Bear Tractor Held Tight to the Ground

By Sam Moore
Published on December 8, 2014
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A Bear tractor on road patrol duty pulling a leveling blade.
A Bear tractor on road patrol duty pulling a leveling blade.
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The first page of the 1922 announcement showing a Bear tractor in the foreground, while in the distance one Bear pulls a large elevating grader on a road job and another pulls three heavily loaded log wagons up a steep hill.
The first page of the 1922 announcement showing a Bear tractor in the foreground, while in the distance one Bear pulls a large elevating grader on a road job and another pulls three heavily loaded log wagons up a steep hill.
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A Bear tractor at the Oscar Cooke Dreamland Sale in 1998.
A Bear tractor at the Oscar Cooke Dreamland Sale in 1998.
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A Bear tractor at auction in Chilford Hall in England in 1999.
A Bear tractor at auction in Chilford Hall in England in 1999.
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This 1922 photo of a Bear tractor being tested on a rough side hill shows the front suspension getting an extreme workout.
This 1922 photo of a Bear tractor being tested on a rough side hill shows the front suspension getting an extreme workout.
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A retouched side view illustrates how a Bear tractor's track sticks to the bumps and hollows of uneven ground.
A retouched side view illustrates how a Bear tractor's track sticks to the bumps and hollows of uneven ground.
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A 1921 patent showing the general design of the Bear tractor.
A 1921 patent showing the general design of the Bear tractor.
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A patent drawing showing the Bear's front crossbeam suspension.
A patent drawing showing the Bear's front crossbeam suspension.

During the late teens and the early 1920s, a lot of tractor builders came and went. Some lasted only a year or two. Many of these machines were of more or less conventional design; others were more unusual.

One that seems to have been quite well designed and modern for the time, but that lasted less than a decade, was a nifty crawler tractor called the Bear 25-35. Not a great deal is known about the Bear but I’ll tell you what I’ve found (with the help of Peter Longfoot from England) and perhaps someone out there in tractor land has additional information.

Manufactured by Mead-Morrison Co.

The Bear tractor seems to have been developed by Thomas Clarence Leake, New York City, who filed for a patent on the machine in October 1921. The patent, which was issued three years later, was assigned to Bear Tractor, Inc., also located in New York City.

Information on who was behind Bear Tractor Corp. is nonexistent and no personal information has turned up for Mr. Leake, although he had a number of patents for various improvements to the tractor, all of which were assigned to the Bear company. Interestingly, a patent was applied for in 1919 by a Thomas C. Leake, San Francisco, for a crawler track suspension arrangement that appears almost identical to one of the Bear patents. Although it’s speculation on my part, it seems likely that Thomas Leake was hired by Bear Tractor Corp. to design the company’s tractor based upon his earlier design.

With no manufacturing facilities of its own, Bear seems to have been strictly a sales organization. The Bear tractor was actually built by Mead-Morrison Co. on Prescott Street in East Boston, Massachusetts, a builder of machinery for digging, hauling, hoisting and handling, such as winches, cranes and derricks.

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