Back When: IH Farmall B

In 1902 my parents immigrated to the United States from Sweden. They became citizens and eventually migrated to Colorado and began farming. They farmed the land with horses for many years before buying their first tractor, a 1941 IH Farmall B.

I remember my dad saying how much faster farming was with a tractor rather than a horse, no more having to rest the horses at the end of the fields or brush them down before work. 

Dad bought a one bottom two-way plow and a mowing machine and had a blacksmith make a manure loader for the Farmall B.

The manure loader consisted of a transmission from a truck mounted on the drawbar with a belt running to the belt pulley and a couple of high beams on the front with cables running from the transmission. The bucket on the loader was manually tripped so you had to keep backing up as the bucket was lowered to reset it. I think

we could have loaded the manure spreader faster by hand!

My parents have been gone nearly 46 yearsnow, and I am still farming. A few years ago I was at a farm sale when I saw a 1941 Farmall B for sale. I knew that I had to have that tractor, so I bought it for $1,300. Well, I pounded out the dents, repainted it, and got it running.

After all these years, I sometimes wonder if it could be the very same one that had belonged to my dad.

Learn more about this vintage tractor—and many more—in Iron Memories, Volume XIII at www.ironmemories.com