Off to the Races

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Edward Rodney Hadley of Blue Grass, Iowa, vividly remembers the first time he rode on a Graham-Bradley tractor - even though it was a very long time ago. His father, Edward B. Hadley, had just purchased a new one, and Edward Rodney (called 'Ed' now, but 'Rodney' as a youth) was permitted to ride on the fender while his father drove the tractor home.

They lived on a farm at Atalissa, Iowa, and the tractor was bought at the Sears, Roebuck & Co. farm store in Iowa City, a distance of some 20 miles. The year was 1937, and Ed was only 10 years old. 'That was before speed was like it is now,' he says today, '- and at the time, you could still buy harness at the Sears store.'

The tractor, which has a tricycle front, provided the Hadleys with admirable service; in return, it received excellent care, and effectively, it turned three generations of the family into Graham-Bradley men. Today, the '37 is owned by Ed's son Larry, and the two of them, along with another son, Leland, own several other Graham-Bradley tractors as well.

Ed says the family's long association with this brand began with his father and that's the main reason they collect these tractors today. It doesn't hurt that the Graham-Bradleys are 'rare and different,' too, he adds.

Leland, alone, is a reluctant old-iron fan, preferring, he says, to fish or play golf rather than mess with old tractors. When he's not working at his own full-time job, he helps his brother on the farm and sometimes, when Larry and their Dad are consumed with a vintage tractor project, he pinch-hits for them with some of their chores.

Ed says when his dad started looking to buy his first tractor, 'he wasn't too fond of tractors, yet.' Edward B. was a skilled horseman who favored wild sorrels from the range, which he and his son would gentle and break for harness work.

'But the Graham-Bradley was a smooth-running tractor, so he wanted to try it,' Ed recalls. 'At that time, Sears would bring a tractor out to the farm and let you use it. He really liked that one, and they gave him a deal on it, and he bought it.'

The Graham-Bradleys are very streamline machines, with unofficial road speeds of from 25 to 28 mph, Ed adds. He notes they actually went too fast at times because 'a lot of people rolled them over.'

The tractors were made by the Graham-Paige Motors Corp., of Detroit and sold through Sears. The engine was the same as the company's automobile engine - a side-valve, six-cylinder Continental -and the transmission featured four speeds. Tractor production ceased at the beginning of World War II, and Graham-Paige interests were sold in 1947 to Kaiser-Frazer Motors Corp., which did not revive the tractors.

Edward B. used his new Graham-Bradley mainly to plow and disk, and to power his International threshing outfit. 'At that time,' Ed recalls, 'we had a threshing run; we'd start at one farm and work our way along. He did 10 or 12 farmers a year. They threshed oats back then.'

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