The old tractor was only seven years old when my father bought it in 1953. It was a reliable workhorse and greatly assisted my dad with the many chores on our acreage in Lawrence, Kansas. I remember watching this machine plow snow in the winter, cut weeds in the summer, and drag trees from the woods for our firewood. It also provided some entertainment for my brother and me, when my dad would take us for rides, and when older, we learned to drive it ourselves. The picture to the left was taken when I was about two years old.

 In the 1960's, after my father passed away, I used it for the same tasks around the family property. However, opportunity knocked after I graduated from college and I accepted a job in California. Before leaving Kansas, I sold the tractor to a close family friend, Larry Good. He maintained and protected it with the same loving care on his father's farm in Nebraska, where it continued to be a reliable and trustworthy machine. He eventually restored it to near-perfect condition.

30 years later, when Larry heard my family was moving to a five-acre parcel in Loomis, he knew the tractor needed a new home. Larry told me it was mine, as a gift, but I would have to transport it from Nebraska to Loomis. That is a whole other story, but suffice it to say, the tractor now performs the same duties, and some new ones here on the Crawford homestead in Loomis. It was an obvious choice to use the tractor as my trademark and I trust that it will stay in the family for at least another generation.


Hugh Crawford,
The Tractor Man