Historic tractor on loan from Smithsonian

PENFIELD, Ill. — The oldest surviving mass-produced gasoline tractor in the nation is on display at the I&I Antique Tractor & Gas Engine Club Museum in Penfield.

The I&I Club, organizers of the Half Century of Progress, received the Hart-Parr 3 on loan from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History in 2003 on the 100th anniversary of the tractor’s rollout.

The tractor was the fourth built by Charles Hart and Charles Parr in Charles City, Iowa.

The firm built 15 tractors in 1903, with the one on display at Penfield being the last surviving tractor from that era.

The two-cylinder engine has a hit-and-miss firing cycle that produces 30 horsepower at the belt and 18 at the drawbar.

The Hart-Parr 3 was used on the George Mitchell farm near Charles City for 23 years for his custom threshing operation.

“After a certain period of time, it got parked, but Oliver (which had absorbed Hart-Parr) decided they were going to start a campaign to go out and find the longest running tractor. They researched back and found that this was it,” said Sherry Schaefer, of Greenfield, who was among those instrumental in restoring it for the I&I Museum.

“They bought it for scrap price in 1929, brought it back to Charles City, Iowa, and got it running again. They didn’t do a thorough restoration, just got it running.”

Oliver brought the historic tractor to shows for demonstrations for 20 years.

In 1949, Oliver loaned it to the Farmer’s Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y. That was the last known record of the Hart-Parr 3 running under its own power.

Oliver gifted it to the Smithsonian in 1960.

Restoration

Oliver was to be the featured brand at Historic Farm Days in 2003, so I&I representatives with contacts at the Smithsonian reached out about the famous tractor, asking if there was a way to get the tractor, restore it, get it running and have it at the Penfield show.

They traveled to Washington, D.C., and the move was approved by the Smithsonian in January 2003.

“They put together a plan, and along with the help of the Hart-Parr Oliver collectors who ended up selling a toy that’s a replica of this to help fund the restoration, I&I picked their team,” Schaefer said.

“The Smithsonian had to approve them all. They went through background checks, driver’s tests, everything, and I was one of those lucky ones who passed. So, I got to be on the team to restore it.”

The restoration team of I&I members, select historians and Hart-Parr authorities included Schaefer, her father, Oliver Schaefer, John W. Tichenor, Doug Strawser and Todd Stockwell.

“We took it down to my father’s shop. It was seized up because sometimes the best place to have a tractor aren’t the best places. They didn’t want oil in the Smithsonian, so they pressure washed the inside of this engine and let it sit. So, it was seized up. We had to make a few parts for it, got it all broke loose and got it back in running condition,” she said.

“Their job at the Smithsonian is not to restore things. It’s to preserve things. They wanted it to look like what it looked like back then. They didn’t want any dents taken out because every dent tells a story.”

The original Hart-Parr 3 had a canopy, but this tractor’s was removed when it was transported by rail to the various shows.

“We took an old photograph of the tractor, put lines on it, got it to scale, knew how big it was, even how far apart the nails were, and I built a canopy in my garage. The beams on it are from 100-year-old oil refinery that was torn down because I wanted to use as authentic wood as I could.”

With the restoration completed, the Hart-Parr 3 pulled into the driveway of the I&I grounds in July 2003 for the show.

“It is still on loan from the Smithsonian. They’re comfortable with it here. They monitor it every year. They send someone by to look at it. They measure humidity in here for preservation. There’s a lot to it. We’re very lucky to have it here,” Schaefer said.

“If the Smithsonian takes it back, we will never see it again. It needs to be out here where people go see it.

“It runs, but now they changed the board at the Smithsonian, so you have to have permission to do everything. So, if we wanted to take it out and run it, we’d probably have to paper trail.”

The I&I Museum is open during Historic Farm Days in July and can be visited by appointment only in April through September.