Since retiring from the Air Force, M. Hearty Fitchko enjoys his second career as an I.H dealer in Ligonier. HI I • Big, Heavy-Duty J Flywheel I • Oil Bath Gear Case I • Straddle-Mounted | Crank i • Gear Drive All The ! Way Back j • Solidly Built | Announcing our strongest, i heaviest disc/chisel ever. ! The International 6500 Conser-Till Plow Solid I steel frame components make it one of the heaviest | disc/chisels sold | Exclusive IH features I make it one of the j most productive I conservation tillage J machines we've I ever offered » Stop in and see the new heavyweight 6500 Conser j Till Plow today | Jai LIGONIER SALES & SERVICE j [ w Route 30 East, P.O. Box L Ligonier, PA 15658 i {jeSTaSotoWM) PH; (412) 238-5790 Hours: Mon.-Frl.: SAM - SPM j HYDRO 86 TRACTOR • Smooth, variable speed hydrostatic drive • 312 cu. in diesel engine • Independent PTO, 540 RPM • Hydrostatic power steering • Isomount' isolators reduce vibration • Category II three point hitch INTERNATIONAL 425 BALER Sturdy power train assures dependable baling season after season . SPECIAL PRICES ON NEW IH EQUIPMENT • #lO Flail Chopper • MOD 6000 Consertill, 10 Chisels • 5100 16x7 Combination Grain Drill • 784 D Tractor • 510 5 Furrow 16” Semi MTD Plow • 425 Baler (with or without thrower) USED IH EQUIPMENT • Hydro 666 Tractor, New Tires, One Owner • 82 Combine, Overhauled, One Owner Supplement to Lancaster Farming, Sai Retired Colonel Heads Ligonier Sales and Service Ligonier, Pennsylvania’s In ternational Harvester dealership began as the backyard enterprise of H. Sweeney and Son. The dealership remained in the Sweeney family until the decade of the 60’s, when the firm was sold three times by 1970. Retiring from the Air Force in 1966, M. Hearty Fitchko found just what he was looking for when he and a partner took over the dealership from Pete Stouffer in 1970. Fitchko had been bom and raised on a farm and was looking for a way to immerse himself in agriculture once again. Since the dealership also in cluded Jeep zr A *MC franchises. M & R Equipment (Continued from Page 7) preferable to the oats-powered horse. The debate was finally put to rest when the onset of WW I created a 69 PTO hp\ Diesel | lay, January it was agreed that the two partners would split, with Fitchko taking the agricultural line. So in 1973 Fitchko and I.H. left the dealership three miles north of town and moved to the present location of Ligonier Sales and Service, along Route 30 on the East side of Ligonier. Employees of the firm include Service Manager Dean Kalp, Assistant Service Manager Hank Henderson, and Parts Manager Ed McCauley. Sales Manager Michael G. Fitchko, the owner’s son, is expected to assume ownership after his father’s second and probably final retirement. demand tor agricultural products that only mechanized farming could meet. Surviving both the Great Depression, and the shortages of WWII, the dealership remained under its original management until 1946, when Harry Robinson’s son Charles, and Arthur’s son Joseph took the reins. The beginning of the post-war economic boom made competition inevitable, and in 1946 Charles J. Manifold opened an I.H. store a few miles up the road in New Park, PA, hiring his bookkeeper Dons, who incidentally, remains an in valuable asset to M&R Equipment to the present day. Both of these family-oriented businesses coexisted and prospered independently of each other until the late ‘7o’s, when a changing agricultural economy and a need for larger and more up to-date facilities prompted the two to join forces. Along with the retirement of Charles and Joseph Robinson in 1977, M&R Equipment, Inc., was born, a company who’s 70 years of service span almost the entire history of mechanized farming. Today General Manager Lee W. Manifold, Service Manager Donald C. Robinson, and Sales Manager Dave Robinson, carry on the tradition of one of the oldest and most respected International Harvester dealers in southeastern Pennsylvania. Hoober (Continued from Page 4) productivity advantages over conventional combines were immediately advantages over conventional combines were immediately evident to Hoober. He saw the opportunity to make this new axial-flow combine a primary pillar of C.B. Hoober & Son Inc’s product base. Through aggressive sales promotion, service training, and parts support, Charlie has succeeded in the years since in making C.B Hoober & Son Inc. the I.H. axial-flow Combine Headquarters in Pennsylvania for the 1980’s. But to Bud and Charlie Hoober, honest, conscientious employees are still considered the key to the Hoober business And customer satisfaction will always be the primary goal of all Hoober per sonnel. Which is why the name C.B. Hoober & Son, Inc., has become synonymous with quality service at a fair price.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers