Horses to Tractors: Remembering the Final Days of Horse Farming

By Larry Scheckel
Published on February 10, 2015
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In a process that was hard work for both horses and farmers, the Scheckel clan put up hay
In a process that was hard work for both horses and farmers, the Scheckel clan put up hay "loose." It seemed to take all summer, Larry Scheckel recalls.
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An Allis-Chalmers Model U tractor was the first tractor Alvin Scheckel purchased. The steel-lugged beast did a great deal of farm work but never replaced the farm's three horses.
An Allis-Chalmers Model U tractor was the first tractor Alvin Scheckel purchased. The steel-lugged beast did a great deal of farm work but never replaced the farm's three horses.
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Horses like the Scheckels' Dolly provided the power to put loose hay in the barn.
Horses like the Scheckels' Dolly provided the power to put loose hay in the barn.
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The Scheckels used two horses to pull a McCormick-Deering No. 9 mower. The mower cut a 5-foot swath.
The Scheckels used two horses to pull a McCormick-Deering No. 9 mower. The mower cut a 5-foot swath.
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The John Deere 999 corn planter was pulled by horses Dolly and Prince. Alvin Scheckel check-planted corn his first few years on the Oak Grove Ridge farm.
The John Deere 999 corn planter was pulled by horses Dolly and Prince. Alvin Scheckel check-planted corn his first few years on the Oak Grove Ridge farm.
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Larry Scheckel's brother, Bob, with workhorses Nipper and Nancy.
Larry Scheckel's brother, Bob, with workhorses Nipper and Nancy.
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Alvin Scheckel's first new tractor was a Massey-Harris 44 like this nicely restored model seen at a tractor show.
Alvin Scheckel's first new tractor was a Massey-Harris 44 like this nicely restored model seen at a tractor show. "I was 10 years old when I first drove the Massey-Harris 44," Larry Scheckel recalls. "My feet could reach the clutch and brakes if I scooted far forward on the seat. It was the definitive rite of passage for a farm boy."
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Author Larry Scheckel.
Author Larry Scheckel.

My earliest memories include Mom telling my brother, Phillip, and me to go out to the field and call Dad in for noon dinner. Dad would unhitch the team from the corn planter, reach down, pick us up and position us on the horses’ back. We would grasp the brass hames that set atop the horses’ collar and ride back to the farmhouse. What a great thrill to be riding so high!

Dad’s horses were named Prince, Dolly and Sam. Phillip rode Prince bareback with just a bridle “for steering.” Phillip would get Prince galloping at full speed over frozen ground as hard as concrete. I preferred the more docile Dolly.

The times were changing in the 1940s and ’50s, when I was one of nine kids on the 238-acre family farm. Dad’s first tractor was an Allis-Chalmers Model U on steel wheels, with chisel-like lugs on the back wheels to provide good traction.

I was 4 years old. In my mind’s eye, I can see dust, dirt and gravel being kicked up by the steel cleats, black smoke streaming from the exhaust pipe. When the tractor chugged along between fields, it would leave telltale indentations on Oak Grove Ridge road. Dad used the Model U to pull a McCormick-Deering 2-bottom plow and a 9-1/2-foot Moline tandem disc. Most all other farming was done with horses.

Two horses or three horses

A two-horse team could handle many farming operations. The sections of the Lindsay drag – used before sowing oats and planting corn – was pulled with two horses, as was the John Deere 999 corn planter, the McCormick-Deering No. 9 5-foot hay mower, the McCormick-Deering side rake, the New Idea loader trailing the hay wagon and the McCormick-Deering corn binder. Wagons hauling manure, oats, corn, hay and wood could be towed with a two-horse team.

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