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RE:Family tractors etc.

These are two tractors that have been in our family since they were new. Both were purchased by my dad who purchased them from his Uncle who was the local Massey dealer. The 22 is a 1950 and the 33 is a 1953. Both have been recently restored. Unfortunately I don't have any original pictures of them.
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RE:Family tractors etc.

You have two very nicely restored family tractors there Wayne, thanks for showing us them.

Do you have any old photographs of your Uncle's Massey dealership? how many years did he sell Massey?

Malcolm.

RE:Family tractors etc.

On this thread I have previously posted pics of two tractors in my collection which belonged to my great uncle.  Here is the third.  It is a 1938 red styled long wheelbase M-H Pacemaker.

I bought this out of his retirement sale then later had to sell it off when Dad and uncle retired and I had nowhere to store it.  It went to a Scotish collector who replaced the rotten mudguards and also replaced what he thought were wrong  cast steel front wheels.  He didn't realise that they were standard for tractors sold in the UK.  He replaced them with non M-H spoke wheels which did not look the part, and painted the tractor up.  He then sold it on to a big collector north of London.  I kept track of it and eventaully he had a down sizing sale from where I bought it back and replaced those offending front wheels.

My great uncle's daughter Muriel (Dad's cousin) used to often drive this tractor in her youth both on harvest and ploughing duties.  She is now well into her 80s and has been across with her younger sister and two nieces to inspect her old tractor and recalls every detail of it. The nieces were fascinated by their great grandfather's old tractor.  She is seen here in my shed with it.  Also shown are two old photos of her driving the tractor at harvest.  One shows her pulling an M-H binder with her father on the binder, and the other shows her pulling a trailer and the men loading sheaves from the field. 

Also shown is the front of the sales brochure for the farm when the Landlord's sold the farm on to another.  On this are a TED (paraffin engine) Ferguson tractor and the same long wheelbase Pacemaker.  Both are on steel rear wheels at this point in time

John

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RE:Family tractors etc.

The 30 SN 30GR10978

 

Prior to 1950 International Harvester tractors were used on the Lynn farms. We have a few old photos of what look to be 10-20s plowing and pulling a binder. In the spring of 1937 my grandfather bought a new 1936 model F20 with rubber tires on the front and skeleton steel on the rear. His brother got one with rubber all the way around. So Dad and his cousins grew up driving these IH row crop tractors. Dad used to tell how when he cultivated as a boy he would have to stop the tractor at the end of the row, get out of the seat, stand on the axle and use both arms and all his strength to lift each side of the cultivator individually. Then he would hop back into the seat turn the tractor around, stop and repeat the whole process to get the cultivator lowered again.

 

When he was in high school he participated in a county 4-H plowing contest. A classmate of his driving a *****shut won the contest but dad and a friend got second place driving a MH 30 supplied by some one else. Dad fell in love with the easy handling 30 and it’s hydraulic lift. You can imagine difference between the F20 Dad had driven all his life and the 30.

 

In the spring of 1950 Dad bought a new Massey Harris 30 and cultivator from a black market dealer in Plattsmouth, Nebraska. Apparently new farm tractors were still in short supply from the war effort and most new tractors were sold through dealers who got tractors outside the rationing system. He used it that spring and summer and until he went into the Air Force the following October of 1951.

 

While Dad was in the service Grandpa used the 30 because he apparently liked driving it better than the F20 too. After Dad returned home to farm the little 162 continental got weak and Grandpa had a new engine installed to repay Dad for his using it while he was gone. This must have been in about 1956 because when the new motor arrived it was painted bronze like the engines in the triples.

 

As the farming operation grew a 33 and 44 were added to the fleet and the 30’s responsibilities changed to lighter fieldwork and chores. As I came into the picture Dad was raising a lot of hogs in summer pastures in the field. It became my and the 30’s job to haul water to the tanks in the field. We pulled a 500-gallon two-wheeled water wagon to fill them once a day and then auger wagons as needed to fill the feeders. The 30 also carried a wire winder to build and pick-up temporary electric fencing. We used it to power grain augers and hay elevators and for all types of other farm odd jobs.

 

In 1975 the 30 was my combined auto tech/vocational agriculture shop project. I overhauled the motor and repainted the entire tractor. At that time decals weren’t available so for the next 20 years we used it as a plain red unmarked tractor as it faded to an unattractive pink color. After we became interested in collecting we brought the 30 into the shop, gave it some much needed new rear tires and went

 

over all the sheet metal with rubbing compound, polish, wax and a lot of elbow grease. The NOS grill screen came from an auction at Washington, Missouri. New decals were added and that’s the way it remains today.

 

Attached pictures include:

  • The 30 when it was brand new. (1950)
  • Dad and Grandpa posing with the 30 while hauling manure. (1956)
  • Grandpa entertaining me as I sit on the 30s seat. (1958)
  • Me sitting on it again 18 years later after I repainted it. (1976)
  • The 30 after being refurbished in the late 90s.
  • Dad and me posing with the 30 at the MENA in Le Sueur, MN. (2004)

 

Today the 30 sits right inside the door of the “Tractor Shed” and I use it every chance I get on the farm. It is still my favorite tractor to drive. The 30 isn’t rare or odd or immaculately restored. There’s really no reason for anyone else to want it any more than any other 30. But it was Dad’s first tractor, the first Massey in our family, and the tractor I grew up on. I also still have the F20 Farmall Grandpa bought in “37” and several other family and collected Masseys but when the time comes to let them go, the 30 will be the last tractor they pull out of my cold stiff fingers.

More Later,

 

Bob


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RE:Family tractors etc.

Bob,

A truly great story and photos.  What memories.  Hope you have some more and maybe you can encourage others?

John

RE:Family tractors etc.

John,

We all have our own unique reasons for being Massey Fans and our individual areas of interest. Some focus on Wallis or Parrot type of tractors, some on the triple series and today at the Spring Meeting we learned about Massey Harris bicycles from a collector who has focused his efforts on collecting them. 

Still I believe most of us have a childhood tie to the Massey family of products that has led us to have the interest in these things we own, restore, collect, and seek more information about today. What I am attempting to share is my personal account of growing up, Lynn family history and how times have changed around the tractors that were and are a significant part of our lives on the farm. 

I'm glad you have enjoyed it and I truely hope others find it interesting and are reminded of the simpler times of their youth. I have much more to share in the coming weeks or months. I truely invite or even challenge others to dig through their old albums or shoe boxes of photos, relive those memories and share those stories with us all.

More Later!

Bob

RE:Family tractors etc.

Hi Bob,

Sorry I did not get to visit with you much this weekend but I was glad you were at the meeting!!

Your story is great and sure helps us all bring back the earlier days on a Massey!!  I look forward to hearing more from you and others!!

Thanks for being at the Spring Meeting and thanks for sharing!!

Gary

RE:Family tractors etc.

Hi Bob,

I, too, regret that I didn't get a chance to visit with you this weekend.  I'm really not sure where the time went.  Seems like there was something going on all day Saturday...

I've enjoyed your family history stories and photos.  Looking forward to the next submission.

Thanks,

JB

RE:Family tractors etc.

Here is a picture of my Grandpa's Massey Harris 44 he farmed with before he became a Standard Oil distributor. He bought t used while working part time for the local Massey Ferguson dealer McCaslin Implement. The Mccaslin family has remained good friend over the years and they still farm my Grandpas land but the MF dealership is no more. I have never seen this 44 run as it has been buried in the shed for 20 years or more but maybe some day we will get it out and running again.
Oh and I looked up the serial number. I guess it is a 51 with #29664
  
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RE:Family tractors etc.

The 33 SN 33GIRF3553

Dad was stationed at McQuire Air Force Base in New Jersey for the majority of his military career. He was a radio mechanic for the fighter jets of the time. He also had a part time job as an assembly and setup man at a local AC dealership in the area. This was during the Korean conflict and most servicemen eventually got sent to Korea. Those of you that knew dad personally know he was quite the people person and while in Jersey had made friends with several ranking officers. Whenever orders came down for him to go to Korea he suddenly got sent back to St Louis, Missouri for advanced radio school.

 

On one of these additional schooling assignments he took a trip into Illinois and stopped by a Massey dealership. They had a new MH 33 on the showroom floor. Dad of course had to inspect it from top to bottom and liked the improvements it had over the 30 he had waiting at home.

 

Dad would get weeklong furlows from the Air Force. During these he and Mom would make a beeline back to Iowa from New Jersey. On one of these quick trips back home they met a drunk driver head-on in the middle of the night just west of Bucyrus, Ohio. They got a cash settlement from the accident and upon returning to Iowa to farm for good he used the money to buy a brand new MH 33 and a JD 953 running gear with a 6X10 red line Heider wagon box. He bought the 33 in Randolph, Iowa and hauled it home himself in Clarence Norton’s straight truck.

 

When Dad and Grandpa were given the opportunity to farm the entire “Home Place” they bought a MH 44 together and it and the 33 became the main horses of the operation. The 33 was Dad’s and the 44 was considered Grandpa’s and they worked side by side pulling the same size 3 bottom Minnie Moline plows. The 33 could keep up with the 44 until they would come to a clay spot then Dad would have to drop the 33 down a gear. In the fall the 44 carried the corn picker so the 33 pulled the AC All Crop combine to harvest soybeans. The 33 put in a lot of hard time keeping up with the 44 and eventually had to be overhauled. Dad had M and W sleeves and pistons installed and then it was even more capable of keeping up with the 44.

 

The 33 of course had 201 cubic inches from the factory. 333’s had 208 cubic inches. The M and Ws gave the 33 a whopping 216 cubic inches which was a considerable jump from the tired 201 cid he had before the overhaul and only 44 ci under the 44’s 260 cubic inches.

 

Dad tracked how much fuel he put through the 33 and claims he spent 10,000 hours in the seat of that tractor. That seems like a lot of hours in a 15-year period but look at what they did. They plowed, disked, harrowed, planted, hoed, cultivated, mowed, raked, combined, hauled in and the 44 carried a picker. All two rows at a time. They ground feed, loaded and hauled manure and dozens of other farm chores. Back then a tractor was used every day all year long.

When Dad got a manure loader of his own the 33 was assigned to carry it. The Stanhoist loader and 33 did all types of jobs around the farm. They handled brush, leveled ground for new buildings, moved trees, filled mudholes in the lots, moved snow and even helped dig a basement under the house.

 

Attached pictures attached include:

  • 1. The 33 when it was almost brand new. (1954)
  • 2. The 33 and Dad. Notice the radio he mounted on the seat pipe and the antenna going up behind the headlight. (Mid 50s)
  • 3. Dad and me, the 33 and the Heider wagon. (About 1960)
  • 4. The 33 with one of the auger wagons Dad built. (Early 60s)
  • 5. The 44, 33 and 30 with Grandpa, Dad, and my sister. (Mid 60s)
  • 6. Moving a tree with the Stanhoist loader. (1966)
  • 7. My dog, Princess, Dad, me and my sisters posing with the 33 and the Hackberry. (1966)
  • 8. The 33 without a muffler or breather pipe under the house. (1967)
  • 9. The 33 waiting in the shed. (2003)

 

In the early 80’s the water pump got loose and Dad moved the loader to the 44. The 33 was put in the back of the shed to be fixed at a later date but that day never came. With a large hog operation taking our free time all year round and since we didn’t need the 33’s services any longer it just sat.

 

Times changed, we got out of the hog business, reduced tillage methods cut our labor needs and I started working off the farm. Tractor collecting became a means of dad and me and my son maintaining a farming bond. We attended auctions, went to shows and acquired additional Masseys while the 33 continued to be ignored.

 

As Dad’s health started to fail and we realized what the eventual outcome would be I thought we should get the 33 running again so he could sit in the drivers seat one more time. Dad got into the project and worked on it some himself. Eventually he would just sit in a chair and visit while we were in the shop together. The last time he went outside at the farm we just walked up the hill to the shop, evaluated the 33’s progress and walked back to the house again.

 

The 33 has sat untouched for the last 4 years. It basically just needs to be reassembled but I haven’t had the motivation to finish it. The 33 was one of Dad’ two all time favorite tractors. (The other to be named later.) When I do put it all together again it will be a tribute to Dad and his dedication to building viable farming operation while raising a strong family.


More Later,

Bob


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