166 —Supplement to Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 28,1984 When Mansfield resident Wilbur task, Wood’s mailbox was the Wood’s home burned to the ground familiar butt of many a joke in 1978 he was quick to rebuild, but peddled among his Tioga County the problem of what to do with his neighbors, mailbox remained. Mounted on a Hearing of his plight, Gleason & post that seemed scarcely up to the Baker mounted Wood’s mailbox on Because the firm had no adequate trailer back in 1979, Gleason & Baker’s owner, Dick Jacobs, drove Tioga County's first I.H. 2+2 tractor to his customer’s door. Gleason & Baker serve northern Pa. Tioga County’s first large 4WD tractor, a brand New International Harvester 4186, burying forever the sarcastic gossip. Though a bit on the outlandish side, such an incident typifies the Gleason & Baker tradition of kinship with its northern Penn sylvania and New York customers. The year was 1940 when Mr. Gleason and his partner Archie Baker began their I.H. Equipment business in a small garage in Elkland, PA. But with the post-war boom in farm equipment sales, came Gleason & Baker’s new building, still in use today on the company’s three-acre site bor dering South Buffalo Street. After 22 years of service to the farmers of the Cowanesque Valley, Mr. Baker and Mr. Gleason’s widow, Myrtle Gleason, sold the firm to Baker’s nephew, Wendall Baker, and Gleason’s son-in-law, Clyde Mowry. The two new partners shouldered sales and shop management responsibilities unassisted, until the company’s growth made it apparent that more hands were needed on deck. With the addition of former I.H. Zone Manager, Richard Jacobs, to their sales force, the two partners partner relinquishing his portion of began a gradual phase-out of their the business to Jacobs in own duties, delegating an in- November of 1982. creasing amount of responsibility Retaining the name of Gleason & to Dick Jacobs. This strategy led to Baker, Dick now runs the business Jacob’s acquisition of half the firm with his wife Joyce handling the in late 1981, with the remaining Arena combines 1H and GM in New Jersey Founded as an International with the dealership in 1977, and Harvester dealership in 1937, by currently manages the automotive Salvatore Arena and his son parts department, while his father Angelo, Arena also handles Old- oversees the agricultural line, smobiles and Pontiacs at its White Other employees among Arena’s Horse Pike location in Ham- staff of 11 include Parts Manager, monton, New Jersey. Ben Bruno and Service Manager, Salvatore’s son, Joseph Arena, Joseph Schulze. Sr., joined the firm in 1944, later Catering to Atlantic County, New acquiring sole ownership of Arena Jerseys fruit and vegetable far- Olds-Pontiac in 1978. mers, Arena handles both In- A third generation of Arenas, ternational’s Agricultural and represented by Joseph, Jr., came Outdoor Power Products lines. Power and economy in a versatile \ row-crop tractor JJ a •SjtTi International ® Series 84 Row-Crop Tractors 584—52.5 PTO hp* 684—62.5 PTO hp* Hydro 84 —58.7 PTO hp* 784—67.4 PTO hp* 884—72.9 PTO hp* • Economical IH-built 4-cylinder diesel engines. • 16F/8R standard on 884, optional on 784 and 684. BF/4R standard on all other models. Hydro model also available. • Hydraulic disc brakes, differential lock, power steering. 3-point draft sensing hitch, independent PTO and more, all standard equipment. ih. AGRICULTURAL CQUIMUMT ARENA OLDS-PONTIAC 227 White Horse Pike Hammonton, NJ 08037 609/561-0707 (Turn to Page 30) * Official Test Farmall Tractor (Built 1930 to 1932) nnn con □□n
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers