What’s In the Wallis Tractor Name?

By Leslie C. Mcmanus
Published on September 7, 2012
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Ed S. Jennings Hardware, Grant City, Mo., in about 1914. 
Ed S. Jennings Hardware, Grant City, Mo., in about 1914. 
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Hood ornaments from Wallis Cub and Cub Junior tractors. Ron had the one at left gold-plated. 
Hood ornaments from Wallis Cub and Cub Junior tractors. Ron had the one at left gold-plated. 
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Ron's custom-made Wallis ballcap.
Ron's custom-made Wallis ballcap.
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An original serial number tag from a case Plow Works-manufactured Wallis tractor drug the line into the rivalry between J.I. Case Threshing Machine Co. and J.I. Case Plow Works Co.:
An original serial number tag from a case Plow Works-manufactured Wallis tractor drug the line into the rivalry between J.I. Case Threshing Machine Co. and J.I. Case Plow Works Co.: "We want the public to know that this is not the tractor made by the J.I. Case Threshing Machine Co., Racine, Wis.," the tag reads. 
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Part of Ron's Wallis memorabilia collection, including Wallis print pieces, a serial number tag and promotional pieces (ruler, screwdriver and watch fobs). 
Part of Ron's Wallis memorabilia collection, including Wallis print pieces, a serial number tag and promotional pieces (ruler, screwdriver and watch fobs). 
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Ron Wallis driving Fred Schmidt’s 1910 Wallis Bear, one of just nine Bears built. Driving the Wallis was surprisingly easy, Ron says, as the tractor has power steering. 
Ron Wallis driving Fred Schmidt’s 1910 Wallis Bear, one of just nine Bears built. Driving the Wallis was surprisingly easy, Ron says, as the tractor has power steering. 
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Fred Schmidt, Bluffton, Ohio (standing) is one of the owners of the only known Wallis Bear, and Ron Wallis. Note the tractor’s crank; the tractor is started from the back. 
Fred Schmidt, Bluffton, Ohio (standing) is one of the owners of the only known Wallis Bear, and Ron Wallis. Note the tractor’s crank; the tractor is started from the back. 
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Driving Fred Schmidt’s 1910 Wallis Bear was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Ron Wallis. “What a treat that was,” Ron recalls with gusto. “That tractor’s wheels are 7 feet tall!” 
Driving Fred Schmidt’s 1910 Wallis Bear was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Ron Wallis. “What a treat that was,” Ron recalls with gusto. “That tractor’s wheels are 7 feet tall!” 

Ron Wallis was a heavy hitter in the Depression glass hobby. Well known in collector circles, he once displayed more than 2,200 pieces of the pattern known as Laced Edge Katy Blue in his Sandwich, Ill., home. “I had a small fortune tied up in glass,” he admits. But then he discovered an obscure line of antique tractors — Wallis — and cast iron trumped glass.

It all started in a chance conversation with a friend. “He had the March 2007 issue of Farm Collector, the one with the Wallis Bear on the cover,” Ron recalls. “‘It’s spelled just like your last name,’ he said to me. ‘Have you ever seen anything like it?’” Ron hustled home and got on the computer. He tracked down Fred Schmidt, Bluffton, Ohio, one of the owners of the Bear on the Farm Collector cover, and before long Ron and his wife, Patricia, were headed east.

“We spent a whole morning there,” he said. “Fred let me drive the Bear. I was like a kid in an ice cream store.” In visiting with Fred, Ron learned that Wallis Tractor Co. relocated to Racine, Wis., shortly after it was established in Cleveland in 1912. So the Wallises headed northwest to Racine.

“We spent a week in Racine, just digging and digging,” he says. “I tried to find all the information I could because we have the same last name, even if we’re not related.” But 100 years after the company was launched, the trail had gone cold. “We talked to people in Racine who’d never even heard of Wallis,” Ron says. “Even the Racine museum didn’t have very much on the company.”

Early entrant in the industry

Initially an interest of J.I. Case Plow Works Co. with roots going back to 1902, Wallis Tractor Co. was formally organized by H.M. Wallis, son-in-law of Case founder J.I. Case. Between 1912 and 1928, Wallis produced the Bear (already in production before the Wallis company was organized, built under the auspices of J.I. Case Plow Works), the Cub, the Cub Junior (Model J) 13-25, a motor cultivator, the Model K 15-25, the Model OK 15-27 and the Wallis 20-30.

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