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Minnesotan pens book on old iron Tuesday, December 9, 2003
Agri News staff writer
ROCKVILLE, Minn. - Bill Vossler writes of an experimental time in tractors in his latest book, "More Orphan Tractors."
Vossler, 57, of Rockville, became fascinated with tractors after he began his writing career 23 years ago. He'd interview toy tractor collectors and after the interview, they'd show him the big toys out back. Soon, he started writing about the old iron.
Vossler is a freelance writer and writes regularly for Farm Collector, Toy Farmer and Belt Pulley. He is also the author of 10 books.
He chronicled 40 tractor companies in his book, Orphan Tractors, which was published in 1996. More Orphan Tractors tells the stories of another 40 small tractor companies who were in business around the turn of the century, 1905 to 1925.
Vossler settled upon the timeframe for several reasons. Information published prior to 1923 is in the public domain, allowing him to use old photographs and advertisements in the book. There were a number of tractor companies at the time, many of which faltered because their tractors didn't work as touted or because of an agricultural depression that occurred around 1920.
During this depression, major tractor companies kept dropping prices until they were selling their tractors at a loss, Vossler said. Smaller companies couldn't compete. At the same time, horses were being phased out requiring less labor on the farm and soldiers were returning from duty in World War I, he said.
Vossler, who was raised in Wishek, N.D., found the advertisements in magazines from the time and his favorite advertisements are from Buffalo Pitts Company from Buffalo, N.Y. The Bear tractor advertisements were four-color, a rarity at the time.
His favorite tractor in the book is the Big Four, which was manufactured in Minneapolis, Minn. Part of it is how they look, he said.
"There's something about the rear wheels," he said, they were so big and "the fenders were so part of a circle."
Vossler spent four months writing the book, compiling it from information he had gathered through the years while visiting with tractor collectors. The photos and advertisements he scanned from old farm magazines or photographed in collectors' homes.
If he had a question about a tractor, he consulted Danny Roen. Roen grew up looking at tractors, with his father taking him on his lap to quiz him on tractors in photographs or advertisements. Of the 310 photographs Vossler brought to him, Roen identified 301. He died before the second book was published.
The book is dedicated to Roen and Richard Birklid. Birklid of Nome, N.D., collects old photographs and let Vossler use some of them in More Orphan Tractors.
More Orphan Tractors hearkens to a time when the Midwest was the center of the tractor industry. There were 110 tractor companies in Minnesota alone, Vossler said. Wisconsin had about 90 and Iowa, 80.
Vossler said the tractors of the early 20th century laid the groundwork for the tractors of today. The former English teacher quoted Shakespeare, saying "By indirection (we) find direction out."
The early tractor builders found drum drives didn't work and that three wheels didn't work. They found gasoline worked better than kerosene. The tracked tractor of today may have its roots in the Cletrac or Bear tractors Vossler writes of.
He's seen many of the old tractors, including the Yuba Ball Tread, Universal, Wallis, Nilson and Aultman-Taylor, in action at threshing shows. Others are featured in museums.
To find out more about More Orphan Tractors, call Bill Vossler at 800-476-8599 or write to him at Bill Vossler Books, P.O. Box 372, Rockville, MN 56369. More Orphan Books is $23, including shipping and handling. |
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