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