- Related Articles
- If you write it, they will come
- First Things
- By the Book
And don't overlook old newspapers. A nearly 60-year-old issue of a country weekly from Missouri contains a feature on a rural mail carrier who used a Model A Farmall to deliver mail in the winter. The carrier equipped the "small but reliable" tractor with a plywood cab and chains (when necessary) to travel otherwise impassable roads. Using just three gallons of gas a day, he never missed a day's delivery on his 53-mile route.
Be sure to delve in to the old newspapers. Gems like this one (in a 1938 issue's "Sixty Years Ago" column) are typical in the papers' "old time news" sections:
"The Largest Plow Ever Built: constructed by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company, to be used in ditching for railway construction in Iowa. It will be drawn by a locomotive..."
The original story noted that the plowshare weighed 382 pounds, the beam, 600 pounds; the clevis, 60 pounds; and the standard, 134 pounds. The beam was 16.5 feet long, 10 inches wide, and 17 inches thick. "The moldboard will cut a furrow 37 inches wide," the article stated.
Detailed accounts like that are the paper collector's reward. Though perishable and hard to keep in good condition, paper items can still be found just about everywhere. They're worth buying, both for their collectibility and informative historical content.
For more information:
Clarence L. Goodburn, 101 W. Main St., Madelia, MN, 56062-1439; phone (507) 642-8481; fax (507) 642-3281. Farm Machinery Advertising Collectors, 10108 Tamarack Drive, Vienna, VA 22182. Paper Collectors' Marketplace, 470 Main St., Scandinavia, WI54977-0128. Gary Van Hoozer is a Missouri writer specializing in vintage agriculture and farm history.