Old-Time Tractors
(Page 2 of 4)
November 2004
Bill Vossler
Eagle gas tractors made the distinctive sound of steam engines for farmers nostalgic for bygone days. The company was nailed by the Nebraska Tractor Tests for questionable advertising, when Eagle's advertising claims - effectiveness of air breather, quality of engine governing, ability to burn kerosene as perfectly as gasoline - did not hold true. On the other hand, another Appleton company, Fox Tractor Co., is virtually unknown, as, says C.H. Wendel in Encyclopedia of American Farm Tractors, 'It is said that less than a dozen Fox tractors were built,' starting in 1919 with their 20-40 Fox, with a 5 1/2- by 7 1/2-inch bore and stroke. The Agricultural Depression of 1920 finished the company.
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Information is scant for some of the most appealing animal-named tractor companies, like Ground Hog Tractor Co., of Detroit, which incorporated in 1920, then disappeared.
The fierceness of competition among tractor companies is exhibited in the saga of the Lion tractor, 'strong as a lion, made of steel, sensation of the world, never tired, never hungry, never sick,' first marketed in late 1914 by the Lion Tractor Co. of Minneapolis.
The Bull Tractor Co. immediately sued, claiming it had commissioned D.M. Hartsough, Bull's tractor designer, to make another tractor, which would sell for $50 less than the Bull (farmers at this time almost always bought the cheapest machine).
Hartsough, BTC's suit claimed, then sold the design to Lion Tractor Co., and it became the Lion tractor. Also, BTC claimed 'Lion' was selected to mislead purchasers to believe the machine was sold by P.J. Lyons, a well-known Bull Tractor Co. stockholder. The court prohibited the Lion (the only two-wheeled tractor on the market, and with all its weight directly over the drive wheels) from being built. Simultaneously, the court discovered Lion Tractor Co. had made only three tractors thus far. LTC ignored the injunction, made a few more Lions, and was fined. Lion Tractor Co. was then ordered not to make Lion tractors with the identical brake-steering device as the Bull. LTC then added 'Inc.' to its name, reorganized, sold a few more Lions and a couple of years later went out of business.
Pony Tractor Co. of LaPorte, Ind., another animal-named company, was organized in 1919, then disappeared, probably without manufacturing any Ponies.
Wolverine Tractor Co. started in Detroit and moved to Saginaw, Mich., in 1920, while manufacturing a Wolverine 15-30 tractor with 4- by 6-inch bore and stroke with overhead valves, 12 1/2 feet long, weighing 5,000 pounds. Shortly afterwards the company disappeared.
Tractors with animal names
The Angleworm 10 was one tractor with an animal name built by a non-animal-named company. Badley Tractor Co. of Portland, Ore., made it starting in 1934, but it disappeared by the beginning of World War II.
The Little Bear tractor was unusual because it was actually built with Ford Model T parts, including the steering wheel. This low-cost tractor built by L.A. Auto Tractor Co. from 1919-1921, weighed 1,600 pounds and should have been easy to repair, with the great availability of Model T parts.