At this year’s Sublette Toy Show, Minneapolis-Moline was the featured tractor. This year, over the weekend preceding the show, the Illinois town was the scene of the Minneapolis-Moline Collector’s Club’s Winter show.

While all brands were represented at the Sublette show, Prairie Gold was the big contender and visitors walking the streets of Sublette enjoyed a wide array of MM tractors outside, and toys and memorabilia inside.

One MM fan had an amazing collection set up for display. While he was selling a few items, Jim Janssen and his wife, Gwen, of Bella Vista, Ark., were a popular stop for visitors. Jim was a big draw because he is an amazing source of MM history who kept visitors stopping at his table just to hear his stories.

Dan Shima, an MM collector from Eldridge, Iowa, said of Jim, “While I have collected the items over the years, Jim lived it.”

As many antique tractor fans know, the Minneapolis-Moline Power Implement Co. was formed in 1929 by the merger of Moline Implement Co., Minneapolis Threshing Machine Co. and Minneapolis Steel & Machinery Co. In later years, like many other tractor giants, they merged or were bought out; this is also true of MM.

White Motor Co. purchased Minneapolis-Moline in 1963, then eventually AGCO purchased White Tractors in 1991. Jim Janssen has a personal history with the company because both he and his father worked for MM.

Jim’s father began work at Minneapolis Steel and Machinery in 1925. Jim said, “He started as a timekeeper at the Lake Street plant (in Minneapolis). In those days, the workers were paid by the piece.”

In Jim’s collection was his father’s employee badge and other personal items that share his family history with the company. The Janssens lived in Minneapolis until 1930, when the family moved to Kansas City for an opening at the branch office. They lived in Kansas City until 1934, then moved back to Hopkins, where Jim’s father was eventually made the general credit and collections manager.

“He retired in 1966; he worked there for 41 years,” Jim said. “They then hired him back and he got into the forklift division as a consultant for four years. Moline went out of business in 1970 – that was the end.”

Jim attended college and started working for MM at the Hopkins site after prompting from a sales manager. “I worked there in the office for two-and-a-half, three years, then I went to Willmer, Minnesota, as a block man. The territory included about 12 dealers,” he said.

Jim was a bang-up salesman and soon joined the sought-after Half A Million Club, which could only be met when a salesman sold $500,000 worth of business in one year. Jim had the Half Million pin that he was awarded, in his display.

Soon Jim was working in Fargo as an assistant sales manager but he wasn’t there long because MM closed that branch. At that point, 1962, he went to Kansas City and served as the assistant manager until 1966.

“They gave all these new titles, but not raises. The prime job in Minneapolis-Moline was to be a branch manager. I got to be a branch manager in Peoria, Illinois, from 1966 until 1970,” he said.
The year of 1970 was when change was imminent for MM. This was when White Farm Equipment was formed and Jim, who had a plush office, found himself moved to the warehouse in a cubbyhole.
Being the professional he was, he still managed to move up.
“In 1971 the management of White Equipment saw that this wasn’t working, so they went back to MM and Oliver, and I was a branch manager again,” he said. “There were just three of us: the secretary, service manager and me. This lasted for a year, then the company formed White Farm Equipment permanently.”

Over the next few years, Jim did well even when seven branches were reduced to three – he became regional manager for the Omaha branch. The three remaining branches were in Columbus, Ohio, Omaha, Neb., and there was a Canadian branch.

The Omaha branch grew and after five years was doing as much business as the other two combined. “I really liked that,” he said.
When White Motor went bankrupt in 1982, Jim moved with the Omaha branch to Davenport, Iowa. In 1988, he decided it was time to retire, and moved to Arkansas.

Jim’s first wife, Jacquelyn, passed away in 2005, and Gwen’s previous husband also passed away that same year. Jim and Gwen met, married and have been wed for two years.

Readers with questions or comments for Cindy Ladage may write to her in care of this publication.