Richard Kinnard’s grandparents, Henry and Hattie Jeanquart, ordered a 1951 model Ferguson TO-20 tractor in September 1950. They wanted a small machine that offered easy accessibility, so Henry purchased the tractor from the Rueckl Pontiac and Ferguson Farm Equipment dealership in Luxemburg, Wis., before it even came off the assembly line. The list price was approximately $1,195, and he paid cash upon delivery.

“He had a 1948 model Case DC at the time, along with two geldings, to handle chores on the farm,” says Kinnard, who resides in Brussels, Wis. “Attachments were purchased as needed to do other work. These included a front-end loader, corn cultivator and hay mower.”

Henry operated the tractor to cut hay, load manure, clean snow from the driveways, side-rake hay and straw, and do other spring work.

“And Grandma would go out and get the cows,” Kinnard recalls. By this time, the couple’s three children — Lawrence, Clarence and Kinnard’s mother, Arlene — were on their own.

This model tractor was manufactured in Detroit from 1948 to 1951. Rated at 25 horsepower, it had a Continental 2.0L four-cylinder, eight-valve gasoline engine. In 1988, Kinnard purchased the TO-20 from his grandfather’s estate five days after he died.

“The tractor was restored in 2005, in memory of Henry,” he adds. “Today, I display it and the attachments at shows and tractor pulls. It’s still used for mowing the lawn, gardening, and occasionally I will help out a neighbor with his farm work.”

Persinger lives in Milwaukee.