October 2001
Bill Vossler
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The cab of this Pioneer 30-60 was glassed in
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Did someone try to snuff out the memories of the Pioneer tractors? If so, why? What other explanation can there be for the lack of public acknowledgement of the Pioneer Tractor Manufacturing Co. of Winona, Minn.?
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In its heyday, about 1917, Pioneer Tractor operated in buildings that totaled several hundred thousand square feet in size, employed a work force of more than 500 people, manufactured tractors bigger than elephants, made what was considered the best tractor of its time and sold tractors all over the world.
Yet the company did not garner a single mention in a 100-year history of Winona, where it thrived for 17 years, or in any other of the numerous area county and city histories of the time.
Originally incorporated in 1909 in Minneapolis, Pioneer Tractor moved in 1910 to Winona, where it was breathlessly touted in the local newspaper, as was the custom of the times. 'GAS TRACTION ENGINES' screamed the headline in the Winona Daily Republican-Herald of Saturday, Feb. 19, 1910; the story read in part, 'The Republican-Herald is able to announce today the securing of a big, new manufacturing industry for Winona.'
On March 4, 1910, the Republican-Herald reported, 'What promises to be one of the most important manufacturing plants located here in a long time, with great possibilities for growth, is the establishment of the business of the Pioneer Tractor Manufacturing Co....'
The company's founder was lumber baron CM. Youmans, but the public focus was on the general manager and vice president H.M. Wheelock, reported by the newspaper to be 'a mechanical genius,' and a member of 'one of the first families in South Dakota.'
The paper wrote that Wheelock '...has for years back been experimenting, and developing a machine that would go into the field and perfectly perform the entire cycle of farm work.
'Mr. Wheelock in his work has tried out very thoroughly all possible construction that could be utilized in a gas traction engine, and the machine that the Pioneer Tractor Manufacturing Co., is manufacturing today is the result of his very careful comparative tests.'
To pile praise onto praise, A.C. Johnson, general agent of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway company, predicted that the gas engines to be turned out by Pioneer Tractor would 'easily take a leading place.' His reported conversations with experts in South Dakota concluded the machines made in Winona had 'decided advantages over anything else in this line so far put upon the market.'
Also according to the Winona newspaper, the plant initially was to employ from 25 to 30 men, 'but it is confidently expected that within a year the number of operatives will be increased to at least 100.'
From the very beginning, Pioneer advertising went for the unusual, the knock-out. A 1911 ad in Gas Review magazine, for example, read, 'They ALL Went to Winnipeg and ALL Received Medals - Of Course.' The reference was to competitors, and then the ad continued, 'We Have No Medal: But we have a tractor with all the virtues and none of the vices common to other makes. If you buy, you will have to pay. Therefore, in justice to yourself, see them all, analyze construction, study material; and we will take our chances on your verdict.'
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