Wolfs Collection Showcases Farm, Rural Memorabilia JOYCE BUPP York Co. Correspondent GETTYSBURG (Adams Co.) The lineup of shiny tractors, trucks, and cars stretches, two deep, from Stan Wolfs machine shed to an adjoining field. To a novice, it appears to be a collection of restored machinery and vehicles. But to antique equipment buffs, the display is one of rare and unusual mecha nized treasures. Some are origi nal machines lovingly restored, A limited number of 1950 C Farmall demonstrator trac tors went to selected dealers, painted white to catch farmers’ eye£ at county fairs and farm events. After a demonstration period, the white tractors were taken back to dealer shops and painted the traditional Farmall red. Stan Wolf currently owns two of these rare collector pieces. In a wartime marriage of machinery due to parts short ages, two dozen tractors were cobbled together by a small company in Indiana, using a John Deere body pow ered by a Model-A Ford engine. Thus, the short-lived and very rare “Ford-Deere” model tractor, like this one in Stan Wolf’s collection, came to be. Restored to an original fiery shade of orange, Stan Wolf’s 1939 Plymouth came to his shop in bushel baskets and five-gallon bucketfuls of pieces. He paid $5O for an original advertising booklet of the car to prove to skeptics the automobile’s paint job’s authenticity. Lancaster while others are reproductions or adaptions of originals. A museum of farm and rural memorabilia in one side of the spacious shop contains a wealth of ag antiquities and historic pieces, including the only known complete set of milk bottles from Adams County’s 29 small dairy processors. “I got my first old tractor about 3S years ago. Then, I thought I needed another. And another, and another,” says Stan Wolf, a wide grin showing from under his broad-brimmed straw hat. Gettysburg farmer, retired bus firm owner, and agriculture antiques enthusiast, Wolf has prowled countryside sales and auctions for years in search of the next addition to his noted collec tion of farm and equipment an tiques. For every piece, from the sal vaged and restored first self-pro pelled combine to tiny glass creamers in his personal farm memorabilia museum, Stan Wolf has an enthusiastic and interest ing story. Probably one of Wolfs best known pieces is “Ike’s” tractor, a 1955 Model 40 Cockshutt “Black Hawk,” The shiny, pale-yellow machine bears a plaque noting that “this tractor was given to President Eisenhower, November 30, 1955, by Farm Bureau, as a gift.” Wolf, whose family farm was not far from the Gettysburg Bat tlefield farm beloved by President Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower and his wife, Mamie, adamantly be lieved that the historic tractor be longed in Adams County. So he kept bidding at a York County sale three years ago for this lynch-pin tractor to add to his se ries of Cockshutt models. Now, the beautifully-restored tractor of presidential history, along with a golf cart given the former President by the Cush man company in 1955 and used on the Gettysburg farm, is fre quently seen at area tractor shows. Wolf also lines them up, with others in his unique collec tion, for his annual, free, Memo rial Day display open house at their property on Black Horse Tavern Road. At one end of the lineup is a piece-de-resistance for antique equipment buffs, a restored pro totype of the first self-propelled combine. Originally designed in 1940 by the Allis-Chalmers firm, the machine was devised at the request of the Army Corp of En gineers as a partial answer to the dilemma of farmers who saw their manual labor forces being drafted for World War II mili tary service. “There were five of them built,” says Wolf, who reads and researches extensively for docu mentation of the rare pieces he treasures. “One is in a museum in England. Another was found in Tennessee after a lengthy search by a Luray, Virginia, collector.” The third and only other known one remaining in exist ence had long collected dust at Letterkenny Army Depot, north of Chambersburg. It was painted a dull, military-khaki-color, when Wolf first saw it, and had never been run for its intended purpose. Belts and webbing had dry-rotted from the long period of non-use. After extensive searching, Wolf was able to find replacement parts, including a webbing locat ed in a distant county through Lancaster Farming’s Mailbox Market. Though some fellow collectors, as well as his wife, LaVaughne, urged Wolf not to change the color, he argued that the original from AUis-Chalmers had been orange, and not Army khaki. Since its restoration, this irreplaceable piece, painted shiny A-C orange, has attracted visitors like a magnet at antique events in Julie Shuyler, Orrtanna, center, entertains 16-month-old twins Step hanie and Allen Shuyler with the horn of Stan Wolf’s replica of a one-horse car riage, converted to run from a lawn-mower motor. Stan Wolf fires up his 55-horsepower Montgom ery Ward tractor for some visitors. eight states. Keeping company with the di minutive, 3-foot-head combine are other Allis-Chalmers-made pieces including a 1947 road grader, a one-row cultivator ma chine, and a classic model “B.” Another guaranteed atten tion-getter is a pair of white painted Farmall tractors. Wolf remembers the unusual colored tractor from his days of working his first job, at the Get tysburg area International Har vester dealership. In early 1950, the I-H company painted 580 “C” models white before ship ping them to participating deal ers, who had agreed to exhibit them at county fairs and farm shows in their areas of the coun try. The white color of the tradi tionally-red, Farmall model guar anteed them to get special attention, especially when young fellows like Wolf ran them in popular tractor rodeo events. “I remember we had five white Farmall “C” models at Littles town for a rodeo,” says Wolf, of one local event. After the exhibit season had ended, the white demonstrator models were all hauled back to the dealers and painted the familiar I-H red be fore being sold to buyers. Wolf searched diligently for one of the white demo-models, eventually finding his first at a sale in West Virginia. The white pair join a complete “set” of the Farmall’s of the era lined up in The first self-propelled combine had a three-foot cut and a relatively small motor, a machine designed to help with wartime har vest when many of the na tion’s young rural labor force were fighting World War 11. This machine origi nally belonged to the mili tary. This corn-cutter ma chine, made in Canada, held a pair of riders who gathered sheaves of corn stalks while a sharp blade running along the angled platform at bottom sliced them off. Armfuls of cut corn were laid into piles for chopping for silage, or to fashion into corn shocks for drying ear corn. Wolfs collection, models A, C, H, and M. An assortment of lesser-known tractors add to the interest in Wolfs extensive collection of rar ities. For instance, there's the un usual 1948 “A” Long tractor, manufactured in Tarboro, North Carolina, distinguished by its unique paint scheme a red body accented with bright green wheels. “There were only 17 of those made and about eight are re stored,” says Wolf of this obscure piece of farm equipment history. Shortly after the machine made its debut, the Long compa ny was sued by International Harvester for patent infringe ment and lost when the case went to court. Wolf relates how angry farmers from the region where the tractor originated threatened (Turn to Page B 20)
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers