Ryder, North Dakota 58779
Mr. Sam Couper of Winnipeg asks about an Ohio Tractor in the
March-April 72 GEM. Here are a few notes I have found on this
tractor but which all seems to be very confusing.
A March 1912 Gas Power magazine shows an ad by the Ohio Tractor
Mfg. Company of Marion, Ohio. The tractor is called the Ohio
Gasolene-Kerosene Tractor. It has famous patent friction drive
built in the following sizes: 20, 30, 45, and 70 HP. It also has
the combination tractor-roller, and our tractor hay baler on which
we use our friction drive when baling hay or when running over the
road. Leader steam engines and separators so favorably known for 25
years, are the goods we manufacture.
A reprint of a September 1912 Gas Review pictures an Ohio
tractor in the August 66 E. & E. The owner, O. T. Nolan, Perth,
North Dakota, states he has been running the Ohio tractor the last
two years.
Floyd Clymers book on Steam Engines shows the Leader Steam
Engine in 1915 by the Leader Mfg. Company, Des Moines, Iowa. While
‘Power in the Past’ by Chas. Wendel states the Leader
Tractor Mfg. Company, Des Moines, Iowa, placed advertisements in
1919 in some trade papers stating ‘We build the famous Leader
Steam engine, separator, and steam road roller; the kerosene
tractor, the kerosene road roller.’ They further advertised
themselves as successors to the Ohio Tractor Mfg. Company, Marion,
Ohio.
A January 1919 Chilton Tractor Index lists the Leader Tractor
Mfg. Company, Des Moines, Iowa, with the following Ohio tractors in
1912, 10-20 two-cylinder 7?’ bore, 15-30 two-cylinder 8?’
bore, 22-45 two-cylinder 9?’ bore and 35-70 two-cylinder with
11′ bore. Then also a 12-25 Rex built in 1918 is listed with a
four-cylinder engine with 4?’ bore.
The T. H- Smith Album of Steam Engines shows the Leader Steam
engine at Marion, Ohio.
The Ohio Mfg. Company, Upper Sandusky, Ohio, built a tractor
called the Ohio from around 1905-1920. These were the one-cylinder
type and from about 1906-1908 the I H C. bought their tractors and
sold them as Internationals. The Ohio Mfg. Company bought their
patent from S.S. Morton Motor Plow Company, Columbus, Ohio.
I am trying to establish the many different companies that built
these steel wheel tractors, how many models they built and how
long.
Here are some other companies that seem connected with the Ohio
and Leader tractor, but I am not sure just how they fit in. The
Ohio Tractor-Roller Sales Company, Columbus, Ohio; Leader Mfg.
Company, Chagrin Falls & Cleveland, Ohio; and the Dayton-Dick
Company (about 1920 called the Dayton-. Dowd Company), Quincy,
Illinois.
One fellow gives the following for the Ohio & Leader
tractors: the Leader engine (steamers at first and later gasoline
tractors) were built first in Marion, Ohio. The company founded
about 1870 and built portable engines for about ten years before
building traction engines about 1880. In 1906 this Leader steam
traction engine sold from the Marion Mfg. Company, Marion, Ohio,
and Cascaden-Vaughan Company (successors to the Waterloo Threshing
Machine Company and Waterloo Motor Works) of Waterloo, Iowa. The
Marion Company was the head company and this other Cascaden-Vaughan
Company of Waterloo was their Western branch company. Chas. Wendel
in ‘Power in the Past’ telling about the Casca-den Company
states they built steam engines called the ‘Winnishiek.’ He
also mentions how the Wm. Galloway Company and Cascaden were
connected. Also Carleton Mull in his article in the May-June 70
GEM. tells about the Cascaden-Vaughan Company steam engines of
Chicago. He explains the connection between Wm. Galloway Company
and Cascaden Company.
I haven’t been able to find a picture of the Ohio tractor in
any GEM. issue. Nor do I have any pictures that I could send to be
printed. I think the tractor looks similar to the early
International in that it has the same type cooling screen radiator
but the Ohio had two fuel tanks in a horizontal position on either
side of this cooling tank. It also had the two large flywheels,
very heavy ones at that.
