Phebe and John Galaway of Farmer City, Ill., were set up at the Antique Power Club’s 25th annual Antique Power Days Farm Toy Show in Salem. The toy and tractor show ran from Sept. 5-7, with a farm toy auction held on the morning of Sept. 6.

Vendors such as the Galaways had items for sale and a few on display, like John’s unique John Deere 140 patio series set made by the toy company Ertl. The 1/16-scale set was a gift to John while he was working at Hawn & Overton John Dealership in Farmer City.

“I worked there for two-and-a-half years, then I went out on my own and ran my own lawn construction business,” John said. He worked at Hawn & Overton in the 1970s; he said the dealership is no longer in business.

As for the patio tractors, he explained, “They were building new houses in this time period when they built the patio tractor. Deere thought it would entice women to mow the yard.”

John said the little 140s were built in the late 1960s to lure suburbanites and non-farm people by offering brightly colored lawn and garden tractors. Information from Ertl cited: “In 1969, John Deere Introduced the Custom Color Series of lawn and garden tractors and attachments. This equipment is often referred to as the ‘Patio Models.’

“The Patio Models were not painted in the traditional John Deere green, but in custom colors. The tractor was painted in base Dogwood White. The seats and hoods were offered in four colors: Patio Red, Sunset Orange, April Yellow and Spruce Blue. The attachments were painted in Dogwood White.”

The series was short-lived, with the line beginning in 1969 and ending in 1971. According to Tractor Data, “The facility in Horicon, Wis., the former Van Brunt grain drill factory, is the historical home of Deere’s lawn and garden tractor manufacturing.”

Kate Goelzhauser, editor of Lawn & Garden Tractor magazine, said the four colors were selected because “these colors matched those of John Deere’s popular competitors.” Manufactured in the Horicon Plant, “tractors were shipped minus the hood and seat; the dealer would then install the colored hood and seat of choice. It didn’t take long for John Deere’s marketing group to find out that customers buying John Deere garden tractors wanted a green tractor and not one of a different color.

“Sales of the Custom Color tractors were disappointing and in the 1971 model year, production of the Custom Color tractors ceased. Dealers repainted many of the tractors and hoods green to get them sold. Many of the seats were used to make parts counter stools, were given away or they ended up laying around on dealer parts shelves for years waiting to be picked up by collectors. Today the seats are very rare and quite collectable,” she added.

Surprisingly, Kate noted the seat sometimes is worth more than the tractor. “We have seen them go for $1,200,” she said.

The patio tractors, while colorful and built to lure women and suburbanites into buying, didn’t take off like Deere had hoped. Though the series didn’t sell well, of the four colors, the bestsellers were Patio Red and Sunset Orange.

The Patio Series colors were available first for Deere’s model 110, 112, 140 tractors. Later, the 120 was made available with these non-green color options. The only difference between the regular green 110s, 112s, 120s and 140s and the Patio Series was the color scheme.

John said this set of patio tractor farm toys came in one original box. This set, he added, was worth quite a bit at the moment and while he doesn’t always take it out for display, since lawn and garden tractors were featured at the Annual Power Farm Days, he thought they were an appropriate visual.

Other farm toys were left on the table when he went home at night, but John said, “These go home with me!”

While the toy patio series was on display inside, outside, visitors and lawn and garden enthusiasts were able to see the real things lined up in all their glory on the fairgrounds lawn.

To see what is featured next year and for information about the next show at Salem, check out the website at www.antiquepowerdays.com

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