Colorado-born and Oregon-bred, Erl McLaughlin owns a family farm in northeastern Oregon outside “tiny Enterprise.”
Erl’s lifelong love of agriculture, which he claims borders on obsession, led to the establishment of Sunrise Iron, LLC, a museum where he houses his extensive collection of more than 35 vintage tractors, at least that many farm implements that date back as far as 1835 and hundreds of other vintage items from the 1800s and early 1900s.
“Many of my collection pieces are extremely rare,” Erl says. “It’s my tribute to North America’s agricultural heritage from the 1800s and 1900s.”
Among his collection are five hard-rubber tire trucks from 1912, a 1928 16-32 Nichols & Shepard tractor from the Lauson Line (found in the Canadian province of Alberta), a number of horse-drawn wagons, original cast iron tractor seats and authentic vintage signs.
Three pieces Erl is pleased to have gathered are Gilpin sulky plows. Each of the plows is complete with a toolbox and footrest, accessories that came with this early model plow manufactured by John Deere. In its day, the Gilpin sulky plow design, which originated with Gilpin Moore in June 1875, was a Grand Medal Award winner in the Field Trials of the Illinois State Board of Agriculture in 1874 and Indiana State Board of Agriculture in 1876. It was advertised in the 1877 Ohio Farmer as “The King of Sulkies!”
The earliest plow designs
Britannica notes that the predecessor of plows was the “prehistoric digging stick.” The earliest plows were likely “digging sticks fashioned with handles for pulling or pushing. By Roman times, light, wheelless plows with iron shares were drawn by oxen.”
While these earliest plows were used to break up Mediterranean soils, they weren’t effective in Europe’s heavier soils. In 1794, Thomas Jefferson implemented a plow design fitted with a wooden moldboard that offered less resistance than known designs at that time. The moldboard was said to offer the advantage of duplication, being made by “the coarsest workman, by a process so exact, that its form shall never be varied a single hair’s breadth.”
In 1814, Jefferson’s moldboards were cast in iron. His claim was that his iron moldboard was “so light that two small horses or mules draw it with less labor than I have ever before seen necessary; it does beautiful work and is approved by everyone.”
Jefferson never sought to patent his plow and just how widely it was adopted “is unclear.” (www.monticello.org)
In the early 1800s, plows were generally made on order by local blacksmiths. There were few patterns and strong oxen or horses were required to effectively draw these crude implements through the soil. By 1840, most plows were made of cast iron.
Sulky plows
C. H. Wendel’s American Farm Implements & Antiques notes that, “by definition, a sulky plow is a wheeled plow with one moldboard.” In 1856, M. Furley applied for the first patent of a single-bottom sulky plow. In the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, it was noted that “sulky and gang plows have been developed to meet the conditions arising from the large farms of our Western prairies. It is only a few years ago, hardly thirty, since the first riding sulky plows were used.”
While early sulky plows worked well in America’s eastern soils, the heavy, black Midwestern soils were another matter. Cast iron plows wouldn’t scour. About this same time, according to Encyclopedia of American Farm Implements & Antiques, “there were thoughts of building a sulky plow that carried the beam and moldboard on wheels. These made little progress into the 1860s, with some designs appearing at that time, but farmers weren’t flocking to buy them. For one thing, many farmers thought that the horses had enough work pulling the plow itself without carrying along still more mechanism. Many others were barely able to afford a walking plow, much less the more expensive sulky plow.”
In 1837, John Deere’s invention of a highly polished steel moldboard “allowed farmers to cut clean furrows in rock soil.” The moldboard was patented in 1864 and this was the beginning of the Deere empire. (www.suiter.com)
Gilpin Moore
Gilpin Moore was born in Pennsylvania in 1831, and, in 1864, he moved to Rock Island, Illinois, to work with John Deere. Moore was superintendent of Deere’s iron works in 1875, the year Moore’s Gilpin Sulky Plow patent was accepted. In his patent documentation, filed January 6, 1874, Moore noted that he had “invented certain new and useful improvements in plows” and went on to say that “in my invention, the frog is formed of a single plate of wrought-iron, bent so as to have a vertical side and a laterally projecting side and a forward extended end or joint. I am aware that a short frog and rear land-side have been previously connected by a bolt joint, and also that a connection by welding has been made.”
Moore’s patent filing explained that he had simplified the sulky plow production process with an “improved method which requires no modification or change from a plain straight bar for the rear land-side and a simple face and side to the adjacent side of the frog, and that the construction of the frog is such as to form a support for the slip-share, and dispense with extra parts and difficult and expensive processes of construction.”
The Gilpin sulky plow proved to be Deere’s most successful product in the 19th century. Although other competing plows were on the market at that time, the Gilpin was most popular among farmers. Due to the plow’s performance at the 1878 Paris Universal Exposition–where the Gilpin defeated 50 other plows in a field trial–Deere’s unit sales “rose from 5,198 to reach a height of 7,824 in 1883.”
In the 1877 Ohio Farmer, the advertisement noted that the Gilpin Sulky Plow was “the best, most practicable and easiest operated for man and beast.” It was said to have the lightest draft “by actual test,” simple in operation, strong and durable. It was constructed of an iron frame, iron wheels and iron beam. “The depth is more uniform, it can be used in all conditions of the soil, with “greater speed to be obtained.”
Advantages “peculiar to the Gilpin over all other sulkies are one lever only being required to operate it, is easy on the operator, its lightness of draft, strength and durability.” The plow also featured “our new patent wheel with chilled box,” making it “nearly as anti-friction as possible, saving the part from all wear, and by reason of the hardness and smoothness of the chilled surface, decreasing the wear on the axle, and the chilled box can at any time be replaced at small cost.”
Gilpin plow finds success
On the State Historical Society of Iowa website, an 1895 Gilpin Sulky brochure (provided courtesy of Deere & Company) describes the Gilpin as “the first successful sulky plow. The Gilpin is the only sulky plow that has stood the test of time and shown itself equal to all requirements put upon this kind of plow . . . the Gilpin still holds its place in the trade as the foremost riding plow of the age.”
Among the features the brochure highlighted were the power-lift, which was added in 1881. “We are still altering plows that were in use prior to that time, and which are in such good condition that farmers prefer to pay the cost of adding the power-lift rather than throw aside the old plow and buy a new one. A sulky plow that has been run 12 to 14 years, and is still in good condition, is a novelty, and we venture to say that no other sulky, other than the Gilpin, will stand such wear.”
Deere made their own wheels for the Gilpin (and Deere gang plows), noting they “embody the essential features named to a degree not possessed by any other wheels in the market.” The spokes were “dodged so as to act as a truss-bracing between rim and hub. Around the outside of the rim is shrunk a heavy wrought tire that binds the parts together with a firmness that makes the completed structure practically indestructible. If this tire should ever wear out, a new one can be put on, and the framework of the wheel will be completely restored to its original condition.”
The plow’s renewable boxes meant “all wear of wheel hub can, by this means, be provided for indefinitely, so there is no reason why these wheels, with renewals, should not last forever … the Gilpin sulky possesses the same simplicity, durability and strength, so that this plow can be handed down from father to son and be a faithful servant as long as it is taken care of.”
In American Farm Implements & Antiques, C. H. Wendell wrote, “The Gilpin Moore patent of 1875 finally brought a truly successful sulky plow to the market.”
Erl’s Gilpin plow
Erl says he spent considerable time finding a Gilpin plow and a fellow collector who was willing to part with it.
“I located the first one in central Oregon around 2000,” he says. “I wasn’t really looking for a Gilpin plow, but I spied this one sitting on the side of the road when I revisited a collector. It caught my eye and seemed like a fine treasure. I was aware that this model was quite rare, so once I spotted it, I was keen on buying it.”
His second Gilpin plow came from a Montana collector who found the piece in Lewistown, Montana. Erl’s third plow was purchased from a collector at Washington’s Columbia Basin near Moses Lake.
“I was fortunate that the other collectors were willing to sell,” Erl says. “The last one I purchased took some time. The owner had to think about it before deciding to let it go.”
Each of Erl’s Gilpins feature a somewhat different moldboard. Two had acorns on the ends of the spokes, which identify them as an early 1875 model.
“In my estimation, these plows are among the most valuable pieces of horse-drawn equipment available to collectors,” Erl says. “It’s possible that sales of these plows could bring a five-figure sales price. I feel blessed to have acquired these three plows after 40 years of collecting. I appreciate the history of these implements and their rarity. Most visitors at my museum don’t readily recognize them as Gilpin plows or have information about this model. Once I explain the background of the plows, their age and value to our agricultural heritage, then a lot of people get excited about seeing them.” FC
Learn more about Sunrise Iron Museum and Erl’s collection on the Sunrise Iron Museum website. Contact Erl at 65708 Sunrise Road, Enterprise, Oregon 97828 or call him at 541-263-0755.
Loretta Sorensen is a lifelong resident of southeast South Dakota. She and her husband farm with Belgian draft horses and collect vintage farm equipment. Email her at sorensenlms@gmail.com.
