A Family Heirloom
A 1931 Fordson, a family heirloom, restored for the next generation
Leslie C. McDaniel
February 1999
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Butch Howe's 1931 Fordson was one of a handful produced that year at a plant in Cork, Ireland.
Photo by Raymond "Butch" Howe
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When you hear the words "family heirloom," you're likely to think of a fading photograph, aging china, or a tissue-soft quilt. But for Raymond "Butch" Howe, Ballston Spa, N.Y., the words summon a vision of a tractor made in Ireland years ago.
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His treasure is a 1931 Fordson, serial number 772770.
"A neighbor bought it new, which was quite a thing locally, as it was during the Depression, and nobody had any money," he said.
More than 20 years later, in the mid-1950s, Butch's father bought the tractor for $50.
"I recall the day he drove it home," he said. "I rode alongside on my bicycle. In order to get it home, he had to go about a quarter of a mile on a paved road. Of course, the Fordson had steel wheels, which marked up the road pretty good."
Into its third decade, the Fordson was a good tractor, but it started hard.
"As a 10-year-old boy listening to Dad starting the tractor," Butch said, "I built quite a colorful vocabulary."
The new owners worked the Fordson regularly, with the exception of raking hay, as the steel wheels would pin the hay to the ground.
"I rode the old McCormick mower quite a few miles," Butch said, "and we plowed a great deal with it."
Later, at about the same time that Butch left home and joined the Navy, his father retired the Fordson. It was relegated to a spot alongside the barn, where it sat neglected and exposed to the weather.
"Over the years, I would return home from time to time," Butch recalled, "and occasionally wander down to the barn, where the old Fordson was slowly turning to rust."
Sixty-four years after the tractor was manufactured, it got a new lease on life.
"In 1995, I retired from the U.S. Navy and returned home to live on the old family farm," Butch said. "That summer I dragged the old Fordson tractor out of the weeds and began restoration."