and eager to get it home. All it needed
was a new battery and I drove it the eight miles home.
It was in pretty good shape but had been painted a couple of
times so it had to be sand blasted and have a few dents in the hood
taken out. Sometime over the years the fenders had been removed and
couldn’t be found. When I bought it new it had dual front
wheels which had been replaced with a single wheel.
I found a pair offenders in Ohio, a belt pulley in Texas, and
one day I went to a farm auction and LO and BEHOLD-there was a pair
of dual front wheels for a Super M which of course I bought.
At last I had the old fellow all put back together and ready to
paint. Now with its new paint job and decals it looks like it did
the day I bought it new back in 1953.
