International Harvester Company Reveals Return of the Large Tractor at Burr Ridge Farm

By Lee Klancher
Published on January 15, 2014
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"Red Tractors 1958-2013" (Octane Press, 2013) is author Lee Klancher's meticulously researched look at the history of International Harvester Company, a landmark American company that defined agricultural business for a century.
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The 40 and 60 series International Harvester Company tractors were introduced with much fanfare at the largest tractor introduction in history, held at the experimental farm near Hinsdale, Illinois.
The 40 and 60 series International Harvester Company tractors were introduced with much fanfare at the largest tractor introduction in history, held at the experimental farm near Hinsdale, Illinois.

Red Tractors 1958-2013 (Octane Press, 2013) is an authoritative and unparalleled look at the tractors built by International Harvester Company and Case IH. Author Lee Klancher leads a research team that has collected more than 380 pages and 700 images, documenting these beloved machines built in America and abroad. In this six-part series, Farm Collector shares the first chapter of Red Tractors, “1958-1959 The Hinsdale Connection.” The following excerpt covers International Harvester’s initial forays to weather the 1957 Recession, and a decision to once again make the large tractor a focus of their business.

1958-1959 The Hinsdale Connection

“If we are able, in our engineering, to keep abreast of, or ahead of, any competitor, there isn’t any question about this business going on indefinitely.”
— John McCaffrey, Harvester World, 1958

In 1917, International Harvester purchased a 414-acre farm just 20 miles from downtown Chicago. The original Farmall was tested on the farm’s gently rolling hills, along with hundreds of other pieces of agricultural equipment. Annual demonstration outings for International Harvester Company executives and staff were held there, complete with orchestra accompaniment, circus tents, and lavish catered meals. In the early years, the place was known as the Hinsdale Farm, and it later became known as Burr Ridge.

During heavy investment into research and engineering in the 1950s, Hinsdale was selected as the site for the $5 million Farm Equipment Research and Engineering Center (FEREC). The eight-acre site would consolidate Harvester’s engineering efforts and put 1,360 engineering and support staff together under one roof. FEREC was state-of-the-art, complete with an indoor “field” used for tractor and implement testing, a tractor-sized photographic studio, and temperature-controlled rooms capable of exposing machinery to 130 degrees of heat and 50 degrees below zero.

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