1616 1st. S. W., Huron, South Dakota 57350.
In reply to Mr. Lowell Carson’s excellent article in the
Sept.-Oct.-l 970 issue of G. E. M. on the three wheel John Deere
Dain tractor.
It saddens me to say I do not know the whereabouts of any
surviving Dain tractors in the Huron, S. D. area where Mr.
Carson’s story ends, but perhaps can add a little to an already
very interesting story.
Mr. F. R. Brumwell was the John Deere dealer in Huron during the
time mentioned in Lowell Carson’s story. He also operated a
lumber yard, grain elevator and mill. He also had a large farm
north of Huron on the James River known as the Brumwell ranch.
The John Deere company would often ship new implements to Mr.
Brumwell for trial and experimentation on his farm.
In the late 40’s I worked for Mr. Brumwell’s son R. F.
Brumwell who I will refer to as Roy throughout the rest of the
story, as he and i were good friends for many years. Roy passed
away about two years ago.
During the time I worked for him, I met the elder Mr. Brumwell
several times who was getting along in years then. F. R. as he was
known around the Huron area passed away in the early 50’s.
Roy was running things for his father at the time I worked for
him. The John Deere dealership had been discontinued in the late
20’s or early 30’s. A. disastrous fire in the 30’s
destroyed the lumber yard and mill along with all records of the
implement business.
While working for Roy, he told of two John Deere Dain tractors
they kept for use on the ranch, and always referred to them as the
three wheel John Deeres. He related many stories of these tractors,
some good and some bad. One that stands out in my memory is the
following.
A few miles to the North and West of the Brumwell ranch along
the same James River lay the land belonging to the Hutterite
colony, known as the Huron Colony. It was customary at harvest time
for the colony boys to hook several grain wagons together behind
one large tractor and haul their grain to town. What they had for a
tractor I do not recall. Anyway the Brumwells were hauling their
grain the same way. Early one morning Roy and his hired man left
the ranch pulling a train of loaded grain wagons with one of the
three-wheeled John Deeres. As they were approaching highway 37,
(this was before blacktop roads of course) the colony boys could be
seen coming with their outfit from the North. As they had a
somewhat larger and faster tractor, Roy and his man would have to
follow them into town some seven miles, and wait for them to unload
at the elevator. Unless the three-wheeler could beat them to the
corner.
4 wheeled Happy Farmer, circa 1919, built in LaCrosse, Wisconsin
and is owned by John M. Fenninger, R. D. 3, Pine Grove,
Pennsylvania 17963. The two pretty passengers are his daughters.
John would be happy for any information on this engine.
Picture by Dave Egan, R. D. 5, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
17055.
Being somewhat sporting Roy couldn’t see being tail end
Charlie that particular morning. So while his man steered the
tractor, Roy jumped off and found a piece of wire along the fence
which he hooked to the carburetor throttle rod. As he swung on
board again the wire was pulled back overriding the governor and
the old John Deere roared like never before. Needless to say the
colony boys had to wait to unload that day.
During W. W. II the two Dains were cut up and went to war. One
of the one hundred Dains shipped to this area was sold in the
country northwest of Wolsey, S. D. My Father, Julius Johannsen,
helped shell corn there one day when the Dain was used to run the
sheller. Dad remembers the large diameter belt pulley on the
tractor and wondered if it wasn’t a little large for that size
tractor.
Perhaps this accounts for three of the one hundred Dains, so
what happened to the other ninety-seven tractors is as much a
mystery to me as it is to Mr. Carson.
