TRACTOR TRIVIA and other interesting stuff 5/14/2024

October 27, 2012

Today’s letter is “L” a bit of luck and meeting local needs led to a lucrative career.

Lindeman Tractors

Jesse G. Lindeman didn’t build the first crawler tractor, in fact he didn’t build any tractors. He recognized a need for a better tractor and developed improvements to a readily available popular tractor. He also designed and built a variety of innovative implements to meet the unique needs of grove owners.

Lindeman was born on a small farm in Iowa where he attended schools through the eighth grade. He joined the Air Service of the U.S. Army at age of 18 during WWI. He was a self-taught mechanic, agricultural-equipment engineer.

Following World War One he ended up in Yakima, WA, and found work at Rovig Lumber Company. They were more than just a lumber company, building and selling farm equipment also. In 1921 Jesse’s brother Harry joined him working for Rovig.

While working at Rovig Lumber, Jesse saw opportunities to develop and build sell specialized implements that orchard and vineyard owners could use to great advantage. First came a ditching device utilizing discs and a packing wheel to repack the bottom of the ditch, and a mechanical lift to raise the discs was also incorporated.

Next, he came up with a tractor drawn Extension Disc to meet the needs of grove owners. The fruit trees were so large with low branches that a tractor could not get close enough to do a good job of discing. His disc enabled the tractor to drive down the center of the row and disc both sides. It was adjustable to allow for different row widths and could be closed to disc the center of the row as well. Farmer were impressed with the ditcher and disc, sales were brisk. Other implements including rotary tillers, special equipment for fruit handling, land slopers, sprayers, two-way plows, hydraulic hitches & tool carriers, and Hop pickers were later added to Linderman’s list of equipment designs.

In 1922, just a year after Harry had joined Jessey, Rovig Lumber went out of business. This would have been devastating to most young people but the Lenderman brothers saw it as an opportunity. Jesse and Harry combined their savings purchasing the parts and equipment inventory at the Rovig auction for $158.00. They then came up with $150.00 to rent a building and buy some tools, starting their own small manufacturing and retail farm machinery business.

Seeing a need for crawler tractors to work the orchards and vineyards they became a Holt (predecessor to Caterpillar) dealership. In 1925, Best and Holt merged to form Caterpillar. Rather than having competing dealerships the same community Caterpillar severed ties with Lindeman. They then obtained a Cletrac franchise from Cleveland Tractor Co. but by 1930 there were quality problems with Cletrac which motivated the Lindermans to become a John Deere dealer though John Deere had no crawler tractors.

The taller rubber tires tractors were not well suited for grove/orchard work and the Linderman brothers developed a retrofit for the John Deere BO (Model B, Orchard) tractor that would give it a much lower profile. He lowered the frame to nine inches from the ground and lowered the seat making it practical to run under the orchard branches.

This sturdy tractor did many jobs: climb steep orchard hills, maneuver under orchard branches, work in row crop farming, wheat farming, logging, earth moving and moving cargo in the holds of ships. The tractors were very popular, and a good basic design based on a well-known tractor, John Deere.

Jesse designed a two-way (or roll-over) field plow in 1939. When it was raised, the plow automatically tripped itself and rolled over, ready for the next furrow. Harry Ferguson was so impressed with Jesse’s plow that he ordered 10,000 of them.

With the onset of World War II Lindeman diverted production for the war effort. Lindeman made track parts for the Navy’s LVT (Landing Vehicle, Tracked) “Water Buffalo,” an armored amphibious warfare landing craft.

In 1947 John Deere purchased the Linderman Power Equipment Company for over a million dollars and Jesse Linderman became Deere’s Vice President of engineering for tracked vehicles. Not too shabby for a farm kid from Iowa with an eighth-grade education.

Jesse Lindeman was a true pioneer of the manufacturing industry and held numerous patents for new and improved agricultural equipment that spanned five decades. Jesse retained his patents and his brother Harold continued manufacturing Linderman implements in Yakima.

Field on, Approved on

June 21, 1921, – December 25, 1923 US1478830 – ORCHARD DISK OR HARROW

April 10, 1926, – June 14, 1927 US1632303 – DITCHING MACHINE

January 31, 1929 – March 18, 1930 US1751010-WHEEL-MOUNTING-FOR-LAND-VEHICLES

October 21, 1929 – January 12, 1932 US1840402-ROAD-VEHICLE-SUPPORT

October 21,1929 – April 26, 1932 US1855605-OFFSET-DISK-HARROW

August 9, 1929 – April 26, 1932 US1855604-SUBSOILER

November 15, 1937 – April 16, 1940 US2197273-WHEEL-MOUNTING-FOR-LAND-VEHICLES

July 16, 1945 – March 6, 1951 US2543786-TWO-WAY-PLOW-ATTACHMENT-FOR-TRACTORS

October 26, 1945 – March 11, 1952 US2589104-HYDRAULIC-TOOL-SUPPORTING-STRUCTURE

October 26, 1945 – October 20, 1953 USRE23726-HYDRAULIC-TOOL-SUPPORTING-STRUCTURE

October 30, 1945 – January 25, 1949 US2460137-HYDRAULIC-COUPLING