Nancy Hutchins and her husband, Rob, were at the Historic Farm Days at Penfield, Ill., during the 41st show.

 

Nancy was part of the Cast Iron Seat Collectors Assoc., which had a wide variety of cast iron seats that filled half of the featured building. The collectors shared space with Allis-Chalmers and Advance-Rumely fans.

While there were cast iron seats from makes and models representing all types of agricultural implements, Nancy’s collection focused on Rock Island. She said the Rock Island Plow Co. became the brand of choice when her children attended college in the area.

Beyond the local association, though, it was seeing an exhibit in Baraboo that caught her attention and made her want to join in the hobby. “The exhibit had a seat and a tool box, a grain end, drill and wrenches. I said, ‘I want to do that.’”

Rob noted that last year in Baraboo, some Amish or Mennonites were viewing the cast iron seat catalog as a place to find information for equipment they were still using.

After Baraboo, Nancy began to look in earnest and soon found her first collectible. “I found a wrench at Rock Island and started collecting last spring,” she explained.

Her Rock Island wrench collection and seats at the Penfield show were eye-catching. One of her best finds was from a man in Canada who had a seat that was mounted on the original mounting boards.

“It doesn’t say Rock Island. It is from the late 1800s. I’m sticking to collecting Rock Island,” Nancy added. “We live in Harvard, Illinois, and (the Rock Island Plow Co.) has a huge history.”

Rock Island Plow Co. eventually became J.I. Case. “They wanted to be a source of everything a farmer would need – they wanted to be the Sears of farm equipment,” Nancy said of its history.

 

According to the Rock Island Plow Co. website, it was founded in 1855 as Buford & Tate. It explained Rock Island was one of the many companies, including Farmall, Moline and John Deere, that made the Quad Cities the hub of ag innovation and production at the end of the 19th century and well into the 20th century.

Nancy first became acquainted with the Cast Iron Seat Collectors through business at the print shop where she worked.

“The editor of the quarterly newsletter asked if we could print their newsletter; I became the graphic artist for it. Bud Porter (the former editor) walked in in 1982 and showed me the newsletter. I was thinking, ‘Who’d want to collect this stuff?’ – then I saw a seat from Russia and was hooked.”

She said after she transferred departments at work, “I started freelancing as their editor about nine or 10 years ago. Then I became a member, too!”

Besides being editor of the company publication, she has been busy working hard on the club’s recent release of a new edition of Cast Iron Seats of the World. “It is a cast iron seat collector’s bible,” Nancy said.

The Cast Iron Seat Collectors Assoc. is an organization made up of collectors of cast iron seats of agricultural implements. It was founded in 1973 in Atlantic, Iowa, and currently has a membership of 400 from around the world.

To learn more about the association or to join, check out their Facebook page online at www.facebook.com/The-Cast-Iron-Seat-Collectors-Association-215042428556367

Readers with questions or comments for Cindy Ladage may write to her in care of this publication. Learn more of Cindy’s finds and travel in her blog, “Traveling Adventures of a Farm Girl,” at http://travelingadventuresofafarmgirl.com