A Cletrac CO-OP?

Learn more about the fascinating history of American co-op tractors in the late 1930s and 1940s.

By Sam Moore
Updated on June 15, 2022
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by Farm Collector Magazine Staff
Above: 1934 or 1935 narrow-front CO-OP tractor built by Huber Manufacturing, Marion, Ohio. All photos by Sam Moore.

Tracing the history of CO-OP tractors

Someone asked me if I’d ever seen a CO-OP crawler tractor that looked just like a Cletrac HG crawler. I had to admit that I never had, and seriously doubted that any such machine ever existed, even though I knew the CO-OP name was put on tractors from several different manufacturers. However, I’ve learned in almost 20 years of studying this stuff to “never say never,” as in: “They never made one of those!”

By way of background, in 1867 the Grange was started by a Minnesota farmer named Oliver Hudson Kelley, who believed that farmers, because of their independence and the way they were scattered, needed a national organization to represent them, like unions were beginning to do for industrial workers. Farmers were at the mercy of merchants for farm supplies and marketing their crops, while the railroads and grain companies were taking advantage of
farmers as well.

From this beginning, a number of local farmer cooperatives (Co-ops) evolved, with many carrying the Farm Bureau name. These organizations attempted, through the power of group purchasing, to get the farmer a better deal on prices for seed, fertilizer, feed and other essential supplies, including farm machinery.

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