A Minneapolis-Moline Comes Home

Miscellaneous Articles Memories of a Farmall C When in Drought, Build a Tractor Shed! The Great Escape Bringing "Sweatheart" Home Tractor Power What Price Enthusiasm? The 8N and the Fox Sunday Drives Hello Ford 601 - Goodbye Mule! Dad's old Silver King and Joe Caplco The Day Tractor Lovers Dream About Derelict (a Poem) A Lifetime of David Brown Tractors Museum Coverage: The Stuttgart Agricultural Museum Story of a Case SC Farmall 460 - That's My Girl! Getting My Old Tractor Home The Mud Daubers & the Old John Deere Dad's 1945 Farmall A Farming Never Left My Blood Godfrey, ILlinois Country Days An AC Model M Crawler The River Tractor Recollections of a John Deere GP Journey to Ankeny A Minneapolis-Moline Comes Home Machine Shops Running Beans in East Central Indiana Gathering of the Orange Magic Moments Tractors and the City Boy Stories From Old Farmer, #1 Stories From Old Farmer, #2 Stories From Old Farmer, #3 The Allis Chalmers ED40 The Roof Palamino Good as New A Towny Goes Plowing Picking Corn Introduction to the Gibson D My Ford Golden Jubilee Persistence Pays Off Case Farm Equipment A John Deere B Unstuck Women and Tractors Women and Tractors - A Woman's Touch Women and Tractor Pulls Women and Tractor - Views from the Farmer's Wife Women and Tractors - Tractor Engine Repair Memories of a Field Service Engineer More Memories of a Field Service Engineer 2 More Memories of a Field Service Engineer 3 More Memories of a Field Service Engineer 4 More Memories of a Field Service Engineer 5 More Memories of a Field Service Engineer 6 More Memories of a Field Service Engineer 7 A Threshing Demonstration When Push Comes to Shove A Farmall Story Old Tractors Still Have Their Place Box Plow Blues Farmall Stories A Lifetime of Farm Machinery A Tractor's Point of View Reflections of the Fifties Some People Like Red The Massey Show Chores It Can't Be Done! - A Tractor Story 1935 John Deere Model BN - History of My Tractor Field Modifications Fire in the Field On the Road with Dave Gohl: Deere Departed Friend On the Road with Dave Gohl: Auction Musings On the Road w/ Dave Gohl: Tractor Club Beginnings On the Road with Dave Gohl: Tractors and Farming Transfer of Power - Hoof to Tractor Unidentified Crawling Object Unidentified Crawling Object - Identified? Memories of an IH Super A A City Guy's First Tractor It's Alright Where It Is! Central Illinois Strawberry Festival Old Gold National Antique Show Self-Starting Tractor - McCormick 10-20 Yesterday (a Poem) Little M An Old-Time Tractor Demonstration The Day Mom Drove the 8N Argyle & Mt. Pleasant Labor Day Show Pop's Tractor of Gold
Submitted Article
Minneapolis Moline Comes Home
by Phil Schneider

My own story revolves around an ad that I found in the Garden Tractor section of the local trader paper. The tractor should have been listed in the ag section but somehow it was not. I am in Avon, Indiana and the tractor was down by Poland, Indiana.

I decided to call about the tractor, a 1948 UTU. On that phone call, I talked to a gentleman named Marion Jordan. Seems Mr. Jordan had bought the tractor from his neighbors to do some bush-hogging around his farm. However, he never got around to using the tractor. It just sat for a few years out beside his barn. I decided that I would go and take a look at it. I always wanted a Minnie so off I went.

After winding my way around on these little narrow country roads - roads that would prove almost to small for the truck I was using to pick up the tractor if I were to buy it. - I finally arrived at this old man's house. I drove up the drive and knocked on his door. I was met by the nicest old man that I think I have met in a long time. He explained that the tractor was out back next to the barn and that I could go on back. He said he would have to drive his pick-up around there as he can't quite walk that far.

I then proceeded to go out towards the barns. When I got around the main barn, I did not see any tractor. I thought that I must be looking in the wrong place. A couple of minutes later Mr. Jordan drove up. I asked. "where's the tractor?" He pointed to an area about 100 feet away and said, "right in there". "Okay" was my reply. I then proceeded to wade my way in to the thickest bunch of "bamboo grass" that I had ever been into - even as a kid!.(we used to make forts out of this stuff!)

Nestled within the tall weeds was the "reddest" looking Minneapolis Moline tractor I had ever seen. For a minute, I thought I was seeing a Farmall! (It turns out that, Mr. Jordan's neighbors were "Farmall Men" to the core. However, the MM was a relatives tractor that had been given to them. - They couldn't turn the tractor away - but they sure could paint it!) I had my doubts that the thing would even run. Mr. Jordan assured me that it would with a little gas and a battery. I checked all of the fluids - it had oil - if you could call it oil. There was water in the radiator. Mr. Jordan had me get a can of gas out of his pick-up and a battery. I poured the gas in and hooked up the battery. He proceeded to climb on the old girl. With a couple of squirts of starting fluid, some choke applied, he hit the starter button and the old tractor started right up! ( with a flurry of wasps and parts of wasps nests coming out from everywhere!)

After everything had calmed down somewhat, I was able to take the tractor out for a drive around his pasture. It seemed to run okay and drive alright. It did not have any brakes though. (The lack of brakes made for an interesting time later on that morning.)

I made him an offer he accepted and now I was the proud owner of this fine MM tractor. Loading the tractor onto the truck was not easy. The worst part was when the old girl decided to "quit" running as I was halfway up the ramps. (The tractor had been running for almost an hour - it had plenty of gas in it still.) I then found myself "inching" backwards down the ramps with no brakes and I was afraid to release the clutch. Some quick thinking on the part of my brother kept me from going sailing off the back of the truck. After getting the tractor re-started, I got it loaded and took it home. Today, it is completely restored in the proper colors. It runs excellent and has needed only some minor tweaking.

When we were loading the tractor, the original owners stopped by and spent a few moments talking with us. It turned out that the father-in-law had owned the tractor. The neighbors that Marion had bought it from just used the tractor to bale hay. I was told that the old girl was "hell" on a baler when it "balled" up from getting to much hay fed into it. I was told that it had torn up alot of PTO shafts over the seasons! Well, that is my tractor story. The other tractors that I have in my collection do not have as colorful beginnings in ownership for me. They are all good tractors though.


We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Top