TRACTOR TRIVIA and other interesting stuff 6/9/2024

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The Oliver Farm Equipment Company

 

James Oliver was the son of a Scottish shepherd who had immigrated to the United States as a teenager. He became a blacksmith and soon was a partner in a South Bend, IN, foundry.

Oliver developed a "chilling" process that created durable cast iron moldboards and shares that retained a smooth surface during heavy use.

Plow sales in 1878 reached nearly 63,000, dozens of railroad cars loaded with 5,000 to 7,000 each for shipment from coast to coast left the factory.

Upon James Oliver’s death his sons Joseph and grandson James the second continued to operate the company. During World War One demand for tractor-pulled farm implements increased rapidly. It was estimated that 250,000 tractors would be built by 1919 and Oliver Chilled Plow Works expected to put 750,000 plows behind them.

In 1926 Oliver started to experiment with the creation of a tractor of their own. The "Oliver Chilled Plow Tractor" saw limited production and was discontinued with Oliver’s merger with Hart-Parr Company, Nichols & Shepard Company and the American Seeding Company forming the Oliver Farm Equipment Company in 1929.

American Seeding was a manufacturers of grain drills, corn planters and other "seeding machines. Nichols & Shepard was a manufacturer of thresher/separators, steam traction engines and a successfully functioning corn picker which would lead to the development of the famous Oliver corn picker. Hart-Parr had successfully invented and built the first commercially successful “tractor” using a 2-cylinder gasoline engine in 1903. By uniting their various and somewhat diverse product lines into a single company, Oliver Farm Equipment immediately became a full-line manufacturer.

Under the new "Oliver Farm Equipment Company" name, Oliver Hart-Parr introduces their first Row Crop tractor, a general-purpose tractor, which went into production in February of 1930.

Another acquisition brought the McKenzie Manufacturing Company, a leading maker of potato planting and potato harvesting equipment. Helped make Oliver a full line manufacturing company in the agricultural industry. 

When the Oliver 70 tractor was introduced in 1935 a very clever marketing program was devised. Oliver exhibits at State Fairs offered a voting table surrounded by the six specially painted Model 70 tractors. People were invited to look over the variously paint combinations on tractors and vote for their favorite.

The contest was a piece of marketing genius and drew a considerable amount of attention from the public and agricultural press.

The Oliver 80 was introduced and built until 1948 in Charles City, Iowa. It featured a 43 horsepower, Waukesha-Oliver 4 cylinder engine weighing in at 4,800 lbs. It was also sold as the Cockshutt 80 in Canada. Through the 1940s and 50s larger, more powerful models were added to the Oliver line.

In 1943 Oliver purchased the Ann Arbor Agricultural Machine Company a leading manufacturer of "hay presses" and in 1944 they acquired the "Cleveland Tractor Company" which was formed in 1917. Oliver continued production of the existing Cletrac HG.

1948 saw the introduction of the “Fleetline” 77,88, and 99 which could be bought with either gasoline or diesel engines. During 1954, the company upgraded these tractors with the new "Super" series models, and added the Oliver Super 55, the company's first compact utility tractor.

1958 brought a new line of Oliver tractors when they began marketing the new 660, 770, 880, 990, and other new models.

White Farm Equipment purchased the Oliver Corporation in 1960 and the Minneapolis Moline line was acquired in 1963. The Oliver 50 series tractors (1450 to 2150) were rebranded as Cockshutt but were identical to Oliver tractors of the same model number and manufactured at the Oliver plant while the  Minneapolis-Moline Jet Star 3 was sold as a Cockshutt 1350.