It was in a veritable blizzard that Hart-Parr Oliver collectors arrived Feb. 27 at the American Farm Heritage Museum in Greenville, Ill., for their winter show. Founded in 1989, the Hart-Parr Oliver Collectors Assoc. (HPOCA) is a nonprofit organization with about 8,000 members.

The HPOCA represents those who collect or admire Hart-Parr, Oliver and Cletrac tractors and equipment lines. The HPOCA  has  20 chapters throughout the United States and Canada and its goal is  to collect, preserve and distribute information on Hart-Parr, Oliver and related companies.

The snow didn’t stop the collectors from setting up bus tours filled to the rafters. One offered a tour of the historic town of Greenville, and another of Rock City, an underground office space created from an old quarry in the town of Valmeyer. The last tour was to the Korves Oliver Brothers shop where collectors saw the brothers’ private tractor collection, in Waterloo, Ill. The tour was originally for two buses, and despite the weather, ended up filling three.

Mark Korves and his family were set up at the HPOCA show with parts available for collectors to purchase. They make reproduction Oliver tractor parts that Mark said “we ship all over the world.”

Oliver roots run deep for the Korves family. “My great-uncle worked at our local dealer and he retired in 1975. My great-grandfather was a farmer, and we are still farmers as well. This used to be a sideline business,” he said.

“We started 20 years ago; my great-uncle got us started. When we couldn’t find parts we made them and that is how we got started, and went from there. Our business began in a barn built in 1892.”

Along with their parts, they also had some beautiful Oliver tractors on display. Mark had his 1955 Super 77 Oliver LP Standard that he bought from Canada 15 years ago. The tractor was not, at that time, in the beautifully restored version that visitors to the HPOCA show saw it.

Along with the Super 77, Mark had the 1956 Super 88 LP Standard that came out of Oklahoma. “It had its original working clothes on,” Mark said, adding, “the story behind this I can’t document, but Oliver didn’t build the Super Standard with LP. The story goes that a dealer in Oklahoma wanted that version and Oliver said, ‘If you buy 20, we will make them.’

“Supposedly they made the 20-minimum run. I know of five of these, and all are within 11 serial numbers of each other.”

Mark thought there were about 70 Super 77s made but of those, he doesn’t know how many LP Standards were made. “I have never seen another,” he explained.

The Korves, with assistance from friend Steve Egan, restored the tractors, stripping them all the way down “piece by piece.”

“No two pieces stayed together,” Steve said, adding everything was taken apart and “there was not a bolt, seal or gasket that was not turned.”

The show included several vendors with literature and memorabilia, to Oliver toys. Heritage Iron as well as Hart-Parr Oliver Collector, the HPOCA magazine, were on hand for the show. There were also HPOCA club chapters and an array of tractors on display. The winter show included a Friday auction with a room-busting crowd and a Saturday night banquet.

The HPOCA summer show will be in Albert City, Iowa, Aug. 7-9; log onto www.hartparroliver.org for more information.

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