50 Years of Collecting Cockshutt Tractors

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Don Javers takes tractors from his collection to area shows. One year, with his son's assistance, he showed the entire collection at an event in Iowa. "I don't know how long it took us to get all the tractors there," he added.

Don Javers will celebrate a golden anniversary this year, but it won't be a wedding anniversary: 1998 marks the 50th year of his passion for Cockshutt tractors. 

"In 1948 there was a demonstration of Cockshutts over at Sioux Falls," he said. "My friends said I ought to go see them. I'd never heard of a Cockshutt until that day. So I went, and I was impressed with that tractor."

The Cockshutt had an image problem in those days, he said.

"My brothers both thought I should be taken to the insane asylum when I bought that tractor," he said. "But they both got one themselves within two years."

Don – and other original buyers – were impressed by Cockshutt's forward thinking.

"They were the first with live power take-off and live hydraulics," he said.

Since that first Cockshutt, Don has slowly picked up one here, another there, until now, five decades later, he finds himself with more than 20, representing every model in the line. For a period of time, though, he had to give up on farming with Cockshutt.

"We had awful good luck with those tractors," he said. "But when the White Company bought out Cockshutt in 1962, they took all the parts back to Canada. Well, you can't wait a week for a part when you need to be in the fields. So we got rid of all that machinery." The collection began after that, when he started having second thoughts.

Don has worked on engines since he had his first car.

"When I was young, there wasn't much money," he said. "I had a Model A Ford, and if it needed work, you either fixed it yourself, or you didn't go."

Later, he'd work 17 years on-and-off for a Cockshutt dealership in Sioux Falls.

"I knew those tractors inside and out," he said. "And I had a little shop where I was kept pretty busy by the neighbors and friends. They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but I've learned a lot working on tractors over the years."