Mechanized Farming

[Grogan]

As I mentioned on another thread here, my G/G/Grandfather moved to California at the beginning of the Gold Rush there.

He set up a General Store in what was to become the town of Stockton.

(This image taken ca mid 1860s)

By the late 1850s and into the 1860s local agriculture became highly important there to meet the demands of the greater population brought on by the mining boom.

In response to this my G/G/Grandfather's store began bringing in and carrying farm implements and associated machinery.

Stockton, located in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley and extensive agricultural activity seemed to be a home to farm equipment use and new design.



By the early 1870s farm equipment started being locally built and was sold directly by the makers. 

At this point it was no longer cost effective to import machinery from back east to compete against what was being built locally so G/G/G Hewlett quit the farm machinery aspect of business and went into banking instead. 

One of the key designers/makers of farm machinery in Stockton were the Holt Bros.  The Holts were involved in various designs and here was one of their oldest, this Combine (seen at a Steam Tractor show up here in Orygun)





The Holt Bros. would become famous for their tracked crawler tractor designs, this one being one of their earliest.



The Holt Bros. "Caterpillar" became widely accepted.



Soon the Holt's would be renamed and become the famous Caterpillar Tractor Co.



The Holts weren't the only farm machinery builders in the area (just the most famous), there was also the Samsom Gas Motor Co. who made Samson "Sieve-Grip" Tractors.



So Stockton, Cal did, for awhile, have its moment in the sun in the annals of farm machinery history. 

[Delmonico]

Great pictures.

[Texas Lawdog]

The pictures taken by Del and Grogan would make a great slide show of early tractors.  The folks at Classic Tractors on RFD-TV would be proud.

[Grogan]

A couple of years ago I was up Pheasant hunting in the far northwest corner of North Dakota.

I was staying in the little town of Crosby, N.D. and as I came around the corner heading into town, this is what I saw!



These steam tractors weren't part of any running display, they were just parked there!

It looked like they were ALWAYS parked there as Winter was coming on and there was certainly nobody around.

Maybe somebody on here knows more about these? 

They all looked like they were in pretty good shape and ready to fire up.

It would be great to see them all fired up and running.

[Delmonico]

I'm guessing a static display, there are a lot of them around the country.  They look a bit to clean to have run recently.  There are several collection like that in Nebraska, could be fixed up, but just to much money to do it.

[Grogan]

Del,

Maybe I should come Pheasant hunting THERE next time?!!

[Cactus Rope]

If anyone is interested the place to see a lot of these machines at work needs to attend The Old Threshers Reunion in Mt. Pleasant, IA September 3 thru 7. This is one of the largest in the country. It is REALLY COOL!