706 South Birch, Urbana, Illinois 61801
Having been raised on a large central Illinois grain farm, I
have never forgotten the pleasure of turning over the good earth
with the steel moldboard plow. The things that I remember about
plowing were -the gleaming moldboards in the sunlight, the smell of
the freshly turned earth, the sun rising and setting on the
throb of a well tuned engine. Leaving the farm for the city made
this pleasurable task just a boyhood rememberance until this past
year. New interest was kindled in the history of plowing and the
equipment involved when my family and I purchased an 80 HP Case,
buttstrap plowing engine. The Case engine had been set up with dual
rear wheels for plowing purposes by the former owner, Mr. Peter
Burno, of Wisconsin.
Now to get to the purpose of this article. With the purchase of
the 80 HP Case, I began to think back about a plow that I had
discovered some ten years earlier. I immediately contacted the
owner, Mr. Glenn Jordan of R. R. Villa Grove, Illinois. Mr. Jordan
informed me that he still had the plow and that I was welcome to
look at it.
My son, Rick, and I immediately drove to the Jordan farm and
were confronted by a pretty grim scene. Mr. Jordan and his father
had backed the plow up behind a tool shed sometime in the
1920’s and Mother Nature had decided to reclaim this soil
severing demon for her own. The only disturbance the plow had
received in the past years was in the 40’s when the war
stripped her of her cutters, moldboards, moldboard arms and one
depth wheel.
Upon cutting back the trees, bushes and vegetation, it was
discovered that the plow was a 6 bottom, automatic lift model made
exclusively for the Case Company, Racine, Wisconson by the Satterly
Company of Springfield, Illinois. Mr. Jordan explained that they
had bought the plow new in 1912 along with a large Case tractor
which was later junked. After deciding that we did want the plow
and agreeing upon a price, Rick and I began to combat Mother
Nature’s hold on the different parts of the plow.
After severing all seven trees and vegetation in the following
two weekends, all three main wheels were dug loose, as the whole
plow had sunk exactly one foot in the ground. Each wheel was jacked
up, freed, and then oiled so that the initial pulling out would be
easier. We hooked Mr. Jordan’s U Minneapolis tractor to the
plow and began to tighten the chain. The most awful sounds of roots
snapping, dirt flying, dry steel screeching and the tractor roaring
suddenly gave way to the sounds of smooth movement and the plow
emerged from the thicket as would a huge monster in a horror film.
The plow was luckily in an out of the ground position and measured
approximately 14 foot wide and 20 foot long.
The plow is unique in that it operates on a camshaft principle
which raises and lowers each bottom independently. The automatic
lift is driven by the back spiked wheel which drives the roller
chain to the front wheel where the lever for engagement is located.
The plow also had a wooden platform so that a person riding the
plow could lower and raise each bottom independently for depth
control. The plow is the heavy duty model and when complete would
probably weigh one ton or more.
We would appreciate any assistance that some of the readers of
your magazine might be able to give us in securing the missing
parts for this plow so that this fine example of American ingenuity
can once again turn over the soil in its graceful manner.