[AT] Farm tractor dealerships

[Indiana Robinson]

James' mention of the Oliver models got  me thinking (again) about the
numerous dealerships we used to have in my county (Shelby County Indiana).
We are not a big county, 17 miles by 24 miles, still mostly rural.
In my period of reasonable memory (late 1940's through the 1950's and at
least part of the 1960's we had quite a few tractor dealerships. Several
were fairly large and progressive and quite a few more were car and truck
repair garages that had a few new tractors on display and could get you
about anything you needed fairly quickly through the dealer network. Most
had a decent supply of common parts and had access to other parts if needed.
I'll probably miss somebody but I recall:
One progressive John Deere dealer
Two  progressive IHC dealers
One progressive Allis Chalmers dealer
One progressive Minneapolis Moline
One repair garage type Minneapolis Moline dealer
One progressive Oliver dealer (actually the father of one of my son-in-laws)
One repair garage type Oliver dealer
One progressive Case dealer who later shifted to Massey Ferguson
One progressive Ford dealer
One Ford dealer who was also a Ford car dealership
One repair garage type Ford dealer.
One progressive Ferguson dealer
One progressive Co-op dealer
The Custom tractor factory used to be here and they sold some direct
Co-op used to have a factory here but only produced implements
There were a few others just outside of the county lines, one was Silver
King. I always liked Silver Kings...
Then for many years there were no new tractor dealers here at all... The
closest we have is that about last month the local Rural King farm store
brought in maybe ten new tractors made by ??? I believe they are branded as
"RK" ???

The division between what I call "progressive dealers" and "repair garage
type" dealers is at best a fuzzy line but I think most can understand the
attempted  division.  :-)  Most of the garage type were scattered around in
various villages around the county
I believe that all of them were in business all through the 1950's except
for the Custom and Silver King who ceased production.
The Ford car / truck / tractor dealership did well on cars and trucks but
was almost a hidden dealer on tractor stuff after the 8N's. There were
common reports of a lot of shaky dealing there on farm stuff during WW-II.
Supplies were short but money talked...
I have always thought of the 1950's as kind of the golden years...


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-- 
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Francis Robinson
aka "farmer"
Central Indiana USA
robinson46176 at gmail.com
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