D21 diamond anniversary celebration

RANTOUL, Ill. — The 60th anniversary of the Allis-Chalmers D21 tractor will be highlighted at the Half Century of Progress Show.

The D21 first rolled out of the assembly line in 1963 and was the largest of the D series. The series was first introduced in 1957 with the D14.

The D21 was the first Allis-Chalmers tractor to exceed 100 horsepower and the largest row crop tractor available in the industry at that time.

Allis-Chalmers enthusiast Rich Bergeson, who farms with his brother, Bill, in the Ransom area, is a coordinator of the anniversary observance.

“We are going to shoot for 250 D21s at the Half Century of Progress Show. We’re calling it the Diamond Edition Anniversary. Our logo has a diamond on it,” Bergeson said.

In the weeks and months leading up to the show, there has been a lot of interest from D21 collectors.

“There are four or five coming from Idaho. There are three coming from Texas, including the first and last D21s. Several are coming from North Carolina. I believe there’s even a few coming from Canada this time,” Bergeson said.

“There’s one coming out of Alabama, Colorado, a couple out of North Dakota, several from South Dakota — they’re going to be from all over.”

The D21 anniversary festivities kick off on Tuesday, Aug. 22, when Bergeson is inviting the D21 owners to converge at Penfield for a ride-and-drive that will end up at the Half Century of Progress grounds at Rantoul.

“Anybody with a D21 who wants to ride over to Penfield, we’re going to meet there around 11 a.m., have lunch and then at around 1 p.m. we’re going to ride over to Rantoul in caravan. They can either drive them to Rantoul on trucks or drive the tractors themselves,” Bergeson said.

Preview

Bergeson will host an open house on his farm Wednesday morning, Aug. 23, to showcase his collection of about 15 D21s, some of which are first being unveiled prior to being featured at Half Century of Progress.

“It’s going to basically be an open house for anyone who wants to walk through my sheds and see the D21s. We’re going to unveil three or four D21s that haven’t been seen much or haven’t been seen at all or something that we’ve made with different paint schemes and that type of thing,” Bergeson said.

“We’re going to hopefully make it worthwhile. Then we’ll load them up and run them down to Rantoul on Wednesday afternoon.”

Legacy

Bergeson’s interest in classic Allis-Chalmers tractors grew through the time spent with his father, Burnell, who passed away in 2015.

“I spent a lot of time with dad and this is what he loved to do,” he said.

Burnell’s uncle had an Allis-Chalmers dealership in Donahue, Iowa, and when he started farming he used Allis-Chalmers and International Harvester equipment.

Bergeson recalled when he was between 10 and 15 years old and he and his dad went to a sale in Kentucky in their 1969 Chevy pickup to purchase a D10 Allis-Chalmers that had one owner.

“Then he bought a D17 Series 4 and it just started snowballing after that. That’s how we got hooked,” he said.