Gladys and Sherwood Hume traveled more than 3,000 miles from Milton, Ontario, to take their extremely rare Hume tractor to the Florida Flywheelers’ annual show in Avon Park earlier this year. The four-day show drew the Humes from their northern home down to the sunny, but still chilly, central Florida climes.

With them was the only known Hume tractor in existence. For those traveling the Flywheeler grounds, right outside the Village they could view the Humes’ three-ton tractor on display. Sherwood and Gladys Hume – although they share the name – are no relation to the “Hume” on the tractor.

History shares that Hume tractors originally sold for $1,250 and were built from 1913-16 in Hume, Ill. According to information about the Illinois village, the Hume Manufacturing Co. was founded to produce tractors. “Thirty-five tractors were built in Hume,” Sherwood shared. “I’ve had the tractor twice to Illinois.”

The Hume Co. was purchased by the Lyons Atlas Co. It bought Hume’s shares and assets, then went on to build 218 of the Hume tractors at its Indianapolis, Ind., facility. The tractor Sherwood and Gladys own dates back to 1917.

“In 1917, it was called a Hume, although it was the same tractor, in 1918, it was an Atlas,” Sherwood explained.

He has taken his tractor to Illinois a couple times, actually; he took it to Hume once, and another time, to the I & I Historic Farm days show. When in Hume he found that, sadly, no buildings exist any longer where the plant once was located. “When I was there, only a bean field was left now,” he said.

The town of Hume, as of the 2000 census, had 382 people. Sherwood added the town doesn’t even have a service station or grocery store.

“I found it in the Rainy River Country, which is where Minnesota, Ontario and Manitoba come together. We looked at it in July of 1992 and came back for it the first of October,” he said.
The tractor had been used on the farm for years, and was even used to saw logs from the government on an island back in the 1950s. In October 2009, when Sherwood purchased the tractor, he took it home for the long road to restoration. “It took a while,” he added.

The Humes’ tractor was brought to the show on a trailer and it runs on a 4-cylinder Waukesha engine: “When you go to start it, it has primers; I have to put gas in each primer, then turn the gas on, then put the choke it, put the impulse in and then crank it – and away we go!”

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