The Great LIBERATOR

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Jenkins wasn't the only doubter. At the tractor tests, one skeptical farmer offered to bet $1,000 that the Liberty tractor couldn't pull four 14-inch breaker plows. Lucky for the farmer, no one accepted his bet. Despite the detractors, the Liberty tractor pulled the plows 'steadily and easily,' according to a Farm Implements and Tractors report about the tests.

At the Fourth National Tractor Demonstration held July 1918, in Salina, Kan., the Liberty tractor made another grand showing. The tractor pulled four 14-inch stubble plows for six days under a variety of conditions without stopping.

Shortly thereafter, the Liberty set a record with a fuel-labor cost of 93.8 cents per acre at the northern Illinois Tractor Meet held in September 1919. Just as Elmer predicted, the tractor beat the odds and proved all skeptics wrong.

Bankruptcy blues & Liberty II

Unfortunately, the tractor's abilities weren't the company's biggest problem. The trouble surfaced when Chilton Tractor Journal wrote on April 1, 1919, that the P.J. Downes Co. presented a fine display at the Kansas City Show of the Liberty tractor, but added that the Downes Co. is the sales organization.

As the tractor's sole distributor, Liberty's eggs were all in one basket. When P.J. Downes Co. went into receivership in 1921 due to the nationwide agricultural depression, Liberty tractors had no outlet. In fact, the Midland National Bank owned all the tractors, and none were left to sell.

Two years later the Feb. 28, 1923, issue of Farm Implements and Tractors wrote that P.J. Downes Co. planned to re-enter the implement business in its former Minneapolis location under the Downes Implement Co. name. 'Arrangements have been made for the sale of the stock of Liberty tractors taken over by the Midland National Bank following the P.J. Downes Co. receivership ...'

Nothing apparently came of this 11th-hour effort, however, and the Liberty tractor joined the long roll of failed American tractor companies. FC

- Bill Vossler is a freelance writer and the author of several books on antique farm toys. Contact him at Box 372, 400 Caroline Lane, Rockville, MN 56569; or call him at (320) 253-5414; or e-mail: bvossler@juno.com

Name-Brand Confusion

Three Liberty tractor companies operated independently in the Midwest at the same time. The Minneapolis company was in business from 1917 to 1921, while the Dubuque, Iowa-based Liberty Tractor Co. formed in 1919. It offered its own tractor named Liberty - also known as the Klumb tractor -with a different badge, and two other tractors, a Model 10-20 and a Model 16-32. That Liberty company originally was named Klumb Engine & Machinery Co.

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