Route 5, Box 185 Harbeson, Delaware 19951
On April 1, 1929, the Oliver Plow Company merged with the
Hart-Parr Tractor Company, Nichols and Shepard Threshing Machine
Company, and American Seeding Machine Company to form the Oliver
Farm Equipment Company. At that time they created a flag as an
emblem to symbolize the new company (as shown on the fly sheet of
an old Oliver Plow catalog). This emblem was used for several years
until the first Oliver shield was adopted.
We don’t know whether actual flags were ever made or whether
they were just used as a printed emblem-at least we’ve never
run across any actual flags. We would surely like to know if any
collector might have one.
Because he knew it would make a handsome banner to fly with the
American flag on his 1935 standard Oliver 70 tractor, John Clow of
Annapolis, Maryland, asked his wife Pat to be his Betsy Ross and
make one for him in the original design and colors. Then their
fellow collector, Norman D. Clark, who is retired after being an
Oliver dealer for 40 years at Honey Grove, Pennsylvania, asked his
wife Kate to make one for him. Pictured are the completed flags
displayed with some of the Clarks’ and Clows’ tractors at
the Rough and Tumble Engineers Historical Association’s annual
reunion at Kinzers, Pennsylvania, in August of 1986.