I finally found her!!!!

It only took me 5 years of asking everyone in the area where my grandpa"s 1951 Allis Chalmers WD ran off to. My uncle passed on, we were harvesting, it was only 3 miles down the road so after harvest i went to pick it up and everything was GONE!!! Seems my relations on that side of the family (drunks) sold it all off for pennies. Found the man that owns it now. 83 yr. old man that bought it for 25 bucks and had it running the day he bought it. Now it is a beautiful restored tractor. I couldn"t bare to ask him to buy it after i showed up and seen how much he loved that thing. Good to know it"s in good hands now though.

Maybe it may be a good idea to keep in some contact with the family.If the gentleman is up in that many years,maybe when he's no longer able to enjoy it,he may be thrilled to see it go back to you and your family?

He is 83, let him enjoy it now and explain the situation and maybe you can enjoy it "later" I bet it was nice to see it all restored though!

You might tell him if he ever wants to get rid of it to let you know. Go visit it every few months to show him you are interested. Glad you found it, and it has a good home. Stan

Yes definitly, I told him if ever he wanted to get rid of it then i"ll be waiting But until then i found the snap coupler plow for him and he joined our tractor club!! He hasn"t missed a meeting yet!

I like to hear stories like this.

I once had a '48 Dodge farm truck. I was the fourth owner, and I knew all of the previous three. The original owner, who bought it new, lived only about three miles away.

The third owner really hadn't done justice to it, and the truck was a mess when I bought it. I cleaned it up, put a nice paint job on it, new floor in the box, etc, and had it to a point where I drove it in parades occasionally, although it was still a working farm truck.

When I quit farming, I auctioned a bunch of stuff, the truck included. The original owner was along in years, but his son bought it back on the auction, so it went back home. It sold for a fair price, but not outrageous, although I think the son would have kept bidding till he bought it.

The original owner is now deceased, but the son who bought the truck lives about four miles from me, and I still see the old gal out in his yard once in a while, although he mostly keeps it inside.

in 1964, my dad sold a W9, a ferg 40, 36 Fo p/u, and a 56 ford cabover, I would love to find them.
(near Byron, Minn)

$25?!?!? Well, I guess Ebay's no good when one's thirsty right now. Goodness.

Get to know the old fella, but if you let on that you're related to the goofs that sold it to him, make sure he knows that they're distant relatives, otherwise he's liable to have it buried with him when he goes so that it doesn't fall into abusive hands again. I would. Heck, when it came time to go, I'd probably shoot the tractor and then climb up in the seat and shoot myself just so they couldn't get it back somehow. The newspapers would be calling it a combination tractorcide-suicide, but it wouldn't get back into any wrong hands for sure. Get to know the old fella, but x-nay on the knowin much about the long distance disowned, whatever you want to call them as they made fun of you every night when you washed, waxed, and amorall'd that thing as a kid for your grandfather, every day and twice on Sundays, until they got it through some drunken court judge in a settlement against the will of your grandfather, that willed it to you...before they burnt his will and abused the heck out of it, after they tied you up to a tree and left you there, gagged so you couldn't call for help, cause they were from the mean side of the family. Get the idea?

Mark

ha ha yea mark i get the idea. We"ve actually talked in great detail about me growing up with it and he"s told me a lot about him growing up. He"s a real dandy of a guy, wish i would have met him long long ago, he lives about 10 miles away, just on the other side of the state line, that"s why i don"t know him...it"s like communication cuts off at the state line...we think people from Illinois are a shade diffrent when you cross that line ha ha.

I tracked down my Dad's John Deere D. Couple of years too late. It went to Belgium.

By all means , get to know the guy. You'll have a new friend, and maybe someday a tractor, if he knows you are interested. He can't take it with him, unless his family wants to keep it.
Brian

Having been in the exact situation, get to know him real well.

CONGRATS!!!!

My granddad traded the tractor I learned to drive on when I was 12. It went to a small dealer about 100 miles away, it went out of business about 2 years before I started try'n to find her. When I am down that way I drive a little slower and always ask around at the local diners.

Dave

20 years ago or so my Gpa died. They auctioned off his 70 diesel for $300.00. If I know then that 20 some years lator I would be haying, etc. I would have bought it. Im looking for one. His went to Mexico. :{