TRACTOR TRIVIA and other interesting stuff 5/15/2024

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Today’s letter is “M”         many monumental achievements may be traced to Morton

 

S.S. Morton Tractor

 

Samual S. Morton is a name that comes up frequently when researching tractor manufacturers from the final decade of the nineteenth century and the first couple of decades of the twentieth century. In fact, he held patents ranging from 1886 to 1922 covering saw mills, steam traction engines, transmissions “endless tread chain” (now referred to as bulldozed tracks) and other devices.

Morton and a host of other tractor pioneers began several companies and built many tractors that included the name Morton. He built his first Traction Engine in 1899 then began manufacturing the "Morton Traction Truck", a tractor chassis on which any Stationary type single-cylinder gasoline engines from 6-50 hp could be mounted. In 1904 Morton sold the patent to the Ohio Manufacturing Co. of Upper Sandusky, Ohio. They sold Morton Trucks to several tractor manufacturers and built the first IHC Type A tractors for International Harvester utilizing IHC's "Famous" engines on a Morton chassis.

Ohio Manufacturing continued to make the Morton trucks until 1913. Also, they built the Whitney 9-18 tractor from 1916-21.

Chris Heer of the Heer Engine Co. in Portsmouth, Ohio joined with Morton in 1910 to form the Morton-Heer Co. to build a four-wheel drive tractor designed by Heer (see TRACTOR TRIVIA and other interesting stuff 4/21/2024). The 4WD, 4-wheel-steering, tractor with equal-sized front and rear wheels, center-pivot steering, worm-drive axles, and a Heer horizontally-opposed 2-cylinder engine was the first 4WD tractor on the market when it was introduced in 1912.The name changed to Reliable Tractor and Engine Co. in 1915. The new company manufactured the Reliable 10-20 two-wheel drive tractor until 1921. The same tractor was sold by Fairbanks, Morse & Co. as the Fair-Mor tractor.

The Morton interests formed the Morton Tractor Co. of Fremont, Ohio and about 1912 began building a copy of the Heer 4WD tractor under the Morton name. Morton and associates also began experimenting with a small 2WD tractor with a mounted plow called the Morton Motor Plow and formed the Morton Motor Plow Co. in Columbus, Indiana where production began in 1914. No further information or images of the Morton Motor Plow could be found.