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Fergusons featured at 33rd antique Indiana power show
 
Wrenching Tales by Cindy Ladage 
 
The 33rd annual Antique Power Steam and Gas Show was Aug. 7-10 at the 4-H fairgrounds in LaGrange, Ind. The grounds was filled with vendors in a large flea market, there were field demonstrations and live music – but most of all, there were the Ferguson tractors and machinery.
Brent Holaway hails from Osceola, Ind., and is president of the Ferguson Enthusiasts of North America (FENA). “Each year the Steam and Gas Assoc. features a tractor and, this year, it is Ferguson tractors and machinery,” he explained.
Living within an hour’s drive of LaGrange allowed Brent to plan for the show. When asked about standout tractors on display, he said they were all standouts, but he did point out Richard Kimball’s T40 with the side-mounted baler, along with several Ferguson Pony models. The history behind the Ferguson Pony is quite interesting.
Brent said Ferguson only offered about 900 Ponys after the merger of Ferguson and Massey. “They took the Massey Pony and painted it gray, then shipped it to dealers,” he said. “But they were not very excited. They had been recently competing against Ferguson and the tractors were not bestsellers.”
The name Massey Ferguson was coined in 1958 – a shortening of the name Massey-Harris-Ferguson. This company had been formed in 1953 after the merger of the famous North American company Massey Harris with Harry Ferguson Limited of England.
“When Harry Ferguson and Massey were bargaining, they came within $1 million and couldn’t agree, so they flipped a coin and Harry (Ferguson) lost,” Brent mused.
He had his own Pony in what he dubbed the “feature circle.” Besides these cool Ponys on display, he said, “Another jewel is the FE35 Ferguson tractor that the Canadians brought down.”
He added the FE35s were mostly in the United Kingdom. “They brought this tractor down from Quebec. It is the first one I have ever seen. It is the English version of the TO35 (which means Tractors Overseas).” American collectors are considered the out-of-the-country group since most Fergusons were built in England.
Besides the Canadians, the Ferguson show also brought a contingency of eight gentlemen from Ireland.
Brent began collecting 12 years ago: “My grandfather was a farmer in West Liberty, Ohio.” After Grandpa passed and Brent purchased land, he received his grandpa’s Ferguson 30 and a Farmall H: “My hobby just got worse from there!” Besides tractors, he mostly adds the more affordable implements to his growing collection.
Collector Richard Kimball is also from West Liberty. “I started collecting seriously in the early (19)70s,” he said. “The first tractor I bought was the Ferguson 40 on the baler, I think.”
After that his collection grew as he purchased more Ferguson 20s, 30s and 40s.
“I bought several in between if I could find them at a decent price,” Richard said. “I grew up on in the late ’50s on a Ferguson 30. My granddad had a 30, so when he quit, we bought it, then we went with the Massey Ferguson dealership until they closed up.”
Picking up implements from auctions in the 1980s and ’90s rounded out his collection. “You get hooked because all these will fit onto the three-point hitch. I have about every implement they made.”
Karen Morrison and her husband, Carl, traveled from Frazeysburg, Pa., with their 1951 TO-20 industrial tractor. “This was used by the state for highway work,” Karen said. “When (Carl) tore it down, it had yellow paint underneath it.”
Another collector who restores tractors is Mike Mercer of Clayton, Ohio. “I started restoring tractors for others in 2010,” he said. “I have painted tractors all my life, I just started painting for other people.”
At the show Mike pointed out the 1954Ferguson Pony he restored. “This Pony was in my family. It belonged to my great-uncle, Loren Mercer. I have the original gray Pony brochure that has scratch marks from when Loren bought it.”
Mike was lucky he found the family tractor; it was owned by the same fellow who bought it off the farm. “I restored it in 2010 and then other people asked if I would restore theirs. I restored Brent Holaway’s and one for Richard Kimball.
“I have a long list of tractors. I am working on a Farmall H and two John Deere Hs.”
These tractors are right up his wife Nancy’s alley. She has a Farmall H, like her dad had, and a John Deere H too. To get the job done right, Mike takes the tractors apart if they need repairs, strips them down, sandblasts, primes and paints each piece individually then puts it all back together. “I spend hours sanding to remove all the pits. I treat each one as if it is my own. It takes a lot of patience,” he added.
Mike is retired from heavy equipment construction and thought this would just be a hobby, but it has turned into a full-time job. The Pony he restored and brought to the LaGrange show has sentimental value: “This is the first tractor I drove around when I was seven, on the farm.” The family farm sold in the 1960s, but the love of the equipment lives on in Mike’s hobby.
For more information about the LaGrange show, log onto www.lagrangeengineclub.com

Readers with questions or comments for Cindy Ladage may write to her in care of this publication.
10/16/2014