The Trials and Tribulations of Henry s Farm...

Regional Group #27 April 2018 Volume 49 Issue 4

The Trials and Tribulations of Henry’s Farm Tractor

I n 1917 Henry Ford said “I want to lift the burden of farming from

flesh and bones and place it on steel and motors.” Ford was fifty-three and on his way to becoming one of the richest men in the world by producing his assembly line produced Model T Ford.

Henry Ford revolutionized the tractor industry when he employed mass production assembly lines to build his first tractor. With his assembly tech-niques Ford could offer his tractors at lower prices. International Harvestor came out with the Farmall using Ford techniques, but also offering the abil-ity to cultivate row crops.

Ford tractors were built in Cork, Ire-land under a different company, sep-arate from Ford Motor Company. The

company was “Henry Ford and Son” and short-ened to “Fordson.”

Some of the early trac-tors like “Fordson” had a disturbing tendency, if the plow hit a large enough rock, the plow would stop and the trac-tor would try to keep going. Many tractors would pivot on the drive wheels, flip over, and kill the driver.

By 1928 fewer and fewer Fordsons were being sold so Henry lost interest in tractors, and got out of the agricul-ture equipment business. He stayed out of the ag business until 1939, and entered with a new partner, Harry Ferguson.

Henry George “Harry” Ferguson was born in Northern Ireland on Novem-ber 4, 1884. In 1902 at 18 he joined his brother Joe in a car and bicycle repair business in Belfast. In 1904 he began to race motorcycles. In 1909 at Hillborough he made a monoplane taking his first powered flight in Ire-land, traveling 130 meters.

In 1914 with World War I starting, Ferguson worked with British Ministry of Munitions (MOM) food production program. The British imported all available US tractors to eliminate

food shortages caused by the loss of farm laborers from England and Ire-land in World War I.

Ferguson became knowledgeable with tractors, especially the Fordson, while working with the (MOM), partly because the British government or-dered Ferguson to cure the rearing problem. Ferguson hired a team of superior mechanics to design a plow to prevent this problem. Producing tractors in Cork, Ireland was costly for Ford because all the tractors sold in the US were at least 3 thousand miles away from the factories. Production was transferred from Cork to England in 1922.

Harry Ferguson was also producing tractors during this period. He devel-oped a plow suitable for the Fordson Model F. His very first system was made with Eber and Sherman. He founded this

Continued on Page 3

In This Issue

Henry’s Farm Tractor ...................................... Pg 1

President’s Letter / Minutes ............................ Pg 2

Farm Tractor continued/Sunshine Report...... Pg 3

RERG #27 Swap Meet Flyer ........................... Pg 4

Event Calendar ............................................... Pg 5

Minutes continued/ Birthdays ........................ Pg 6

Membership Information .............................. Pg 7

Photo/Art of the Month ................................. Pg 8

Story By Dave Wyss

Keystone-France

RG #27 REDWOOD REVIEW APRIL 2018

From The President:

Minutes of General Meeting

Continued on Page 6

I t’s April and that means two things: free pizza at the next meeting; and

getting ready for the club’s Swap Meet in May. This will be one of two times this year that we have free pizza at our meetings and it’s always popular so you know meeting attendance will be high.

The other thing we’ll be doing at this meeting is getting flyers to hand out and post at various local businesses and sign-ing up for the tasks necessary to run the Swap Meet. The major tasks are laying out the field on Saturday then on Sunday park-ing the cars and trucks and selling coffee and pies, etc. This Swap Meet is the fund-raiser for our club and, along with your dues, provides the means to run the club events throughout the year so it’s im-portant. These events include tours, free pizza nights and the holiday banquet among other things. Once again, organiz-ing the Swap Meet is in the capable hands of Dave Peterson and Carol Rasmussen is handling the food court but the club needs you to sign up and help with making the Swap Meet a success.

Sadly, we recently lost two long-time members: Beth Carpenter and Eileen Raw-son. As you will read elsewhere in this newsletter, Beth passed away after a long bout with cancer. In addition, Eileen also died of cancer recently. She was serving as secretary for the club at the time as she has done in the past. You could never meet nicer people. Our thoughts are with their families. We will miss them both.

Fortunately, we’ve had members step up to serve as secretary. Julie McClain has offered to be secretary at the regular meetings and Charlene Trabucco has offered to be secretary at the Board meetings. While a little unorthodox, this should serve the club very well. Barbara Haen has also volunteered to serve as back-up secretary as needed. Thanks to all of you for volunteering. It’s great to be in a club where folks are so willing to meet the club’s needs.

And, now it’s your turn to step up and help with the Swap Meet as so many of you have done in the past. See you at the next meeting.

John Girman

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

The meeting was called to order at 7:05 pm by President John Girman.

The Pledge of Allegiance was observed.

The Minutes of the Meeting: (February 13th) Were approved as reported.

Members in attendance: 52

Treasurer’s Report: Presented by Brian Clary was well received. He discussed the dollar amount of scholarship and raffle funds. He reminded us to pay our dues if we haven’t already.

New Members and Guests: None this evening.

Birthdays: Brian Clary winner for March.

Old Business: Clothing report to come from Mike Buegeleisen.

New Business: Introduced by John Gir-man.

Item 1: Announcement made regarding the passing of several members.

Item 2: President John Girman an-nounced the Early Ford V-8 Foundation is raffling a 2018 Ford F150 truck. Tick-ets are $100 each and they will only sell 1200 tickets. He has the applications available.

Item 3: Dave Peterson discussed the upcoming V8 Swap Meet in May. Take flyers. Signup sheets at our April meeting. It’s Free Pizza Night!

Tours and Events: Rick Tamagno an-nounced various events. See the news-letter for the latest on tours and events.

Cars and Parts For Sale/Needed: Frank Wheeler needs a ‘35 pickup windshield hinge.

Tech Tips: Jess Todd had a Top Loader transmission question. Tom Johnston suggested a person to call.

Tech Tips and Information: None offered this meeting.


company in the United States in 1925. The Ferguson-Sherman Corporation, located in Detroit, produced a plow with a “Duplex Hitch” system suitable for the Fordson line tractors.

Ferguson came up with the idea of mounting the plow both low on the drawbar and up higher in a triangle arrangement. If the plow hit a rock underground the increased force would transfer onto the upper link point. That would force the front of the tractor down rather than up. He took the idea a step further adding a hydraulic mechanism to easily raise and lower the implements and auto-matically control the depth of the plow. He built a few of the tractors in England in partnership with David Brown Company but sales never took off.

In 1938 Ferguson demonstrated his tractor to Henry on Fords Fairlane Es-tate Farm. Henry was so impressed with the demonstration he was back in the tractor business, with a handshake agreement to produce a Ford Fergu-son tractor 9N (9 for 1939).

The tractor was to have a 4 cylinder vertical engine with parts from the Ford V8. They used other car and truck parts where they could. It produced 17 HP on the drawbar and 23.5 HP on the belt in Nebraska tests. It was a small tractor that out plowed machines weighing far more. The hydraulic sys-tem made control of the implements precise and easy. Within months the Ford tractor, with the Ferguson Hitch System was at dealers. The tractor sold for $600, $100 more than the Allis Chalmers “B” or the Farmall “A.” Ford claimed their tractor could do more work.

By 1942 the Ford Ferguson had cap-tured 20% of the tractor market com-pared to IH’s 40%. Ford Ferguson had reached 100,000 units in the field. The 2N (2 for 1942) was introduced be-cause of the wartime shortages. The tractor was produced with steel wheels and without starter or genera-tor to save on crucial materials. It was-n’t long before copper and rubber were sufficient and most 2Ns were built with rubber tires, generator and starter. They were much the same as the 9N.

Ferguson wanted to increase tractor production to a million tractors a year. A questionable accounting study, after Henry Ford’s death, showed the com-pany was losing money on the hand-shake deal with Ferguson. Henry Ford II announced 1947 was the last year of the agreement and another company was taking over the sales of the new Ford 8N. Ferguson sued for patent in-fringement in the amount of $350 mil-lion, and after years in court the settle-ment was for $9.25 million. Then Fer-guson was manufacturing his own tractors that were appearing in Ameri-can fields. By 1953 Harry Ferguson was suffering from bouts of depression and insomnia. He merged with Massey Harris in 1955. Massey-Ferguson had a significant position in the tractor mar-ket of the 20th century.

My Dad bought a used Harry Ferguson TO 30 1953 model (T) for Tractor (O) for overseas with a drag-box and a bucket. This was a hard-worker for building roads on our family Choose and Cut Christmas Tree Farm. We own the tractor today. As news commenta-tor, the late Paul Harvey, would say “Now you know the rest of the story.”

Sources:

1. A Tale of Two Henry’s and Their Tractors, by Brian Witt.

2. Ford-Ferguson Tractors, by Bill Ganzel.

3. Classic Farm Tractors, by Robert N. Pripps.

Henry’s Farm Tractor, continued from Page 1

I’m sorry to have to report that we have lost two lovely ladies who were long-time members of our club.

Elizabeth (Beth) Carpenter passed away after an eleven-year bout with cancer. She and her husband Ted have been Ford enthusiasts for many years. She was a very devoted mother and grandmother who loved to sew many gorgeous quilts, some of which were given to some of our lucky members over the years. She will be missed by all who knew her.

Eileen Rawson was a very sweet and knowledgeable lady who did a fantas-tic job as our Secretary for many years. Eileen and George were very dedicat-ed members of our Redwood Empire Regional Group. Her job as club Secre-tary will be big shoes to fill as her meeting minutes were precise down to the last detail.

We are looking forward to many more years enjoying the company of both Ted and George at our club functions.

From Pam Johnston


For More Information Contact Rick Tamagno at 707-539-2876

Regional Events Calendar

April

3 R.E.R.G. Board Meeting – Barker’s

7 Dragons Car Show at Sonoma Valley High School stu-

dent parking lot. 8am to 2pm. Benefits SVHS Metal

Shop--$20—pay at the gate

10 R.E.R.G. Monthly Meeting – Round Table Pizza

14 Carrillo Redline Car Fest. Maria Carrillo High

School—info at 707-889-3735

22 Swap Meet—Crusin’ North Car Club—Santa Rosa

Vets Building, 6am-noon info—707-843-2930 or

707-481-3235

May

4-5 Swap Meet and Toy Show. Golden Gate RG #1, 2151

Ferry Point, Alameda, Ca. Info—Mark Strohecker-510-

432-1532 or [email protected]


18-19 American Graffitti—Petaluma

20 Swap Meet at Petaluma Fairgrounds, Redwood

Empire R.G.

24-27 Burney Falls Tour, Redwood Empire R.G. – Johnston

26 Car Show and Cruise-In-Sebastopol. info at

sebastopolseniorcenter.org

June

2 Downtown Lincoln Car Show—Lincoln, Ca info—916-

408-1950

3 Swap Meet at Gold Country Fairgrounds—Auburn,

Ca—916-599-0059

5 R.E.R.G. Board Meeting – Barker’s


16 Fort Bragg Car Show—North Coast Rodders-

Downtown Fort Bragg

17 Julliard Park Car Show

CARS AND CAFFEINE SUNDAYS

1st Novato—Vintage Oaks Shopping Center

2nd Santa Rosa—Coddingtown by Starbucks 3rd Petaluma—Washington Square Shopping Center (South)

4th Rohnert Park—Starbucks near Target

Friday Night Cruise-in—Big Boys Buns and Burgers—Larkfield Shopping Center. May through September. 5-8pm

V8 Events Calendar

April

20-22 Black Bart Tour

May

4-5 Swap Meet, Golden Gate R.G. -

20 Swap Meet at Petaluma Fairgrounds, Red- wood Empire R.G.

24-27 Burney Falls Tour, Redwood Empire R.G.

June

11-15 GRAND NATIONAL MEET—www.efv8.org— Dearborn, Michigan

July

1 V-8 Picnic – Redwood Empire RG - Williams, Todd

15 Skip Long Memorial Car Show – Theresa Long—707-244-0238

August

26-28 Welcome to Montana Fall 2018 National Driv- ing Tour—See National Website for details www.efv8.org

October

5-7 Miranda Gardens Tour - Trabucco

November

4 Bean Bash at Beresford Park, San Mateo, Gold- en Gate R.G.

TBD Turkey Trot Breakfast


Minutes, continued from Page 2

Club Cars Driven to the Meeting: Dave Thomasson won $10 and donat-ed it to the Scholarship Fund.

Membership Attendance Drawing: Jan Kibler—Not present to win.

Carol’s Carload of Fun: Carol Rasmus-sen had a card game for us and pro-vided candy treats. Winner: Gloria McIntosh

Scholarship Fund Raffle:

Members raised $139

The meeting was adjourned at 7:48 pm.

Report submitted by: John Thompson

Apr 01 Jane Lester

Apr 03 Don Singleterry

Apr 05 Donna Simmons

Apr 08 Pamela Cook

Apr 08 Paul Marchand

Apr 09 Shirley Pool-Smith

Apr 12 Sharon Lawson

Apr 20 Kinnie Gallegos

Apr 21 Kim Williams

Apr 24 Darrel Billings

Apr 26 Charlie Brown

Golden Gate Regional Group #1

SWAP MEET & TOY SHOW

May 4-5

2151 Ferry Point #77, Alameda

Info: Mark Strohecker

510-432-1532

Or email: [email protected]

EARLY FORD V-8 FOUNDATION MUSEUM

SNEAK PEEK

AUBURN INDIANA

SATURDAY, JUNE 9, 2018

9:00 AM – 5:00 PM: Museum open for touring

SUNDAY, JUNE 10, 2018

9:00 AM – 5:00 PM: Museum open for touring

11:00 AM - 2:30 PM: Lunch* available

3:00 PM: Check in time at the Edward in Dearborn

5:00 – 9:00 PM: Early Registration for the meet at the

Edward

5:00 – 9:00 PM: Operational Check Open at the Edward

*Lunch: Pre-made sandwiches, salads, chips, drinks and dessert.

Offered free of charge, but donations will be gratefully accepted.

Reservations for lunch are required. Please call 585-748-1604 or

email [email protected]

Auburn is three hours from Dearborn. If you are planning an over-

night stay in Auburn, call for hotel information.


2018 Officers

President: John Girman (707) 992-0730

Vice President: Bill Crackbon (707) 538-4227

Secretary: Julie McLain/Charlene Trabucco (707) 575-3504

Treasurer: Brian Clary (707) 528-3626

Committee Members

Tour Coordinator: Rick Tamagno (707) 539-2876

Swap Meet Chairman: Dave Peterson (707) 527-9183

Historian: Wayne Taylor/Mike Buegeleisen (707) 255-1571

Sunshine Lady: Pam Johnston (707) 255-1230

Newsletter Editor: John Thompson (707) 318-3520

Roster: Mike Buegeleisen (707) 217-8751

Club Clothing: Mike Buegeleisen (707) 575-3504

Board Members

Charlene Trabucco, Steve McClain, Rick Tamagno, Sterling Cousins, Richard DeCroff, Ron Mollo, John Girman, Brian Clary, Bill Crackbon

All Members are invited to attend the Board Meetings; call any of the above Board Mem-bers for dates, time and meeting place.

MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION

The membership dues to REDWOOD EMPIRE REGIONAL GROUP #27 are $20.00 per year (single or couple). You may sign up at a meeting or mail in your application (with a check) to the address on the form below.

(You are required to be a member of the national Early Ford V8 Club, for membership information refer to : www.earlyfordv8club.org)

RERG #27 MEMBERSHIP FORM (mail to RERG #27 P.O. Box 3302, Santa Rosa, CA 95402)

NAME_____________________________________________________ Your Birth Date: Month_________ Day ____________

SPOUSE ___________________________________________________Spouse Birth Date: Month_________ Day ___________

Address _____________________________________________City ______________________State ____ Zip ______________

Phone __________________Cell Ph #_________________E Mail ___________________________

Early Ford V8’S You Own (Give Year, Model, Body Style and Engine Type)

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Attach additional sheets with V8 information as needed)

Redwood Empire Regional Group #27

Specialty Supplier of Engine Parts for Flathead Ford V8

including V8-60

[email protected]

707-964-3230—Fort Bragg, CA

Red Hamilton

John Thompson, Editor The Redwood Review

478 Woodley Place Santa Rosa, Ca 95409

REDWOOD EMPIRE RG # 27 IN SONOMA, MARIN & NAPA COUNTIES, APRIL 2018 Meetings are held on the 2nd Tuesday of every month at 7 PM at Round Table Pizza- Exit Hwy 12 & Stony Point Road to

2065 Occidental Road, Santa Rosa. All interested V8-ers are invited to attend! This newsletter is a monthly publication of Redwood Empire RG # 27 of the Early Ford V8 Club of America. Other Regional Groups may reprint material, provided proper credit is given.

Art: Ford Motor Company Service Bulletin, November 1936

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