Tom Jansen has a beautiful old 1918 Massey-Harris that is in top running condition; it is a No. 2 model. “They made No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3,” Tom explained. “It was designed after the Parrett tractor. Massey-Harris bought the rights and it was made in Weston, Ontario.”

Dent Parrett, who designed the Parrett tractor, seems to turn up in a lot of tractor stories because of his extensive design work. An Illinois boy, born Oct. 13, 1886, in Wenona, Parrett opened the Parrett Tractor Co. in 1913 at Ottawa, then in 1915 moved the company to Chicago Heights, where more than 300 tractors were built the first year.

After serving in the Army he sold the company and from 1920-23 was chief of experimental design at Massey-Harris. While Parrett still owned his company, in 1918, the Massey-Harris Co. had contracted with it to acquire the rights to build and sell tractors in Canada under the Massey-Harris name.

During production, the No. 1 model was identical to the Parrett No. 3. The Massey-Harris No. 2 was like the No. 1, with the addition of a two-speed transmission, a belt guide and shielding to keep dirt out of the final-drive gears. The No. 3 had a larger engine and the radiator was moved to a conventional transverse position.

That is one of the unusual things about the No. 2, Tom said: “The engine sits crossways rather than lengthwise. The radiator is lengthwise also, rather than crossways.”

Tom’s No. 2 has a four-cylinder, Model HTU engine built by Buda. The tractor operates at 1,000 rpm and produces 12 hp at the drawbar and 22 hp at the belt pulley.

The No. 3 came out in 1922, with a larger Buda engine capable of producing 15 hp at the drawbar and 28 hp at the belt pulley. The radiator on the No. 3 was moved to a more conventional transverse position. When new, Tom thought the Massey-Harris No. 2 tractors sold for around $460.

His No. 2 was on display at this year’s Historic Farm Days in Penfield, Ill. The tractor caused a stir because it is so different. Tom was not quite as thrilled when it died during the parade – but for the visitors, it was just more time to enjoy the 96-year-old machine.

Tom said he found the tractor  in Brandenburg, Ky., at an estate auction on Aug. 3, 2013. “I don’t know its original history,” he admitted.

The tractor was built to perform belt work, to run a threshing machine or sawmill or plow. “I know this was used for plowing,” Tom added, “because I had to redo the steering kingpins (that) were wore out. I could move the wheels four inches either way and the ball joints looked more like eggs than balls.

“I worked all winter on the Massey along with my cousin, Roy. He did all the painting.”

The tractor required mechanical work and replacing the sheet metal. The sheet metal required new fenders, and that magic was performed by Ervin Chew from Indiana.

Penfield was the first show where the tractor was on display. Tom planned to take it the following weekend to the national Massey-Harris show in Charleston, Ill.

He is part of a large extended family that loves tractors. He said he is primarily a Massey guy, but his first tractor was a Rumley that he bought about 10 years ago. “I have a Rumley 25-40 and I have two Wallace tractors; one is a 1220 and the other is a 2030. I also have a Massey-Harris 25 that is styled. They only did this one year in 1938; after that almost all the tractors were styled,” he explained.

Before tractors, Tom was into antique gas engines: “I have been collecting engines since I was 11.”

Working with equipment is part of his makeup. He is in the heating and cooling business and goes by the nickname of “Dr. Comfort.”

Both work and collecting is a family affair with the Jansens. For his wife, Cindy, for Christmas one year Tom bought a Cockshutt 30 tractor because she said, “It was so pretty.”

“Pretty amazing” is how most of the visitors to the Historic Farm Days seemed to feel about the Massey-Harris No. 2!

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