This year was the ninth annual Abe’s Tractor Cruise Across the Prairie, a fun tractor drive for a good cause – the drive, while a chance for collectors to get out their old iron, was primarily a benefit for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.

St. Jude’s was opened Feb. 4, 1962, by actor Danny Thomas. The hospital has a mission of finding cures and prevention for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. No child is denied treatment based on race, religion or a family’s ability to pay.

Antique tractor enthusiasts Mike Hall and Donnie DeLong headed up the event and WMFB’s country music radio talk host John Spalding drove Mike’s Farmall Super C, pulling a mobile radio station behind him and broadcasting live during the event.

“We started at historic Clayville (Ill.) and drove to New Salem,” Mike said after the event. The group was gathered around with tractors loaded and ready to disperse after a meal and a little companionship.

Antique tractors of all makes and models were loaded late in the afternoon. Thirty-six tractors made the round on this historic route where Abraham Lincoln once plied his trade as a postmaster and worked at the general store at New Salem.

The cost for the ride was $35 for those who pre-registered for Abe’s Tractor Cruise Across the Prairie and $50 for those who paid the day of. The drive began at 8:45 a.m. at Clayville, a former roadside hamlet that was inhabited from 1824 into the 1850s and is located in Cartwright Township near Pleasant Plains.

Abe’s Tractor Cruise took about three hours, and the drivers went to New Salem and turned around. Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site is a reconstruction of the former village of New Salem in Menard County, where Lincoln lived from 1831-37.

While in his twenties, the future president made his living in this frontier village as a boatman, soldier in the Black Hawk War, general store owner, postmaster, surveyor and rail-splitter. It was while living at New Salem that he was first elected to the Illinois General Assembly.

Drivers went past historic sites traveled by important people over the years. “We had drivers from Lincoln, Elkhart, Buffalo, Pawnee, Rochester, Petersburg, Ashland, Jacksonville and New Berlin,” Donnie added.

Mike said the 2019 event will be the big one. “Next year will be our 10th anniversary, and we will be doing it up. There will be a band and fireworks. I told my brother he is coming; it will be a great way for him to celebrate his 70th birthday.”

Next year’s event will be on June 2. To learn more, call 217-494-7105, 217-371-1107 or 217-741-3531.